Getting Life Under Control!

Things have been very hectic here, as usual!

I've sold Kate to the sort of home I'd have dreamed of finding for her and made two new friends at the same time!

She's gone to a very experienced rider and trainer who specialises in teaching Classical Riding. She works for a 3 Day Eventer, who is fast becoming a friend too, and she was looking for a horse to play with and bring on slowly. We got on like a house on fire and she's since been in touch to tell me how delighted she is with Kate - so much so that she's interested in maybe having one or even two of the Fells to bring on as well.

She seemed to approve of the work I'd already done with Kate and her attitude to life, which was very reassuring for me, and we both have very much the same ideas on training horses patiently and sympathetically, but effectively, without any fuss or drama if possible!

I'd like to keep the Fells longer and do more with them myself but there's just SO much work that still needs doing here. I need to do a major overhaul on the fencing and, even if I could afford to pay someone to do it all for me, I really do get tremendous enjoyment and satisfaction from doing as much of it as possible myself.

I've also got a couple of people interested in Crystal, who I love to bits and she's no trouble at all, but she's wasted here and would make a small child very happy, along with enjoying the attention herself.

The house is coming on well and the last room is nearly finished now. We have a big party planned for 18th June - Hilary and Charlotte - if you're free? And anyone else who can get here!

Mike and I are finding it very hard only seeing each other at weekends so I'm looking to buy a small, economical car so we can meet up more often.

On Monday my friend Peter drove my parents and I to Peterborough to see Mike in action (my 2nd time of watching the play). It was brilliant and everyone in the audience always says how well acted it is. There are some fantastic reviews here and I'm very, very proud of him!!!

http://www.easternangles.co.uk/show/UOS/reviews.html?id=3RTaerkm

We had a lovely evening and afterwards took my parents for their first ever MacDonalds!!! It was my dad's birthday and he was 79yo. They get on really well with both Mike and Peter, and Peter said how resilient and easy going they are for their age. Peter is just about the kindest, most patient person I've ever met.

So all is going well here and hopefully I'll soon be back to my original quota of ponies!!! It feels a bit like a huge weight of responsibility lifting at last!!!

My two year watershed passed on Wednesday and I was driving the Landy through a busy town centre, full of confidence, thinking that I just wish David could see me now! He'd be both horrified and amazed in equal measure!

Life can certainly change a tremendous amount in just two years. I have an awful lot to be grateful to David for, and I always will be!

Eastern Angles Play.

We had a fantastic weekend!!!

On Sunday night we went to the O2 building in London to see Ben E King (Stand by Me) and Gary U S Bonds perform and they were absolutely brilliant!! It was impossible to stay in your seat and not get up and dance. Until I met Mike I didn't think I did dancing!!!

I love the buzz and excitement of London and the O2 is a very impressive and welcoming venue.

On Monday morning I went back to Ipswich with Mike and met the rest of the cast and the director, etc. They were all really kind and friendly, especially Lisa-Marie, who is in her twenties and has just met the love of her life, so we have a lot in common!!!! She gave me a huge hug and we compared notes!!!

I had a leisurely afternoon shopping in the town centre (and I found a Lakeland shop and got some Munchy Seeds, which I haven't had in ages and they are my absolute favourite) then met Mike back at the theatre after work and was treated to an Indian!

I came home this morning on the train and spent most of the journey talking about keeping hens, smallholdings, and life in general, to the lady I found myself sitting next to. She said that she wished she lived closer, as we had so much in common, and she invited Mike and I to go and stay with her in Norwich, which was really kind.

If you would like to see Mike and find out more about the play here is a link to Eastern Angles website

http://www.easternangles.co.uk/show/UOS/description.html

And a link to some photos of the cast

http://www.easternangles.co.uk/show/UOS/photos.html
Mike is in the first, third and fourth photos.

Mike and Laura were also on BBC Suffolk Radio this afternoon talking about the play. Their warm, cheerful and enthusiastic voices were lovely to listen to and they made the play sound unmissable!

OK, I know I'm biased but they really did!!!

Mike is one in a million - I am very, very lucky!!!!

News Update.

I have so much news to write about (all of it good!!!) but life is so hectic at the moment that I'm having trouble finding time to write!!!!!!!

Firstly Josh (or Jaffa as he's now known), the 2yo Fell Pony that I sold in October, is doing fantastically in his new home and his owners are delighted with him. He goes for walks in hand around the roads and takes everything in his stride. They say he is ridiculously laid back and sensible and acts as though he's seen and done everything before, and been doing it all for years.

I'm so happy that he's got such a good home and gets so much time and attention - that's just what I want to find for the others too!!!

My social life with Mike has expanded even further and we've had loads of outings. We went to The Devil's Horsemen's Christmas Panto, which was brilliant, and met up with Rosie afterwards who was the star of the show. It was so good to see her again and as we parted she turned back when Mike wasn't looking and gave me a double thumbs up, mouthing "he's lovely!"

Then we went to the theatre 3 times, twice in London (including The National Theatre) and once in Suffolk. The Suffolk play was my favourite. It featured a would-be superhero who called himself 'Aquaboy'! It was really funny and I loved it.

