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November - Fridge Freezers and Christmas Parties - oh, and some dressage

Equissimo
In October I was very lucky to win a photo competition run by Equissimo on Facebook

 The prize was a fab bundle of clothes, treats and horsey gear which arrived practically the next day!  Even the cat approved ;)  As soon as the weather is amenable i will take a pic of it all in action - far too many jumpers required at the moment

They're doing a brilliant run up to Christmas on Facebook with special offers galore - click the link to visit their page and see what top treats are on offer

Laura Mary Art Christmas cards

 These are a must have for Christmas.  Beautifully illustrated and top quality and only £10.50 for 12 cards!  #supportlocalbusiness - click here to see what Laura has on offer this Christmas 




















Air Ambulance ball
Our local vets ran a Ball in aid of Air Ambulance in November - it was great fun.  We all got dolled up and trotted out to Whittlebury Hall for the evening.  Nobody was ill, nobody cried, we were all home before 1am.  Result!  It was a lovely do and for a very worthy cause - there but for the grace of God go all of us...



First BD
We did it - we entered and completed a grown-up dressage class.  Me and Beau, and Tory and Sardra toddled up to the wonderfully relaxed Moulton College and entered prelkim 17 - long arena!  Simon had to call for us, and did so beautifully, but we did it!  Not too shabby either both coming out with rosettes and scores of 66 and 67% (Sardra beat us, scores rounded up to make us look better ;) )




HorseDialog
Worming - a topic we all ignore because of the cost, and in some cases ( Beau) the practical impossibility of getting a syringe into their moth without personal peril!  But we must.  Please click the link here and check out the video explaining the importance of clearing encysted red worm at this time of year.  Not something you'd want to wrap but a perfect Christmas present for your horse - the gift of good health and comfort
https://goo.gl/zBt8sb 
Check out @HorseDialog and the hashtag: #timeitright on Twitter




Ambition
This month I'd like to deal with ambition - chucking in a few tired but relevant cliches phrases along the way.  This was spotted on Twitter and really rang home for me:  You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.
CS Lewis.  Work on making sure that drives you this Christmas - make yourself better, plan for the future and think positive

 I am realistic - Beau and me are a little long in the tooth now for setting our sights towards PSG, but we can do everything better and that's what we will work on.  

It's tough to get the drive up to school when there's snow or rain and your horse is filthy and soggy and spooking at all the dusk shadows, but winter is the ideal time to work out the little niggles and improve our collective scores which should bring the marks in 2018

 Your Horse Live
Love YourHorse Live - I would love to perform our pairs DTM demo there too and encourage as many people as possible to have a go (if I can do it - you definitely can)
First on the list was a lesson on the BHS mechanical horse - with Megatrainer ALison as coach.  Couldn't get the darned thing to canter and subsequently have a greater respect than ever for Beau's tolerance!  We shopped 'til we dropped of course, and entered every competition we could find!  Didn't win any but Iif you're not in you can't win.

Also, I signed Carl's 50th birthday card (it will be worth something now Carl), shared a group hug with Geoff Billington and stole Valegro







Demonstrations
Tory and I are demonstrating pairs dressage to music at the next Moulton College Quest event on 9th Dec.  Which as I type is tomorrow!  And it's snowing *gulp*

 I am not a fan even of driving my car in the snow and would never ever risk the precious ponies or Buxton the truck.  Hopefully it will go away and we can play - we have special Christmas outfits for Beau and Sardra :D

 Here we are demonstrating at Blenheim earlier in the year, and perfecting our moves ;)




Christmas Parties
I managed to miss this year's work do.  Also I missed the Area 5 awards night where Tory and I won an award for pairs dressage :D  If it's what we're good at we need more comps!
But it's Simon's do this weekend and we're off to play - there's gin.  I'm there :D

 Fridge Freezers
Not horsey but I wish i had taken pictures!  Mum and Dad gave us their old fridge freezer, so Simon and I trolled up the M1 to collect it.  All went well until we attempted to get it into position at home.  It is 2m high, and our doorways are not.  The shelf it was meant to fit underneath was not either.  Cue a day of wriggling it round to get through doorways, unscrewing shelves and general faff!  And then when we turned it on again it peeped for hours!  All's well now though and it's working fine.  Plenty of space for Christmas prosecco :D  Funny how life's little challenges present - I did not get to sit on Beau at all that weekend

 Must go - Christmas Shopping to do (online of course) and pony play to plan for 2018.  I must get myself a Leroy and Bongo Planner - they look so useful and beautiful...
TTFN.  Much love, Tam and Beau 
Who let me dress him up as a reindeer this weekend ...

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