Posts

Winter Horse Ownership In Canuck-Land: Sense of Humour Required!

Image
The transition from mud to ice – Can the British chick handle it? It was the first time I ever experienced minus 29 degrees Celsius.  That’s what the thermometer out on the porch read, and as I pulled on my fleece neck warmer and zipped up my insulated suit to the top, I felt both intrigued and apprehensive. The first day ever battling the kind of Canadian elements I had been warned about, and I could almost see the rather mischievous band of broncos I had acquired, leaning on the fence with protruding toothy grins on their long faces, just waiting to see how ‘Brit-chick’ would handle the first super-cold day of her Canadian career.  Pulling my cuffs over the tops of my thick mittens and folding my hat down to cover my eyebrows, I was ready to face the freezer.  I took my last breath of civilized air and then pulled open the door.   The sensation of the outside wrapped around me in an instant, like an ice pack round a cup of tea, leeching my body heat.  My breath was

The Empathic Fighter – Healing Through the Fight

Image
That Saturday night she was in a zone she had never known before; everything was different – There was a new level of consciousness and body presence.   Her limbs tingled with sensation, and the ground beneath her feet resounded upwards with every stride, but at the same time she was only vaguely aware of the pressing crowd in the darkness.   Its clamour rolling around the skeletal vaulted structure of the building, roars and shouts mere background echoes as she stared at the back of her coach as he led her, weaving through the hordes.   With every table sold out, it was standing room only in Lansdowne’s Aberdeen Pavilion, and the buzz was palpable.  Vaguely acknowledging a few giants leaning in from the right and left, her focus zeroed in on the ring; a beacon, a spot lit stage, and she knew it was hers.  She belonged there.  It didn’t matter that she was new to it; the hard months of training - sparring, grueling weight lifting regimes, exhausting hill running, broken