5 Things You Didn’t Know About The Fair Weather Rider

It’s fair to say I’ve divulged a fair bit of info when it comes to the equestrian side of my life, but I haven’t delved too far into any other area of my life. To dish a little more about me, something I don’t tend to do too often, I thought I’d share five things you might not have known about me. Here goes…

I’m A Fire Fighter & A Writer (not that you’d know it from my often horrendous ramblings here) – having five horses always makes people inclined to ask the age old question, “How on earth do you afford that?” Unfortunately I’m not rich and I haven’t had the luck of winning the lottery so, like most people, I have to work my backside off in order to afford them. One job unfortunately doesn’t quite cover the horses and of course the bills of normal family life, so I have two jobs. For the last 13 years, I’ve worked as a Fire Fighter. As anyone working in the public sector knows, pay isn’t glorious so I supplement my income by writing for marketing companies. With both wages coupled together and of course, my wonderful husband, life and the bills within it are covered, leaving us enough to pay for the five horses who take over the lives of our daughters and of course, us. While I am currently on maternity, I’ll be returning to my duties as a fire fighter in the next coming months, which means super early starts and the juggling act between shifts but hey, we equestrians live for that right?

I Only Recently Had Our Second Daughter – I’m proud to be a mum of two gorgeous daughters, one of whom almost four years and the other only nine months. They’re two blonde bombshells who are both very lucky to have their own pony, the legend that is Rambo. Not a lot of people are aware that I’m a mum of two. Although I do speak about them in my posts on occasion, they very rarely feature in the images and when they do, I don’t like to show their faces too often. As much as I love social media, it can become a very scary place; especially when you share too much of your personal life. That’s why I don’t post about going on holiday or being away from home, or lots of images of the girls. Believe it or not, it’s hard. Especially when you just want to scream about how amazing your kids are. I tend to just scream at my husband instead.

My Husband Only Became Horse Mad Because Of Me – I always say the main man in my life, husband aside, is my huge cob Jack. He’s my longest running relationship. I had Jack two years before I met my husband Rob and with Jack being such a plod (most of the time), I let him hop on during one of our initial dates. Of course, I made him bath Jack afterwards and that was the introduction. I thought it would end there. I thought Rob would sit back firmly with the rest of the husbands and boyfriends that very rarely made an appearance at my yard but he didn’t. Instead, over the course of roughly three or four years, his interest grew until he decided actually, he wanted to learn himself. He gradually began lessons and within less than a year, we bought Danny our youngster. As our herd grew, so too did his love for horses and now he’s just as mad as me.

We Want To Emigrate To America – This one always seems to come as a shock to most. I’ve always wanted to live in America. I love it there, both East Coast and West Coast. Rob however had never set foot in the states until our wedding in San Francisco where we eloped, stress free. We spent the rest of our wedding/honeymoon travelling from San Francisco to LA, through to Las Vegas, Death Valley, Yosemite and then back to San Fran. After that, just a few years later, we travelled to New York and Florida and have since taken the girls to Florida only just last year, driving from Orlando to Fort Myers and back. He fell in love with the states just as hard and fast as I did as a youngster and we’ve since spoken with solicitors to try and wangle our way out there. Unfortunately, they’re not short of Fire Fighters and we’re short of £100k to invest in a business so a VISA evades us still. That hasn’t stopped us pricing up our expenses to get out there (including flying all of our animals out there) and subsequent plans…though we’re still wondering how on earth we’ll ever get Hattie on a plane! Can you drive them across via boat? Whichever way we may finally be able to do it, I intend to retell the story to all of you. Who knows, I may even be representing Black Onyx Equestrian in the states in a few years. I wonder if Kaley Cuoco will be my best friend?

We Have Five Dogs & An ASBO Cat – Along with our amazing herd of equines, we also have quite the zoo at home. We have five dogs and an ASBO cat. Our cat Dave came from Battersea Dogs & Cats home. We were warned he was ‘special’ and he’s proven himself to be that 100 times over. He’s a terror with every other cat, his meows sound like Janet Street Porter and he opens doors all by himself but, and it’s a big but, he’s a soft little lamb with our children so we forgive him. He’s also the ruler of the dogs and keeps them in check constantly. Our pack of dogs consist of two continually moulting Dalmatians called Hogan and Harper, a Mastiff/Poodle mix called Bo who happens to be my dog of a lifetime, a Doberman called Arlo who drives me absolutely crazy. Our latest addition, a French Bulldog/Pomeranian mix called Cash seems to have turned me into a crazy dog lady that cuddles her puppy more than her husband but that’s a story (and reason for divorce) for another day.

So now you know a little bit about me, how about you tell us a little bit about you? What are five things we didn’t know about you?