Well I am back in California! It is beautiful and sunny, a bit of a contrast to what I left when I was in England! The horses are well in england and they are being ridden by Nick while I am away. The last month has been a bit of a blur from coming back from Poland, revising for exams, sneaking out to Badminton to watch and then two full weeks of exams before I left for California. I can’t believe how much has happened! It is all a bit exciting and a bit scary with how time is flying. I have finished my second year at University and am getting ready for my dissertation. It is all going to go by so fast I know it! 

My dissertation will hopefully be released and given out to the public this fall if everything goes to plan. I want to look at riders and why they do or do not use therapies for preventative treatments to prevent injury rather than treat it. So this summer I will be in the process of prepping and executing my disssertation so that I can be ahead for data analysis next spring. 

I am so grateful for my degree and what it is teaching me. Everyday I learn something new and as a result I notice more and more details when I am working with horses. It reaffirms to me that this is what I want to do and I am loving every second of it!

I wanted to give a shout out to the Willberry Wonder Pony Charity as I was at Badminton and I was lucky enough to be able to get my very own Berry Pony! This is an incredible charity which I admire and fully support.  Hannah Francis was an inspiration to so many and her strength and passion lives on through this incredible charity and through Willberry. I am honoured to have been able to help and make a donation and as a result I want to get as much exposure for this great cause as I can. I finally picked a name for my Berry Pony before I came out to California. Meet Caliberry I have named her because I am at heart both English and American and I love California so I have named her Cali from California. She will be joining me on numerous adventures and travels. I will keep you updated on where she goes! 

I am very excited for the rest of the season. The horses currently are having a slightly easier time since I had exams and am now in California. They wil start up end of June and will go until the fall. So it doesn’t hurt for them to have a bit of an easy time before the rest of the season kicks off as they had a busy spring. They are athletes and just like us they need time to recuperate and rest before stepping up conditioning and exercise even more. I miss them loads but I am soaking up every bit of sunshine I can while I am in California. I went over and watched the Woodside Horse Trials as well as the Prelim Challenge that they host this last weekend. It was lovely to catch up with everyone and see so many familiar faces. I had forgotten what it was like to be at a West Coast event! I certainly have not missed the dust though… I will say that. I want to say I was covered in it from head to toe the first day. But it is a beautiful show and we were very lucky that it did not get boiling hot like it can! The Woodside horse park does a great job with he event and they all work so hard west coast eventing is very lucky to have them! Now I am off to enjoy some more california sunshine, I will keep this updated on how everything is going both in England and California. 

Until next time!