Tag Archives: University

No rest for the wicked

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Or so they say!

I hit the ground running as soon as I returned to Australia – I missed the first week of the university semester so was launched back into study mode immediately. It’s now the last week of semester, and with exams looming in the next 2 weeks, I still feel like I’ve barely caught up!

When I arrived back home, I decided I was ready to start looking for my next horse. With my last few horses coming to me through word-of-mouth or just sheer luck, the prospect of heading out to shop for a new superstar was a bit daunting! I found a few promising leads, some of which didn’t turn out to be suitable for one reason or another, and a couple who didn’t pass a vet check well enough. I’m still hoping that the perfect horse will come along, though I’m no longer actively searching – if it happens, it happens 🙂

In the meantime, I’ve been getting plenty of my horsey fix through volunteering at events, riding horses for friends when they’ve been busy, and starting my own little part-time grooming business. What started out as just plaiting a couple of horses for friends at competitions has turned into quite a fun little venture – I now offer plaiting, mane pulling, show prep and other miscellaneous grooming tasks in my local area. I spent a week grooming four show horses at Sydney Royal, which was loads of fun. While my heart will always belong to eventing, I won’t deny that I enjoy all the fussing and preening that goes into preparing horses for the hack ring.

With mid-year university holidays coming up at the end of June, I’m hoping to be able to spend a lot more time in the saddle. I do have some exciting news to share over the next couple of days, so watch this space 😉

Playing with show ponies at Sydney Royal

More fun at Sydney – trendsetting with new quartermarks

Enjoying the perks of dressage judging!

First person to step foot in the stables at SIEC at 5:30am – the joys of plaiting for early dressage classes!

Nothing beats a bit of no-stirrup work!

One of my “before-and-after” grooming transformations

Good news day

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The last 24 hours have been pretty exciting – I’ve just been accepted into the Masters of Physiotherapy degree that I’ve been aiming for, so I’m absolutely thrilled. 2013 was pretty stressful trying maintain high enough grades to be considered, so this is a huge relief! If nothing else, it makes leaving Team Dutton and heading back home slightly less depressing.

A beautiful sunrise for a beautiful day

I’m also super excited that one of my posts was featured on Eventing Nation’s Best of the Blogs section today! My blog views have gone through the roof, so a big hello to anyone new who is reading this 🙂

Check out the EN post here:

http://eventingnation.com/home/friday-news-notes-from-flair-nasal-strips-49/

We’re still waiting on the shipper to arrive, who is so far a couple of hours later than we expected. We took the opportunity to head out for a celebratory/farewell lunch, and were entertained by yet another Starbucks name blunder…

A slight improvement on the previous “Harvey”… But still not quite Cobie, even after spelling it out letter by letter!

We probably won’t end up leaving here until at least 1:30pm, so we still haven’t decided if we’ll drive through the night and arrive in Aiken early in the morning, or find a motel halfway there and finish the trip on Saturday morning. I guess we’ll just see where the road takes us!