Wedding Horseshoe; DIY!

Last month one of my best friends got married and I was lucky enough to be a bridesmaid. We have been friends since we were 7 and she was one of the girls I first started horse riding with. I decorated a horseshoe for her to give her on her wedding day. My Mum got a horseshoe from the farrier for me while I was away. It was a tiny one from his daughter's pony which made it look very cute!

I bought the things to decorate it with from eBay. The ribbon was a similar colour to the dresses we wore and so were the flowers. The flowers had wire coming out of them which I could wind around the horseshoe to keep them in place. I also got some blue beads that looked like pearls and some elastic.

The farrier had cleaned the horseshoe for me so I started by spray painting it silver. Once both sides had dried I put the elastic and the ribbon through the top whole on each side. I had the ribbon so that it was in a loop at the top and I tied the elastic and ribbon in a knot at the back.

I then started putting beads onto the elastic. I put enough to cover the distance from one while in the horseshoe to the next. I then put a flower through each whole and wound the wire around the horseshoe and the flower itself to keep it in place. I carried on doing this all the way around. Sometimes I used new pieces of elastic so if one part broke it wouldn't all fall off.

 I then got my Dad (he is neater than me) to paint on their names and the date at the bottom. I think this made it look much better and really personalised it.

I think it is a great idea to do for a wedding. It was a bit fiddly but not too hard to make. There are lots of ideas on-line as well. I like the ones that have the ribbon winding right through and have it in a bow at the bottom but this horseshoe was a bit small for this. It also would have meant I couldn't have the date on it. I might get one of Trooper's I can decorate for my room!

Love Laura
xxxx

What's In Your Grooming Kit?

I thought it might be interesting to show you what is in my grooming kit. As there are lots of horse bloggers from all over the world I thought it would be great to also see what items are in all your grooming kits too as I guess that things will vary depending on where you're from.

When I imagined writing this post I was just going to show my most used items, however, when I came to emptying out my grooming kit I found I quite a bit in there. There are some things I use nearly every day and others I rarely use. The brush with a sponge in the middle is and example of one I never use... it seemed a good idea at the time! Here is what was inside...

Here are the grooming items I use on a day to day basis, nothing exciting, just the usual things! There is a body brush, dandy brush, mane comb, hair brush and what I call the "flicker brush". I use the flicker brush just to finish off when I have groomed and it helps to get all the last bits of dust out and make him really shiny. Another things that helps to get ride of dust are baby wipes, I currently don't have any but they work really well to make them shiny. I use the hair brush on his tail, his old hairbrush recently broke so this is just one I found lying around that I have been using for the time being.

When I bath Trooper I just use cheap shampoo from the supermarket on his body. He has Head & Shoulders anti-dandruff shampoo for his mane and tail though (this one is for itchy scalp care) as he has a bit of sweet itch. I like to use Canter Mane & Tail conditioner on his tail after he has had a bath as this helps to get all of the knots out and makes it much easier to brush. I don't use this on his mane though as it can make the reins slippery. Recently we have also been using Prize by Equisoothe on the top of his tail every day. This has also been helping with his sweet itch as it is helping to prevent dandruff and stopping the tail being as itchy. The type of fly spray he has varies as I have yet to find one that really works but this is the one we are currently using.

A few other things that I thought I would mention... I also had some scissors, hoof picks, pulling comb, metal curry comb, a weight tape and some Vaseline. He sometimes gets peeling skin around his mouth so I put the Vaseline on and it helps to get rid of it. On the second picture down is the Lincoln grooming block we have. This is like pumice stone and is great for getting out moulting hairs, especially when he is losing his winter coat.

I would love it if you would like to do this post too so I can see what is in your grooming kit, let me know if you do! I would also like to tag Ruffles to do the post from Just A Girl And Her Horse and also Shyloh from Adventures With Shyloh!

Love Laura
xxxx

Dressage To Music

Here is the video footage I took whilst at the Olympics. It is a bit of a medley including a number of different horses and riders. The main clips I have included are the ones I enjoyed watching. At the end is some footage from when we found out we had won the gold and the horses doing the lap of honour! You can also see my photos in my previous two posts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXencb8T7LU&feature=plcp

Love Laura
xxxx

We Won A Gold And I Was There To See It!!

As I am sure you all know I was lucky enough to have tickets to see the Olympic Dressage Grand Prix to Music! I am also sure you all know that Charlotte Dujardin won a gold medal and Laura Bechtolsheimer won a bronze, both for Great Britain! It was amazing to watch and some of the routines were very entertaining. I have to say that Laura Bechtolshiemer's routine to the Lion King music was my favourite! Here are some of the photographs I took during the day.

I don't know who some of the first riders are so you will have to forgive me!

This is Juan Manuel Munoz Diaz riding for Spain. His horse was gorgeous so I took quite a few photos of it!

There were a lot of spectators there from Holland. You can see them in their orange tops!

This was Laura Bechtolshiemer entering the arena before her test.

We were not allowed to cheer before the horse had done it's test but after Laura finished the crowd were all cheering and there were union jack flags everywhere! She was the first rider to go for GB and we had waited all day as all three of our riders were in the last group.

Laura after her test.

Carl Hester was the next rider for GB and can be seen below.

Adelinde Cornelissen went next and received a huge score from the judges. I was starting to worry if we would get the gold after all. It was all down to Charlotte Dujardin.

Charlotte rode an amazing test to a great selection of music. I especially liked the canter pirouette in time to the chimes of Big Ben!

She managed to get a massive score of over 90% winning the gold medal for team GB! The Netherlands won the silver and Laura Bechtolshiemer won the bronze. It was nice to see The Netherlands win a medal as they had so many fans there.

The crowd was going crazy and we all sang the national anthem before they did a lap of honour showing us all their medals!

I borrowed my Dad's camera which is better quality than mine and also takes photos instantly when you press the button and doesn't have the delay that mine has. I also took a lot of video footage throughout the day with some clips of the tests, when we found out we had the gold and the national anthem so that will be up soon when I have put it all together! I will also put thee rest of the photos onto my Facebook page.

My lab work for my dissertation is nearly finished and then I will be back at home to write up the results. Hopefully then I will have more time to get back into writing more regular posts.

Love Laura
xxxx