"I haven't posted for a while" ......

I sometimes used to read other blogs and often came across a post which read "sorry I haven't blogged for a while, I've been a bit busy" and I used to think why apologise, does anyone care all that much? Anyway, seen as it is a year since my last post I am going to start this post with "sorry I haven't blogged for a while, I've been a bit busy"....

Actually I have been a flighty tart and switched to facebook! We have a facebook page - brookcottagefarm where I have been posting details of the riding school's holiday programmes, lessons etc.

The riding school has been officially open for almost 6 months now and oh my god I am LOVING it. The ponies are great, we have the wonderful Sam Callow teaching with me and a fabulous team of helpers. We have held two summer shows during the holidays and days like these have given us a lot to celebrate.  There is still so much to do and so much to save up for, like a barn, a tractor, more ponies, a security door for the tack room, a cross country course around 15 more acres of fencing.

We have made plenty of mistakes along the way (notice how that was "we" rather than "I"!!) but I think that's ok to make mistakes as long as one learns from ones mistakes. So I have written the learning points down so as to be sure not to repeat them.  Things like, don't have over 1,000 bales of hay cut with nowhere to store it, don't forget to castrate one of the ram lambs, don't advertise the wrong dressage test for the show, don't have only one set of tack room keys and then lose them on a Saturday morning before a full day of lessons meaning we can't get the saddles and bridles out of the tack room, don't forget to get the horses vaccinated on time so as not to have to start all over again etc etc.  But boy have we learned some extremely useful skills - for example I don't believe anyone in East Hertfordshire can tie tarpaulin onto a hay stack to cover it from the rain with baler twine as well as me, I just don't think anyone (not even my Dad) can match me on that one. And I have developed the most deep farmers tan - complete with white ankles and feet and sports bra markings.

Projects for this autumn are to look into grants for planting woods / trees / hedges and then to plant them ...... we are doing Christmas turkeys again and the riding school is fully up and running and lovely and busy.  I am looking to be accredited as an RDA (riding for the disabled) facility so that I can hold weekly RDA sessions for the Herts & Essex branch in addition to the riders with disabilities who ride with me on a private basis xx

Pictures from our opening party - thanks Denis O' Regan for fab photos x