I wrote this blog post some time ago in 2018 and it was one of the things that prompted me to talk to you guys about your achievements, goals and recognising how far you’ve come.

I rode Molly for the first time in years today. I’ve owned her for five or six years and the first three we did a lot together. It consisted mainly of me celebrating the days she only reared twelve times on a ride, falling off her over jumps because she has a massive pop and a I couldn’t sit to it, lessons to teach me to jump her properly and culminating in some brilliant jumping practice at Porth Valley 😊 It was an amazing journey. But then she went lame and I had her shoes taken off, then I injured myself, then I got fat!
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She’s not had shoes on for at least two years now, the lameness has long since gone. She spent last year living with my lovely friend Sam and then came home. Being the sweet horse she is, it took her a while to settle in, the others bullied her relentlessly ☹ but she’s now got them all sussed out and having walked her out a few times, I felt that yesterday, she was ready to go out for a short hack.
After all that time, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Would she have gone back to being the flighty, rearing, bucking, dancing horse she was? It turned out no. She was an angel. We had a few moments of I’m not sure, I don’t’ really want to go that way. But they resulted mainly in her stopping, me giving her gentle nudges with my feet, a loose rein and clear direction, then we’d be off again. Once up on a time she used to stop dead, go straight up in the air and come back down in the opposite direction!

But what surprised me most was how much I had changed. I had absolutely no fear for one. My position has changed thanks to Sooz Foster and Mark Fuller. My hand position has changed completely too and I no longer cross my right slightly over Molly’s neck. A flaw of mine that Michael Van Houben used to pick up on constantly. When I canter, I pull carrots, thanks to Anne-Marie Beverley Jones! Not that I’ll be cantering Molly for a while. But I’ve not forgotten any of their teachings and despite not having had a lesson for ages, I have tried to practice what these guys have taught me every time I ride. What I haven’t noticed is that my riding had actually changed and it wasn’t until I got on a horse that I remembered being on so well, that I realised.

People often ask me if you should have lessons off just one instructor or swap and change sometimes. Well at camp, I feel that sticking with one instructor is the best policy all round. Six or nine hours of lessons with the same person gives you a real opportunity to try some of the things that they’re asking you to do and then go on to practice them. From your horses’ point of view, the instructor has a measure of what that horse needs from you to bring out the potential in both of you. And it’s better for the horses to stay with a group that they have started to understand. They are still animals with instincts and will naturally be wary or curious of other horses that they’ve not met. But throughout life I think it is very important to work with different instructors because they will all give you something new to think about or try that you may have missed. Plus you’re never going to clone yourself to ride the way your instructor does, you are unique and need to become your own version of a great rider.

Getting back on Molly, I realised that I felt much more secure in the saddle (I still fall off and have been to the hospital physio today because of the latest one!) but I am no longer swinging my legs around or flopping around in the saddle like a sack of jelly. My elbows are bent – those who were taught to ride in the good old days will know that this was a thing, carrying your weight in your elbows to give you soft hands and consistent contact. I used to ride Molly by balancing on her mouth ☹ because she used to pull and I’d pull back. Ridiculous, but until someone videoed me riding her, I had no idea!
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I guess what I’m most fascinated by here, is that times move on, things change, but often our brains remember all of the rubbish stuff and doesn’t allow us to see the progression or recession of the present moment. How many times have you got on and thought, ‘Not going that way today, she might spook at that gap in the gateway.’ or ‘Not doing that ride, she might get sticky again on that track or chose to not cross that road and then we’ll be stuffed!’ ? I used to do that all the time! These days I live for the day and for the moment. I expect my horses to be amazing all the time, because they are! And just because they have done things in the past and we’ve failed to achieve the success we wanted to, I will not quit. Why? Because not every situation is the same. Even if my horses are amazing every day, I’m not and sometimes I make stupid decisions (like not tightening my girth and falling off when my horse spooks!) But if things go wrong and I quit, it is NEVER going to get better and that progression that I felt when I was riding Molly yesterday, would not have existed had I quit.

So from now on, I’m going to be kinder to myself because, in spite of everything that has happened in my colourful life, I have not quit on these horses. I have become self-aware and taken something from every instructor I’ve been taught by. I’ve tried my best to be better and for the first time in years, I realised that it has actually paid off.
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What has changed about your riding and your horses way of going? Check out your old videos and compare them to the latest ones. I’ve seen a couple of pics recently of how much horses have changed, but I would love to see the videos too!

