I’m backkkk! After a long break from blogging I’ve finally got myself organised and I can’t wait to start writing my little blog again!
I can’t believe it is now 2019 (well now it’s February!!) 2018 went soo quick, it feels like every year goes quicker!
At the end of December every year I feel like I am still in the same place I was the year before and nothing has changed, but when I decided to write this post I thought about all the things I have done in 2018 and it made me realise how much I have achieved!
Looking back at the year is a really good way to prepare for next year, you can see what you have achieved and how you can progress into the following year.
I thought I would put together my top 10 highlights of 2018..
Me & Dings going to our first show
Qualifying for the Elementary gold regionals
Employing my 1st employee at Jessica Fox Equine.
I had my dream Childeric saddle made
We had the best summer weather
Getting Jessica Fox Equine Services banners made and put up at my local show ground
Starting this blog & my Instagram page
Getting to 500 followers on my Facebook page & doing our first giveaway!
Bought a new car
Expanding my business and meeting lots of lovely new animals!
When a new year starts I always seem to set myself the same old resolutions “give up chocolate” or “go to the gym more”, but I always know I’m never going to stick to them (especially the chocolate one!)
This year I’m thinking to set myself new year goals rather than resolutions so things I would like to achieve during the year.
So here goes…
Buy my own horse box
Employ more staff for Jessica Fox Equine
Grow & expand Jessica Fox Equine, we have exciting things in the pipeline!
Qualify for the Medium and Advanced Medium regionals
Buy a dog (need to convince my mum first!)
Have you got any new year resolutions or goals for 2019?
Sooooo… on Friday 18th May me and Dings competed in our first show at Brook Farm TC! Dings and I train with Tracy Wright & Char Lasseter, and as Dings is a lot more experienced than me, he has been teaching me all the tricks in the book!
For a while now everyone had been saying to me when’s your first show? When are you going out to a party? And I won’t lie, I had been putting it off because I was sooooo nervous to go straight into competing at Elementary as I had only ever competed at Prelim with my last horse! I finally plucked up the courage (and with a little push from Tracy) we booked our first show.
Bright and early Friday morning Dings had a pamper session so he looked all lovely and handsome, and my friend Mollie (who is a plaiting queen) came to plait him up! I was lucky that I had my lovely trainer and councilor (haha) Tracy Wright with me, she kept me calm and if it wasn’t for her I definitely wouldn’t have gone!
Dings was as good as gold!! He didn’t put one foot wrong the whole day he was an absolute angel, I felt like he really looked after me and loved every minute of being back out partying! Even one of the judges wrote on our test sheet that he seemed happy to be out which really made me smile.
We rode in the Elementary gold section, and our results were 67.07% in Ele 43 and 64.71% in Ele 54*. I am over the moon with our results considering it’s our first show, Dings hadn’t been out in over a year, and I was a nervous wreck!
This is just the beginning for us and I’m so excited for our future together!
Any horse owner must dread the winter, I know I definitely do!
Especially being a groom and having to work outside in all weathers; rain, snow, wind, hurricanes! I’m out in it. Even when we had that snow blizzard this year all my friends ask me, “Are you still going to work?!” But unfortunately the horses cannot make their own feed or let themselves out to the field (unless they’re really clever) so the show must go on!
I thought I would put together the top 10 reasons why I cannot wait for summer..
Being able to not leave home and get home from work in the dark
Not having to squelch through muddy fields to bring horses in (nearly loosing my boots and their shoes in the process)
The everyday battle with a frozen tap
Not having to wear 100’s layers and thermals to keep warm, then becoming increasingly hot after running around and having to take them all off!
Being able to ride in the sun is soooooo much more fun and motivating than in the rain and wind
Being able to have a naked horse (he looks so much cuter naked)
Having chilblains is NOT fun
Not getting covered in mud when the horse flicks it at you when galloping towards you desperate to come in, or even worse, when he gallops away from you…
Getting a tan (even if you end up with funny tan lines)
There’s nothing better than hacking in the sun!
Hopefully we haven’t got long to wait until the weather starts getting warmer… well you never know with England!
I often get asked “What do you do at work?”. The truth is every day is different, I have yards that I do more regularly but I also have a variety of holiday cover, dog walking etc.
I thought I would do a post of what I got up to over a weekend! I had one of my crazy friends, Jess, volunteer to come to work with me (which involved getting up at 4am) and follow me around taking notes and pictures of what I did, as well as sweeping and emptying wheelbarrows, haha.
So here goes..
Saturday 10th March
7am – The first yard of the day! Turned out Jonesy & Wallet who are the easiest horses to turn out, I literally open their stable doors and they take themselves to the field! Mucked out, made haynets and feeds, then fed the ducks, geese and cats!
