Ok so the big freeze is over, for now at least, how is your January going so far? I personally find it the longest and toughest month of the year, it’s still so dark! However it’s a great planning and habit forming month - love a new habit me! So share how’s it going so far? Any challenges and the good things you have done or found. 😊

At some point during winter, every horse owner has the moment. You might be ankle-deep in mud that could legally qualify as soup, watching your horse chew contentedly, when it dawns on you that you are no longer a person with a hobby. You are now the operations manager of a very exclusive, very fluffy, very expensive wellbeing project. A Horse. That’s when the mental calculator fires up - again. Hay deliveries that feel heavier on the wallet than the trailer. Feed prices that rise faster than your horse can clear a bucket. Livery invoices that arrive with the emotional impact of a scary jump filler. Bedding, which now feels like it is priced by the gram. Then come the extras. The ones that are not technically optional if you enjoy sleeping soundly at night. Teeth, backs, saddles, physio, farrier, vaccinations, worm counts - any one of these somehow cost more than your weekly food shop. Rugs that cost the same as a weekend away you did not have. Rugs that always seem to needed fixing. Rugs that were completely destroyed, in under three business days. Meanwhile, there is your horse. Serene. Warm. Well fed. Deeply unbothered by inflation, interest rates, or your internal monologue. (we all have these!) Here’s the part that rarely gets said out loud because it hits a little close to home. Your horse is coping beautifully right now because you are quietly absorbing the pressure. They don’t see you reshuffling budgets, selling tack, cancelling plans, or eating creatively repetitive meals so their care never slips. They don’t see the stress, the worry, the mental gymnastics. They only experience the result. Warmth. Routine. Full hay nets. A human who turns up, again and again. People laugh about being horse poor, and yes, humour keeps us sane. But underneath it is a level of commitment that most people will never fully understand. Only another horse owner will get it. You are holding another living being’s entire sense of safety together during a time when everything feels tighter, sharper, and less forgiving.