On Friday evening, Michele put a post down on the camp buddies page to ask who else was eating Pizza and playing trival persuits to remind them of camp. Love it! Who else was?

I have to confess that I wasn’t – partly because I am back to being a vegan now but mostly because to be honest, I’d forgotten that it would have been camp that weekend. Not because I didn’t want it to happen or because I wasn’t thinking of any of you, just because I’d moved on.

Around the time that second lockdown was announced I had a conversation with Tracy who owns the lovely Prince, about how sad it was that we would have to cancel. A few of the things she said made me change my attitude. It would have been Tracy’s birthday whilst she was at camp. What a great place to be to celebrate! She had a lot to be sad about too but she wasn’t letting it spoil her day and by then end of the conversation she had me thinking about what else not doing camp would enable me to do instead. You see there is always a bright side to everything!

Sam asked me why was I always positive about things and since she did so I’ve thought about it a lot. Believe me, it’s a learnt behaviour because I never used to be! I used to listen to myself bringing conversations down, knowing I was doing it and hating it, but I didn’t really know how else to respond. I would look at the negatives in most things because I’m a problem solver and I like to be prepared (for the worst of course!) But then you know what, it got really, really boring. I found myself drawn to people who thought the same and we’d spend hours discussing our problems – this is common apparently! Think about it next time you’re sitting round the table with friends talking horse (it will happen guys, I’m sure of it!) How many times do you talk about how awesome your horse was? How many times do you tell everyone how brilliant he was over that ditch or river that you came across? Or is it all about he spooked at this leaf on the floor or that damn car that passed too close or how no matter how hard you try he won’t go past those pigs!? I’ve learnt something about this lately, it’s called trauma bonding and we do it all the time.

Trauma bonding gives us connection, the people we are having great conversations with about our troubles just get it. They’ve been there, they understand exactly where you’re coming from, they respond agreeably and it feels like there is a real chemistry between you. The energy flows, the determination to solve this problem dwindles and before you know it, you walk away from the conversation thinking, ‘Well it’s ok, they’ve got issues too, it’s not just me and none of us know how to solve it anyway! We’re all in the same boat, so it’s fine.’

There is a chance someone in the group has had a different experience but won’t say so because that makes them stand out. It might break the unity between those who are part of that discussion and instead of bonding, create disagreement, possibly conflict and maybe exclusion of the one who didn’t agree. How uncomfortable would you feel if you were the one breaking those bonds? You know that feeling, when you speak out and the conversation halts and everyone looks at you…oooh it’s sends shivers down your spine!

Now do you get why we don’t try to change the direction of the conversation so easily? Even if we don’t agree?
Conflict is feared for many reasons in my experience. When I was growing up it lead to shouting, doors slamming, someone leaving or someone getting hit, hurt or both. In later life I found myself attracted to people who dealt with conflict in the same way. I understood it, I knew the pattern and predictability equalled safety. I knew when to duck or run! What I didn’t know how to do was resolve conflict.  

Not until I learnt that you can’t talk your way out of an argument with a 600lb horse! I didn’t listen to those who told me to beat her until she showed me some ‘respect’ aka fear. I’d been scared all my life, I didn’t want her to feel like that too! Running away from her wasn’t going to help. She was glad to see the back of me! But I had to find a way to get my firey little thoroughbred to like me, to want to be with me and not to be scared of me. Equally so, I had to find all those things in me. She’d kicked me in the face and broken my jaw. The ultimate turning point of my relationship with horses I think. I had two choices, run like the wind, never look back and walk away from horses altogether or stand up and learn to resolve the conflict between us.  It was a long journey but we made it and my life would not have been what it is today had we not taken it.

I have no issues with conflict these days, sometimes I am maybe a little too honest and if I say the wrong thing in the wrong way I will be the first to apologise, I have no issues with admitting that I’m wrong either! But learning to resolve conflict in my life has helped me look at things in a way that perhaps others don’t. To me, I achieved the impossible – everything seems impossible until it’s done!- I’d got back on a horse that my father would have happily shot and no one but my friend Simon would touch! Not only that we went on to have some amazing times together. She taught me so much about myself, horses and people.