7.45am – Next yard, turned out Sam and Dolly, mucked out and made haynets and feeds.
9am – Got to my yard to see Dings! Mucked him out and got his haynets and feeds ready.
10am – Had to pop to Ingatestone Saddlery to buy Dings’ bedding, and of course stopped off to have some breakfast!
11.30am – Back to the yard, groomed Dings, tacked up and rode for an hour (we did some pole work) then washed him off, cleaned tack and got Jess to help put the poles away!
2pm – I was house sitting 4 dogs this weekend; Buddy, Vinnie, Baxter and Teddy, so we took them for a long walk and then had to hose them down as they were veryyy muddy.
3.30pm – Onto my next yard where I was looking after Cisco, who unfortunately is on box-rest so couldn’t go out to play in the field this weekend. I hand walked him for 30 minutes, bandaged his leg, mucked out and hayed and fed him for the night!
4.30pm – Brought Queenie in from the field, picked out her feet and gave her her dinner.
5pm – Brought in Sam and dolly from the field, hosed down their legs, picked out their feet and gave them their dinner.
6pm- Back to Dings to finish him, Roobarb, BB, Pip, Monty and Kali off, then gave everyone their dinner and locked up for the night!
7pm – Back to Jonesy and Wallet to let them in and feed the cats.
Then the day was done and I enjoyed a Thai takeaway Jess and I had an early night ready for my veryy early start the next morning!
Turning out Sam & Dolly!
Sunday 11th March
4.15am – Turned out Jonesy & Wallet, luckily the temperature wasn’t too cold that morning so they were able to go out early! Fed the cats who thought it was still the middle of the night!
4.30am – Got to Cisco, fed all the horses their breakfast. Checked Cisco’s leg, took of the bandage, hand walked him, then mucked him out.
5.30am – Got to Dings, mucked him out and made his feeds and haynets.
6.30am – Me & Dings had our lesson with Char Lassetter (which there will be a post about soon)!!
8am – Turned out Sam and Dolly, mucked out and made haynets and feeds.
9.30am – Back to Jonesy & Wallet to muck out and get their hay and feeds ready, then fed the rest of the gang who were now up!
10.15am – Mucked out Adonis & Bailey, they had already been turned out earlier.
11.30am – Got Queenie’s stable ready for her to come in that evening.
12pm – Back to Cisco to check his leg, skip out and hand walk him for another 30 minutes.
1.30pm – As it was Mothers day I needed to squeeze in a lunch with my mum. We met at the Blackmore Tea Rooms for afternoon tea!
3.30pm – Brought in Dolly & Sam from the field, hosed down their legs and picked out their feet.
4.30pm – Back to my yard to finish off Dings, Roobarb and BB.
5.30pm – Brought in Jonesy & Wallet from the field and fed the cats.
Cisco & his poorly leg!
This was a crazy busy weekend for me and by 7pm I was falling asleep! Luckily not every weekend is like that!
Please let me know if you like finding out what I get up during the weekend at work and I can do these posts more often!
This is my first post on my own little blog! Can you tell i’m excited? Haha. I love reading equestrian/country blogs and they have given me so much inspiration I finally decided to take the plunge write my own!
This first post is just going to be a little bit about me..
Well.. I’m Jessica Fox, I am 24 years old and live in Essex. I run my own business called Jessica Fox Equine Services where I offer equine and hound care. You can find out about my business on the Equine Services page!
So I had my first horse bought for me by my parents for my 17th birthday, a lovely big Dutch Warmblood called Blue. Blue was only 4 years old and as I had only ever loaned horses for a couple of days a week (which is nothing like owning your own!) we learnt everything together. He taught me everything I know – how to ride, how to cling on for dear life and a quick guide to becoming a vet! Unfortunately when Blue was only 7 years old he became intermittently lame and after numerous investigations and treatment at the Animal Health Trust and the Newmarket Equine Hospital I had to make the heartbreaking decision to end his pain.
After having just over a year of looking after everyone else’s four legged friends and not my own, I then had the amazing opportunity given to me to buy a big ginger dressage horse! Dings, who’s posh name is Kermo Dinaro Star, is a 14 year old Danish Warmblood previously owned by Tracy Wright. I have worked for Tracy for nearly 6 years now and had the pleasure of looking after Dings and her two other horses for this time. Tracy bought him as a 3 year old and they danced their way up to Inter 1 before she bought her youngster, Beat Box. I had been having lessons on Dings with both Tracy and Char Lasseter and we managed to convince my mum and dad he was a brilliant purchase! As he is a lot more experienced than me, he is teaching me the ropes and our aim is to start competing at Elementary in April (I am so excited!!).
I am planning to document our journey on my blog, so keep a look out for the updates!
