Horse people don’t usually get weekends off, but there’s a different rhythm to the work 🐴 This Saturday, Sunday and Monday we’re running accredited Equine's-assisted Personal Development training for a group of experienced horse people 😊 These training courses are full-on, boot camp style events but there’s always a lot of laughter accompanying the deep and experiential learning 😊 As always, our horses are the real teachers 💕 How will you be spending your weekend?

I spent the last few days doing touristy things in Madrid 😊 Looking through my photos I noticed that most of them are of men on horseback! I did see paintings and statues of women, but they were all demure creatures in big frocks - or naked - so I wasn’t interested in taking pictures. To be clear, I wasn’t interested in taking pictures of the men either - just the horses 😊 What do you see?

I am usually an even-tempered and calm person. One of my many mottos is ‘what you see is what you get’ and, after decades of practice, I’m good at taking people as they come, without preconceptions or judgement. At least, that’s the lovely version of me 🤣 Sometimes, people trigger my inner C.O.W. - cranky old woman ☹️ and she’s a mean B! It never happens when I’m with horses or other animals, or in nature. Busy places - especially indoor spaces - with too many people are the catalyst 😳 It doesn’t happen every time I visit a shopping mall because there’s usually a build up of C.O.W. containment beforehand. Thankfully, my inner C.O.W. is silent, but here’s an example of what she could be thinking: 🐮 you knew you were next in the queue, why are looking for your purse now! 🐮 did you not look in the mirror before you left home? 🐮 those leggings were not made for that arse! 🐮 move!!! 🐮 did you mean to turn your skin orange? 🐮 other nasty, judgmental comments the real me would never make! I’m really glad that my inner C.O.W. is not vocal and that she only makes rare appearances because I don’t like her very much 🙄 But, I can’t deny that she’s part of me. I wonder if having a ‘shadow side’ is uniquely human? What do you think?

Full disclosure - I saw @Brenda Rigney posting a version of this and thought it would be a fun thing to try here 😊 How it works … Post 2 things that are true about your experiences with horses and thing that’s a big fat lie 😊 Try to guess each other’s. I’ll go first in the comments 😊

In a couple of hours I’ll be boarding the 1.15am bus for a 2 1/2 hour trip to Dublin Airport. By 4am I will have found my 3 friends and we’ll be in the check in line for our flight to Madrid 😊 I’ve known these women since we were teenagers. We’ve navigated life together and once our children were looking after themselves we started these little getaways. Up until last year, we stayed in Ireland but we’ve since spread our wings. As we each turn 70, the birthday person is given a date and time to be at the airport - but doesn’t know the destination until we get to the gate. The birthday girl doesn’t pay for anything and we laugh ourselves silly for a few days. So I won’t be on Skool as much as usual until next week. Old friends are precious 😍 What’s your longest friendship?