By now you might be wondering what conflict has got to do with positivity and trauma bonding. Well, I guess it’s hard sometimes to be the one who disagrees with people’s low opinions of themselves or their horses. It can be hard to stand up for yourself and what you believe. I find myself constantly challenging people, my last boss actually told me I was very challenging! But it’s easy to challenge the norm when you know that something good stands on the other side of it and I know, that if you guys believe in yourself and your abilities, there is some good stuff waiting on the other side of it! Unfortunately, and possibly especially at the moment, it is normal to join in with the negativity and forget that you have an amazing talent – the ability to resolve conflict with a 600lb animal. It’s easy to sit around and think that not going to camp is bad or it could be that, whilst sad, how cool was it to have a goal to work towards in winter? For me, it’s allowed me the time and space to develop the Find Your Way With Horses program that I know will help a lot of people resolve conflict within themselves. How can that be a bad thing? Better still we’re opening up the one to one programmes – how exciting is that?

I find myself frequently surrounded by people who expect the worst and I still go there myself sometimes, but then I remind myself that expecting the best brings excitement vs. misery, possibility rather than inevitability, I actively look for the good, for the advantages, for the resolve of issues. Everything happens to teach us something if we’re aware and awake enough to listen. I swear horses find us because they know we’ve lost our way and want to put us back on track. I’ve no doubt that most of you can think about 10 things that your horse has done that you’d really rather he hadn’t. Think about 10 things you would never have learnt about him or yourself if he hadn’t done them. Does your spouse/partner/teenager drive you mad? Think about 10 things you love about them. If you can’t even think about one, imagine how you would feel if you got that phone call. Now try again.

The interesting thing about positive people is that they’re pretty hard to find. Sometimes they’re hiding in plain sight and just need to be encouraged out of their protective shells. They think great things but are afraid that they’ll be called a nerd or worst still dismissed if they share those thoughts. In Australia they call it Tall Poppy Syndrome. You have to be brave to stand out like the tall poppy. It’s speaking out and making changes that makes you stand out.  You have to know that doing things differently isn’t always going to be well received. But you also have to believe in yourself and be strong in those beliefs. Soon people will join you and eventually you become a positive poppy, proud of the fact that you stand out and encourage others to do the same. You can give people someone to look up to, someone to believe in, someone who is prepared for the best. Let’s face it, no one ever followed anyone who made them feel bad as easily as they did someone who made them feel alive and capable! Remember that awesome instructor who knew nothing about you but made you feel amazing?

You can be the tall poppy among your friends. You can turn the conversation around without being controversial, just be honest. Tell them the conversation is negative and ask them to list ten good things instead. If you were there at a couple of the goal setting talks in summer, you will remember the change when the conversations flipped from what you couldn’t do to what you were going to do! The energy was so negatively charged at first, then suddenly it was raising the roof off the piggery!

​My horses make me feel this fluttery kind of joy inside me when I think about them, even after they’ve chucked me off. It bubbles up occasionally and makes me laugh out loud when I’m in Tesco – I haven’t been thrown out for being nuts yet but give it time… What they don’t know is just how nuts I’d be if I hadn’t found this resolve, thanks to my horses, that keeps me sane.
Go laugh out loud in Tesco. Make the guy in line behind you smile. Change someone else’s life by being happy. See what happens when you smile at your horses or you dogs. See what happens when you expect the best 😊 x
 

I’ve been thinking a lot about you guys during this second lock down. Wondering what you’re all up to, wondering if you’re using any of the things you’ve learnt at camp, if you’re spending time with people you met there or even just chatting online, supporting and encouraging each other. Some of your stories have stuck in my head like the confidence crisis that you were having Angela, or that you didn’t like hacking out on your own Beth. Knowing that camp went some way towards helping you through these obstacles makes me so happy. I’m sure most of us have experienced the joy of helping someone else out when they can, for me, it’s so rewarding, I actively seek ways to do it on a regular basis.

Why? Because other people have helped me though some very dark and difficult times and I want to pay it forward. If you can help someone why wouldn’t you?

A wonderful lady, in fact magical is a better word to describe her once gave me some advice. She said don’t give your power away to anyone else. I had no idea what she meant. But at the time I was very unhappy and I felt that someone else was responsible for my happiness and that he had taken that away. I wasn’t first in the queue when they were handing out the brains! I am a thinker and a problem solver, but I don’t do cryptic! So it took me a while and then one day I found this on the internet and I finally understood what this beautiful lady was trying to say to me.

 
So I did as I was told and I started taking back my power, making my own happiness and living again. He wasn’t responsible for my happiness, I was! And as hard as it was to make sense of it at the time, I had allowed him to take mine away. I had a choice, we all have a choice, every single minute of every day, as to how we respond to the events that unfold before us.

