Sophie Wells’ dressage blog: New year, new start, new lists!
So January has arrived and it feels a little bit like we survived Christmas! With no staff for a few days and 20 horses, we were busy mucking out and feeding at both ends of the day, but it was a nice change and good to get down to the nitty gritty. There’s been time for a bit of hacking too [pictured, riding Jorge].
The success of Christmas for horse owners seems to be the ability to combine looking after the ponies, as well as pretending to be normal people by visiting all the family and spending as much time with them as possible. We did enjoy an easier week as far as working the horses was concerned.
But come January 2nd, it was out with the alcohol, cheese, chocolate etc, and in with the plan for the year. I’m quite a planning sort of person, so this suits me; as I write this I’m surrounded by competition plans, training plans and support team appointments including farrier, physio, dentist, osteopath, gym, biomechanics experts etc etc…
I do love a list, and at the moment mine seems to be to be incredibly long.
An oldie but a real goodie
The horses are all happy to be back in work, Pinocchio in particular! He’s been very excitable about 2014, which is lovely as he’s 17 this year, and as happy as ever. He seems to think that the winter has ended early and has a definite spring in his step.
We have lots of exciting plans for 2014 and I am really looking forward to the year ahead, so keep an eye out for my blogs.
Soph
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Sophie Wells is a talented young dressage rider who has represented her country in both able-bodied and paralympic championships, winning team gold and two individual Grade IV silver medals at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.