Laafet
Well-Known Member
Things have been a bit sad round here. Stormy has been coming on loads and that has been so exciting but Nickel was beginning to really struggle. I haven't really said much about the exact reasons why we let him go and I do feel awful that he never got a long retirement that he fully deserved. But I can't bear the thought of him being in pain for no reason other than we were 'giving him the summer'. Which incidently with all his health problems was the worst time of year for him. So sadly I had him put to sleep just before Easter. It was very hard and I thought I was doing ok, yes one livery member literally doesn't talk to me any more but hey ho, then on Tuesday when I went back to work, I literally cried all day for no real reason. Thank goodness I am currently working from home otherwise I would have had to take the day off. I remember when I let Murphy go that similar happened then, as it was all planned I felt ok but every now and then for a long time afterwards I would have a day of tremendous sadness. So I suspect that it will happen again.
I know not all of you are fans of blogs but I wrote a little memoriam to him here -
https://adventuresinblackandwhite.co.uk/2021/04/03/in-memoriam-nickel-2003-2021/
I was really touched about just how many people also commented on my personal Facebook page. I don't usually do a bit show on there of personal stuff like that but I was surprised just how many people commented that they loved following our journey and they had never met him. He truly was one of life's unicorns.
Stormy has been a bit of saviour in all of this. Without her I think I would have gone completely demented. She is so totally different to him that it is nice and there are no comparisons to be made or shoes to fill. She's very definitely taking her own path. I did have a bit of a training brick wall that I hit recently and to deal with that I went back to my mind set and goal setting to help me. I then went down a rabbit whole of creating the most useful journal for me to record our progress and somehow ended up creating some books! Anyway I have written about this more here, if anyone is interested.
https://adventuresinblackandwhite.co.uk/2021/04/09/goal-setting-and-journaling/
I have had some good feedback already and this is really nice as it's a bit of new thing for me.
Anyway I have some firm plans, sadly our first outing was cancelled last week due to my trainer falling off her horsebox ramp the morning of my lesson and breaking her foot. So no outings for a bit as I want to take Stormy to hers first for a lesson as we have no idea how she is going to be, other than what she showed when I collected her from Palace House. This was that she associates travelling with racing and so gets wound up. Loads and travels like a dream, comes off all sweaty and anxious.
While my trainer is off, we are videoing ourselves so she can see how we are getting on and hopefully I will get a spin out to the Forest with a sensible friend so Stormy can learn that the lorry does not mean racing!
Anyway, we will be back posting on here as soon as we do something vaguely exciting. For now it's lots of hacking!
I know not all of you are fans of blogs but I wrote a little memoriam to him here -
https://adventuresinblackandwhite.co.uk/2021/04/03/in-memoriam-nickel-2003-2021/
I was really touched about just how many people also commented on my personal Facebook page. I don't usually do a bit show on there of personal stuff like that but I was surprised just how many people commented that they loved following our journey and they had never met him. He truly was one of life's unicorns.
Stormy has been a bit of saviour in all of this. Without her I think I would have gone completely demented. She is so totally different to him that it is nice and there are no comparisons to be made or shoes to fill. She's very definitely taking her own path. I did have a bit of a training brick wall that I hit recently and to deal with that I went back to my mind set and goal setting to help me. I then went down a rabbit whole of creating the most useful journal for me to record our progress and somehow ended up creating some books! Anyway I have written about this more here, if anyone is interested.
https://adventuresinblackandwhite.co.uk/2021/04/09/goal-setting-and-journaling/
I have had some good feedback already and this is really nice as it's a bit of new thing for me.
Anyway I have some firm plans, sadly our first outing was cancelled last week due to my trainer falling off her horsebox ramp the morning of my lesson and breaking her foot. So no outings for a bit as I want to take Stormy to hers first for a lesson as we have no idea how she is going to be, other than what she showed when I collected her from Palace House. This was that she associates travelling with racing and so gets wound up. Loads and travels like a dream, comes off all sweaty and anxious.
While my trainer is off, we are videoing ourselves so she can see how we are getting on and hopefully I will get a spin out to the Forest with a sensible friend so Stormy can learn that the lorry does not mean racing!
Anyway, we will be back posting on here as soon as we do something vaguely exciting. For now it's lots of hacking!