So this blog is to all of you who took back your power. Kelly, your fear was trying to take over until slowly but surely you got hold of that fear and you kicked right up the backside and told it where to go! Now you’re achieving your goal of doing a dressage test. Wow! Just wow!

Gina, well I’ve known you a while now and the change I’ve seen in you this year is massive, you now know you only need to be you and do things your way and that’s good enough.

Angela and Sam – what if you’d never got back on? Look at all the fun you had because you did! All the power is now back in your hands. So proud of you both!

Anxiety is much misunderstood these days and unfortunately, it’s like a weed. It you plant it, feed it regularly, sit back and watch it grow, suddenly it turns into Rapunzel’s forest! Not even your handsome prince of a pony can fight his way through to you. I have a couple who would happily eat their way through but not to come and rescue me from my tower of anxiety sadly, unless I had more food of course!

Now if you take that anxiety and say ok, I understand that you’d like to take over, but actually, this is my life and I’m in control, not you, then you start to see it shrink back. And in the distance you might notice there is a fence, you can’t see to the other side of it but you know that it is obscuring something that you want. And you want it badly! So you take some steps towards it, beating that anxiety weed back, refusing to let it take over. Occasionally it gets the better of you and you sit and watch it grow, maybe even flower, perhaps you water it some, but then the fence starts to loom again. You have to cut that weed back so that you can see the fence more clearly again and with greater determination you set off towards it.

What do you think lies behind that fence?

Sometimes, as you get closer to it, you actually become suspicious of what’s on the other side. What if there is nothing? What if I’ve tried to get there for all this time but nothing changes? And what I get to the other side of the fence and it’s amazing, but then OMG, I have no more excuses and I have to go and do what I have been telling everyone I’m going to do for months?

You toy with idea for a while, but then desire takes over again and you’re out tackling those weeds again. May be an encouraging word from a friend helped or some bossy big mouth who runs these mad camps calls you out on the rubbish you tell yourself? Or maybe you just decided that enough is enough and suddenly you find yourself there, on the other side.

How did it feel?

The moment you got back from that first solo ride? Did you feel the freedom of being able to ride whenever you want to? Did that hit you? The sense of achievement? Maybe there was a realisation that this was all way worse in your head than the reality? But how good does it feel to know that you can kick that weedy anxiety into touch and tell it that YOU are in control of your future, of your happiness of everything you want to achieve in life?

You see you can create your own reality, you can decide how you’re going to live your life. Don’t believe me? Who made you go to camp? Who made you go on that first solo ride? Who made you get on your horse when you were adamant that you weren’t going to because some crazy lady had swapped the instructors around, Sam?

It wasn’t your best mate. Unless she had a hoist and a bit of rope up her sleeve to attach you to it. It wasn’t your horse who tacked himself up and said, ‘Right, we’re off down the road on our own, ok?’ It wasn’t your friend who convinced you to give it a go, unless she kidnapped you, bundled you and your horse in to her trailer and drove you to camp at gunpoint!!

It was YOU!

You beat back those weeds, you met that fence head on and you jumped!

And look what you found on the otherside…

Don’t let anything take your power away from you lovely people. You’ve so totally got this inside of you. You love your horses. Being a horse rider is part of who you are, part of your identity. Own it and be proud. This is your life, you get to choose. If you don’t, someone else will.

​I don’t see any hoists or revolvers around here so I think we can safely say that you’re free to go and create the reality that you want.
If you’re not sure how to make that happen, let me know and I’ll share some stories that might help you. But only if you ask. I’m not going to expose all of my secrets otherwise, I’ll just stay on the weedy side of the fence waiting for a leg up!

Now those of you who have been really paying attention will have noticed in the last blog the slight change in the title…did you notice? I choose to do that because the differences in agenda can be quite subtle from one person to the next. And now I want this blog post to be all about yours.

When I went to my first camp, organised by a riding club, I was asked to go along by a friend and have to confess, I had to push myself to go. I was running my riding school at the time and taking a whole weekend out seemed like madness. But to say that one camp changed my life is an understatement. Not only my life at that time, but my future. But at the time, all I wanted to do was go and have some fun with one of my horses!

But why do you guys come to camp? What’s your agenda? All of us have different dreams, goals and desires and our horses shape many of them. But I am guessing…in fact I know…that many of you come just because you want to have a holiday and spend some time with friends. But I think secretly, (at least until I set up on you with a goal setting talk!) we have something more that we want to get from camp.

