Not so shy...

The first of July, I'm always amazed at that another month has rolled in by and we are now half way through the year. In less than a month I'll be on a plane to Mongolia, and in exactly a month I'll be doing my weigh in for the race, three days after that I'll be galloping across the start line of 1000km journey.

It seems like all I do is try organise things for the race and at the same time nothing is yet organised. But I'm sure it will all come together nicely by the time I'm ready to board that plane. I'm excited, nervous, I wish I could leave tomorrow , and yet there are so many things still to do. Fundraise for one, as part of the requirements for the race is to raise the equivalent of £1000 for charity, which I'm more than happy to do, but between teaching, riding, spending endless time organising visas and insurance, gear and sponsorship, as well as running the farm I'm quickly running out of time.

Amongst all this though I have been able to catch up with one of my favourite horses, Shy Boy, or Shy as he's known these days, is one of the stallions that arrived at my place from the 2012 muster. He was more memorable than most because he was this terrified, flighty, timid and shy stallion that peered out at you from underneath the most magnificent head of hair I've ever seen in such a young horse. 

He went to a wonderful women after I had done the initial handling, and has only continued to go from strength to strength. He's a very special boy and the type of horse that bonds extremely closely to his rider/trainer. It's wonderful to see how well loved he is, and how much time is being put him into making him a confident happy horse.

His owner thankfully is helping me get fit for the derby, and has brought Shy along on a couple of our training rides which he loves confidently trotting along beside her, through forests and farmland. It's makes me incredibly happy to see a horse from the wild go on to thrive in a new environment. It shows just how versatile these horses are. It's also another reason to remember that while most horses are very easygoing from muster, horses like Shy and Bear could so easily end up terrified or dead in the wrong hands and that it is so essential they get the right start to domestic life, and lots of time and care put into their training.

Shy trotting out on our training rides

And when he was fresh from muster