Midwinter Resources

'Tis the season - shopping, reading and video links come fast and furious this time of year!

Here's a few things that have caught my attention lately:

- So You Think You Want a Young Horse? Courtesy of We Are Flying Solo. A must read if you're considering adding a young or green horse to your life. I can identify with all of it. Good horses are mostly made, not born, and wow is it a lot of work. This looks to be part 1 of a series. I can't wait to see what else she's going to add.

- Mugwump came back! I absolutely love her blog and ICYMI there have been a few new posts in the past month or so.

- Dressage Unwrapped - Olympia 2019 Dressage masterclass featuring Carl and Charlotte, Pippa Funnell, Gareth Hughes, Richard Davison and of course some amazing horses. I loved it.

- Everything you need to know about saddle shopping, from CobJockey. OK, so maybe not EVERYTHING, but almost! There are detailed notes and thoughts on tons of different saddles and brands she tried and her final choice is super cool.

- This Explains A Lot - Doing The Work Blog. This one was shared on facebook multiple times but if you're one of the few who hasn't seen it, it is worth a read. When I went just now to link the page, I discovered a lot of of other great content on her blog too. I particularly liked the thoughts on learned helplessness and desensitizing and have bookmarked her blog so I can keep reading!

- 32 Year Old Pony Takes Supreme In Hand Title At Olympia Ponies. They kick ass at any age.

- Parallax Hay Play Ball. Bridget loved this right from the start, but I admit I was a bit skeptical. Surely the hay would get wet and muddy? How was she going to get it all out? A couple of weeks in and I'm so sold on this thing I'm buying one for Sophie too. Bridget has tried her best to destroy it (she's smart and tried alternately to crush it and tear the lid off) to no avail. The weather has been horrible, but the hay doesn't get overly wet or muddy, and B figured it out quickly so it's emptied by her daily. If she's motivated, it takes her about 2-3 hours to empty it from 3/4 full, and in that time she's walking all over her paddock chasing and grazing from this thing. I use it in addition to hay nets to make her hay last longer into the night. I'm not sure this will work for every horse, but for my bored of winter paddocks and food motivated ponies it's definitely a win.

- Equestrian Stockholm and PS of Sweden both have some great sales on if you might need some matchy matchy. Greenhawk also has some good Boxing Day sales if you need essentials. No links, use Google if you must - I'm not going to be responsible for completely enabling you  ;)