For me I wanted to escape from the pressure of day to day life. I wanted to remember what it was like to just have one horse to focus on, because all of mine back home needed and deserved my attention all the time and I did my best to give it to them. But you can’t beat one to one time with a horse.

I have had people come to camp and spend their entire weekend in the stable or grazing their horse in hand, even sleeping with their horse just because they needed the therapy that horses give you. Would I be right in saying that when you’re with your horse, riding, grooming, grazing, just hanging out – something about your world changes? Do you start to forget the rubbish things in life that get you down – like the state of the house, your idiot boss, how you’re going to pay the rent? This year so many people said that by the end of camp, they’d almost forgotten the devastating effects that Covid-19 was having on the world. But isn’t that what horses do for you if you let them?

And whilst at camp, what do we give them? Perhaps something that we just don’t have normally…our time. Life takes over when you’re at home. It might seem a bit selfish if you spend 4 hours hanging out with your horse in the evening when you’re kids are waiting to be tucked into bed at night! But at camp, you have those 4 hours in fact you have a whole 48 hours or more! And for those of us not lucky enough to live with our horses, how cool is it to go muck out in your onesie? Kelly? Jenna? Hahaha. These ladies have special camp onesies! I love it! We may even have a photo to prove it…

For me the very best time of night is just before lights out. I get to go and check on your horses, give them all reassuring scratches and to just breathe with them. I get to see who they’ve made friends with, how settled they are and watch them do cute things like pass hay to their neighbour or nick hay from someone else’s! But I also get to see you guys relishing in that time to just look at your horses, watch them, kiss and scratch them. I see you lost in your own thoughts with gorgeous smiles on your faces, just appreciating them. Isn’t that time so special? And I don’t know about you guys but the bond I have with which ever horse I bring ( I still have 8! ) grows so much in just that short time. Let’s face it, if life didn’t get in the way so much, wouldn’t we all just spend every minute with our equines?

Maybe you come to camp to learn about your horse and what he can do, six or nine hours of lessons is quite intense and I think wonderful for progression. But how many of you come expecting to see a change in your horse and go home seeing a massive change in yourselves? I see so many of you grow in so many ways. I see people relax and really let go of life’s stresses. Confidence starts to ooze from pores that were frozen solid with fear! Friendships – now this one really gets to me – form and develop that I just know are going to last for a long, long time. It’s happened to me. Some of my closest friends I met at camp! And the truth is, I’ve been scared of people for a lot of my life so friendships have been hard for me, real friendships I mean, like those I have in my life now. And all of them are with people who have a passion for horses.

I also seen massive shifts in attitudes. People are so good at criticising themselves. They beat themselves up, they worry about everything and I swear they have forgotten that they can actually control a 600lb animal – that alone makes them awesome! But many people come with low self-esteem,  subtle though it may be. I’ve been studying human and horse psychology for years, I kind of have an eye for this now and I think once you’ve been there yourself, you recognise it in others very easily. So to see this gradual transformation in such a short space of time, means so much to me. The encouragement everyone gets, the support when it goes pear shaped, the fun, the laughter and the letting go of all of that negativity is palpable! Like a cloak lifted from the back of someone who has been shrouded by it for so long it’s made them stoop. But now they’re standing tall and proud, knowing that they’ve got this, they can do it, they are good enough for their horse. They know that baby steps accumulate and they can achieve.

I think the point I’m trying to make in my long winded waffling, is that everyone comes to camp with their own agenda, and that is exactly as it should be. It’s about you. You and your horse, you best friend that you just don’t get to spend enough time with.
So what’s your agenda? Are we helping you to achieve it? Can we do more to help? Do we hit the target you set us? I’d really like to know because you guys mean a lot to me and I want to be of service to you in the best way that I can be x

​P.s. Maybe next time I’ll tell you a tale about how you guys have helped me to realise something that I never thought I would x

Lunchtime of the first full day is a combination of deli meats, cheese, tuna mayo, egg mayo and interesting salads. One that went down really well this year was the carrot and orange salad with its yummy home-made dressing on it. We used to make the sandwiches for everyone but then realised that actually you can’t fit that much on a sandwich and people don’t always want a load of bread before they’re going to ride again – cake, cookies and crisps are fine!- but bread is not that exciting is it?
I love lunch time. I get to chat to my instructors about how it’s all going, I get to listen to everyone talking about how their lessons have gone, how pleased (or not) they are with their horses, but mostly how relieved they are that their horses behaved so well, even when they didn’t expect them to!