We also went to see Rosie with Geoff Billington and Ollie Townend in their 'Champions Tour'. Again Rosie and Tinker were the stars of the evening for us and Tinker had all the audience "ahhhh"ing with his cute routine.

Mike is now in his second week of rehersals with Eastern Angles Theatre Company in Suffolk and is only back home from Friday night to Monday morning, which is taking a bit of getting used to after having him here most of the time, but it's almost worth it for the excitement of seeing him again after all week apart!

They start touring with the play "Up Out O'The Sea" by Andrew Holland on March 4th in Lowestoft when he'll only be home Sundays and Mondays but I will get to see him in action at one of the venues (probably Peterborough) which is very exciting!!! It's a cast of 5 and he plays a grumpy fisherman called Dolphie and has the 1st and last lines in the play!!!

It does mean that I can concentrate on my ponies more the rest of the time and I've managed to get quite a lot done with Bella, Kate and Merlin this week, for a change!!

Opinions Please!!!

Please could I have your opinions on this dress that I'm thinking of buying?!!!!!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190501449795

Happy Christmas!!!!

Happy Christmas everyone and I hope that you're all as happy as I am!!!!!!

I'm also going to The Devils's Horsemen's Christmas panto tomorrow night and to their New Year's Eve banquet! It will be Mike's first experience of them and I'm hoping he'll love them as much as I do!

I'll report back.

Have a wonderful holiday everyone.

Soulmates.

I seem to have met my soulmate. It's only been a week but everything has felt just about perfect right from the start. I knew straight away with David and it feels the same this time too. I feel totally accepted for who I am, totally understood and able to be myself without apology or self-consciousness, and I think he feels the same.

We also seem to share the same sense of humour and it's all fantastic fun!!! The dogs all love him too and he them.

For the first time in 20 months I'm really excited about the future.

He's a real animal lover and wants to learn to ride so I'm going to have to up my game as an instructor. I'm going to read 'Learning to Ride as an Adult' before I start.

He has always wanted a donkey (so have I!!) but I need to re-home some more ponies and train him to muck out first!!!!

And I think he and Jack might just suit each other really well. Jack is very calm and sensible these days but doesn't really have a job at the moment, so it could work out really well. I'm going to start getting him back into work ASAP.

He asked if, when I was with David, I'd ever wondered what it would be like to be single. I told him with complete honesty that I never had. I told him I'd felt lonely all my life until I met David and then, straight away, I wasn't lonely anymore.

In the last 21 months I have learned more about loneliness than I ever wanted to know. Thanks to all my wonderful friends most of that had already gone. Now that last small well of loneliness has been filled in too.

Life is great and this is going to be the best Christmas ever!!!!

A New Blog for Bella and I.

I have had a really good day. A good friend of mine helped me to move the alpacas into their winter accommodation and to get ready to get the cattle and sheep in tomorrow before the snow arrives. I've also got a pen nearly ready for the two young Fells if the weather gets really bad, although they look like huge, woolly teddy bears at the moment and very well insulated.

She is coming back tomorrow to help me get them in and it's so much nicer having someone to work with than doing it all by yourself. I am very grateful to her.

I found a blog last night which reminded me what my hopes and dreams were for Bella and I. She says she has "piaffe dreams" and so do I, although passage was my foremost dream (for my friend Colin in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, piaffe is basically trotting on the spot and passage is an exaggerated, very pingy, slow motion trot!).

This is the blog that inspired me to get back on track:

http://piaffedreams.blogspot.com/
I especially liked her last post but one where she tells how taking part in other activities requiring balance and core strength help to improve your riding, and visa versa.

Ever since I watched Jane Bartle-Wilson and Pinocchio passage their way into view on 'The Art of Dressage' tapes I've longed to feel what that feels like to sit on, and imagined doing it. Clicker training has made incredible improvements to the rhythm and cadence of Bella's trot and I believe we can get there together but my dreams have expanded further than that now, to include canter pirouettes and one time tempi changes (Colin - whizzing around in a canter on the spot, more or less, and changing the leading leg every stride at canter, a bit like skipping, sort of!!).

This is what I always had planned and I've been distracted from my plans for too long already - time to get on with it!! I've begun a new blog to chart our progress:

http://bellapassage.blogspot.com/

I also printed off an advert to sell Kate then, after riding Bella this afternoon, I had a little play at working Kate in hand. I feel as though I've spent almost no time on her and done nothing to speak of with her since I bought her and yet she has somehow learned what the click means, learned to love to work, to concentrate and give me her full attention almost all of the time, improved her balance and learned to accept the bit and give graciously to it.

She reminds me of Bella so much in the way her slightly stroppy attitude has turned to earnest endeavour and a bold and sensible outlook on new challenges. I decided that, rather than try to sell her cheaply to a good home to avoid keeping her over the winter, I've done all the hardest parts already, winning her attention and co-operation, so I'll keep on doing a bit with her whenever I can and sell her in the Spring for hopefully a good price.

I must NOT get too attached to her though. She may be like Bella but I already have the original and I don't have time for another. Bella is my pony of a lifetime and Kate will definitely be someone else's pony of a lifetime but not mine. One Bella is more than I could ever have hoped for - anymore would be downright greedy!!!