In The Saddle with Anita Marsh: Summertime sadness at back to school

It’s been a wonderful summer together with my daughter, spent together enjoying the weather and riding our horses.

The horses have been living out 24/7 and so we’ve had no mucking out to do or haylage net stuffing.

It’s been a pretty easy summer. All we have to do is extra poo picking (getting up the manure in the fields) and the topping up with waters.

I say ‘all’ because we are always popping out the house to check fly masks are still on.

Sully, my Appaloosa, seems to be an expert in removing his and sometimes he enjoys taking off the others too.

My morning walk is to feed the horses then hunt round for fly masks and refix them onto the horses.

All of this is usually done whilst they are eating, otherwise I have a whole gang following me.

This summer my daughter, Alyssia, has had her boyfriend over and has been teaching him to ride. It’s very cute.

I’ve left them both to it as she’s a fantastic rider and I know he’s in safe hands. I think he genuinely enjoys it too.

By the end of the summer he had his first mini hack out in the countryside and he was smiling away.

However, those lazy days of summer already feel like they’ve quickly been replaced with early school starts and the nights are drawing in. It feels slightly cooler in the air and I don’t think it will be long before the fly rugs are washed and put away for next year.

I have really enjoyed my summer holidays with Alyssia. It’s just really good to connect when riding - not only out in nature for our mental health, but also to just chat through what’s happening in her world.

Often teenagers are confined to their bedrooms, on their phones but horse riding is a superb way of getting out in the fresh air and exercising. You might need to remind me of this though in the midst of winter.

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