enjoy life!

Ulo thinks the weather is great - we gave her a day off yesterday so she could enjoy the sunshine!

april evening

It was a lovely evening yesterday, so I took some pictures as Jolanda rode in the sunshine!

first leaning to the left....

and now upright!

do we make our own luck?

My body can't get enough of the warmth and sunshine and its been another great weekend of horses. today we went for a pleasant hack, four kids on ponies and mums like anxious clucking hens alongside went for ice cream at Debbies
Yesterday Jolanda rode in the owners competition at the manege in Broek in Waterland. Although she only came second we were really pleased with her result, as her scores were very high and she was riding in a higher class than her official place in the KNHS system.
Before we go into a competition everyone says "ik wens je sucess" (I wish you sucess). Jolanda said the other day how strange it was that in England people wish you luck, whereas in Holland they wish you sucess. She found is strange because wishing luck implies that the preparation and the work that you put in before a competition counts for nothing, luck is all you need to win. The Dutch are more realistic, if you work at each element of a competition, you will succeed, Luck has nothing to do with it!

more horse stuff!

I have promised myself I am going to build up my blog posts and become more social media savvy, but at the moment I only post when Jolanda does something to shout about!
Sunday was the monthly trip to the official dressage competition along the road at Stal Baco in Broek in Waterland - we had a really early start, as we had to be there for 9 a.m. and I had been worried as Janette was riding in an international event in Germany and I don't really like being at the manege on my own. I need not have worried, as within minutes of our arriving to get Ulo ready the place was buzzing with other people getting their horses ready for competition as well.
We got off on time, and only had one serious mishap on the way. I will never walk to a competition again; next month I am getting a trailer. We got there in good time, and Jolanda rode two really good proefs, with excellent scores. She came first in the second proef, and got two winst punten to add to her tally. John was able to come along this time, and filmed her, which was great, and its now on youtube for all to see. Ulo and Jolanda at Baco
(you might want to watch it with the sound down as it was very windy!)