I have intervened a time or two during the first sessions. I don’t want to see anyone hurt and staying safe around horses by reading them is something I’ve been doing for years. If I think you’re about to get on an exploding timebomb, I will come and help. And guys, what ever you need to do to calm your horses down in those first lessons is fine. They may need you to just walk them round the school in hand, or perhaps be lunged before the lessons start, without the distraction of the others, maybe they need to go and have a graze in hand first thing because they’re not used to being stabled. If you’re not sure, ask. If you need help, ask. I’d rather you were safe and myself and our instructors will do what we can to assist. No question is a silly one. But we can’t read minds and if you want to know something, have expectations, fears, doubts or worries, speak up. That way we can help in the moment, please don’t ever feel you’re alone at camp.

Second lesson usually goes a lot more smoothly, they start again at 1.30 or at 3.15 and by then the horses and riders are much more certain of where they are and what is going to happen. There is no set idea about which schools you will be in except for the first lesson, after that you decided what you are doing next session as a group. Please make yourself heard but also consider each other. And try to remember that 3 hours a day in a schooling/controlled environment is a lot of work for them. I know you want to get the most out of camp and it’s tempting to do everything all on the first day! But progressive training is long lasting, we’re not in to quick fix situations. And if someone is struggling in the first lesson, be patient and supportive. Better still learn from their experience. You never know when you might come across a similar problem. And let’s face, at some point we’ve been glad of the help we’ve been offered when we were having a few issues.

So your horses need to be fit, physically and mentally, but they will also get the opportunity to stop as a reward for their efforts when they get it right. If you just work and work them without stops in between, they don’t get the release which is the best way to let them know they’ve got it right! And don’t forget the praise, it’s as important as the task. Don’t just get to the other side of that jump and breath a sigh of relief then flop! Give him some recognition. Tell him he’s got it right so that he knows that’s what you want.  A scratch and a kind word can go a long way with a horse.

After we’ve all fed our horses together around 6.15, it’s dinner time! Usually ready for 7.00pm so that you have chance to get showered and changed. And there is always lasagne! Now I don’t know how this happened, but on our feedback form I have asked a few times what people would like to see on the menu it’s been made very clear to me that so long as there is lasagne, they don’t care! I’ve had a lot of practice in perfecting the recipe but what ever the reason, it goes down a treat. We usually have proper home-made cottage pie, or sausage casserole, maybe cauliflower and broccoli cheese and a veggie, vegan, gluten free option if required. I’m getting pretty good at those too apparently though I confess gluten free used to scare me. I’ve been scared of getting it wrong a lot over the last seven years. I just want you all to be well cared for and looked after so it’s important to me to get it right.

Then after dinner we have a talk or a demo of some sort or other and over the years they have varied a lot! From Clare Hocking teaching us about balance by kneeling – yes kneeling!- on a yoga ball and playing toss and catch! To the lovely Bea Hawkins giving us a talk on the digestive system for which she brought a beautiful life sized model in to show us just how big our horses guts are! We’ve had a Trystan Stock, my lovely farrier do a talk and a q&a session. Marvin Firth has been a few times to talk all things Chiropractorish and done some vet talks too. Su Nunn did us a lovely demonstration of how to ride and tack up side saddle this year, it was amazing, like stepping back in time. So you never know what you’re going to get!

Recently, because of covid-19, I’ve been giving some talks about goal setting and recognising your own abilities, being nice to yourself and celebrating your achievements. They seem to have had an impact so I might start doing more of these and maybe even replace quiz night because believe me, what ever you think, you are enough. For your horse, your partner, your kids, your boss – whatever. You are enough.

So Sunday pretty much follows Saturday except for the celebration we have after all of the lessons have finished around 5pm. We like to get everyone together to say a massive thank you to our instructors and photographers, but also to you guys. And it’s time to hand out a few rosettes to recognise those who have done something special during camp. Sometimes it might be that they looked after everyone else in their group, encouraged everyone loads and had a great time. Other times it might be that they’ve moved on massively in confidence or achieved way more than they expected to. There are no set rules about who gets recognised and actually, it’s really hard and my instructors hate me for it, because in truth, you will all have achieved something! Also we find that the camaraderie and love you guys have for each other is just awesome. It is what makes camps so special, it’s why I keep doing them. I truly am the luckiest person alive to get to do what I do for you all and I thank you all from the very bottom of my heart because without you, my life would not be the happy one it is and I would never have met such lovely people and horses x

P.s. Part 3 of What’s your agenda is going to be all about you…intriguing eh? I hope to see you there x