Category: General Blog

1. 2021, not an average year...

   Posted on 12:00pm Friday 31st Dec 2021

   2021 review, a year which held some surprises …

    

   For most of 2021 I didn’t think I’d have much to write about to be honest, but here I am 6.30pm on New Years eve thinking, which bits do I want to leave out?!

   It’s funny isn’t it how you coast through life, year after year doing pretty much the same stuff, but then at the end of each year you think back and realise your “normal” coasting had some pretty awesome moments, you just don’t realise until you look back.

    

   For example, back in January a very cold month up here in the Dales, we went to the yard, and managed to accidentally break the internet! How? Well you see our yard turned into an ice rink and my poor husband tried to fetch the wheelbarrow to start mucking out, ended up impersonating Michael Jacksons moonwalk on the ice, totally unplanned, and obviously I had to grab the camera and film it didn’t I, so the short clip ended up on my Facebook page, quickly shared all over the Net and then Horse & Hound got hold of it ad made us Social Media Post of the week! With over 10K views and hundreds of shares! Haven’t seen it? Check it out here 

   Not much of anything worth reporting happened between then and May to be fair, just usual stuff, however during May a big change occurred, we moved Jasper and Malachite home. Now I know a lot of people keep their horses at home, but for me this is a game changer. Our landlord of our lovely home, which is on his farm, gave us permission to convert an old cow barn into stables and pretty much gave me more grazing than I could use, its 20yrds from my front door and I can see them from my back door eating their hay. Perfect. 

   Between May and July was just normal stuff, as usual, but then August came and so did a Local Show, the Wensleydale Agricultural Show to be precise, and Jasper was entered! Its one of the local “Big” shows round here so there was plenty going on, even MP Rishi Sunak was there, only noticed as I walked by reporters taking pictures and so on of him! We were very out of practice, well I say we, but I mean I, yes, I was out of practice, Jasper forever the reliable pro just did it, I don’t think I even needed to be there to be honest, and he came away with a very respectable 2^nd place in good company. Happy!

   

    

   Then a LOT happened after that, while searching for a horse for a lovely client, I “accidentally” clicked on a link to a mare, well, you know the rest, Corrie arrived!

   

   So, from an Internet breaking start to 2021, surviving Covid, moving the boys (and corrie) home, to having a horse to ride who I absolutely love to pieces, and making competition plans for the future, 2021 has certainly threw some surprises my way!!

   

   Now when I look back over this year, I don’t think of it the same way, “not a lot happened” has turned into “What a year!”

   I wonder what 2022 holds….

   Happy New Year everyone! 

   

    

2. Déjà vu.

   Posted on 12:00pm Wednesday 25th Aug 2021

   

    

   Hello lovely people!

   It’s been a while hasn’t it, well it’s not been quiet, but not exactly worthy of sharing with anyone as it’s been a “dull” kind of busy. However, I thought I should “touch base” as things are a little different here at Johnson HQ…

   Since moving up here (North Yorkshire for those of you who hadn’t realised), just about everything changed, we arrived just before the winter, and wow what a winter we had, for those who haven’t seen it, have a look at this, winter certainly went on for what seemed like months, but we survived – just – travelling 10 miles in the snow was challenging, even for my trusty truck, so when we had chance to bring the boys home, we snapped it up, that was early spring, and they still live in the back yard now.

   Moving also proved immensely tricky work wise, having spent some of the winter working at a thoroughbred stud, (when I could actually get up there!), that was pretty much all the work that was available, coaching was virtually impossible, no one likes change up here (I know being from Yorkshire originally, we are a strange bunch lol) so although I managed to work with one lady that was it, so with mounting bills and no work I had to find an alternative to fill the gap. Well, its well-publicised that I struggle with my knees and feet, and I have been working in pubs to keep the income, incoming, but several hours a day on my feet has crippled me, again, and the boys future looked in doubt as I was struggling so much to do even the day job, let alone look after them, which then had a major knock on effect to the mental health side of life, so I had to take a long hard look at things.

   Do I:

   A)      Sell the boys

   B)      Give up work

   C)      Go part time and still struggle with the boys’ daily needs

   D)      Start on even stronger painkillers than I already take

   E)      Take a break and see how I feel

   F)       Nothing and try to continue

   Well, these questions have been running round my head for a few weeks, and I bet you can guess which won… B!

   Now I am not going to lie, I actually enjoyed my job, I really did, that feeling of having a wage slip at the end of each week, a reliable source of income, a job where you get in your car and head home after a days work and not have to do invoices, log your mileage, update spreadsheets, not worry if you did a good job, not worry about having a permanent job, but if that’s all life’s about well I am sorry, but it just doesn’t suit me. I wasn’t born to do a 9-5, and especially when my boys might have been at risk.

   So much has changed since we moved, but I need to try and get back to what drives me- Coaching. I also realise that my Social Media pages have suffered too, so those who follow me, over 2k on Facebook, (thank you!) should start to see more in the way of what the pages were originally developed for – coaching. Obviously Jasper and Mal (with cameo appearances from Chloe the Collie!) will feature as I share their lives, but in the main, they will return to coaching based information pages, with the odd laugh thrown in for good measure. I would love to have YOU involved too, so sharing YOUR thoughts, ideas, pictures of you and your horses, just interacting in general, so do please get involved, over 10.5k got involved in our social media horse & hound episode, so I know you are out there - and let’s get back to what we all love so much…. Horses.

    

   So, there you go, that’s what’s been happening up here, as mentioned, not exactly thrilling, but just like déjà vu its time to revisit the good old days… See you there!