Do you consider a yourself a true horse lover? We are too, so we’ve come up with a few things that only us horse lovers will get.

How many of these can you relate to?

They like to keep us on our toes

Everything, and we mean everything, can be spooked at: a patch of grass that’s the wrong colour, their shadow, you, a hedge, other horses, etc…

However, send a fire engine with a load of sirens past while you’re out hacking and they’ll not bat an eyelid.

We’re made of strong stuff

You fill up the wheelbarrow, you push it to the muck heap.

Then you’ve got to get it up the ramp/plank of wood/whatever you use to try to pile up the never-ending mountain of manure.

(Also, there is nothing more gutting than filling up the wheelbarrow and having it fall over on the way to the muck heap...)

Carrying heavy water buckets filled to the brim? Check.

Lifting hay bales/shavings bales/not letting go of an excitable 16.2hh cob on the way to the field? You bet.

Who needs a gym, anyway?

That horsey smell…

Hay in your hay, the smell of garlic/turmeric/something else on your hands after mixing feeds, the lingering scent of horses on yard clothes you’ve been wearing for days.

That thing you non-horsey people can smell in the supermarket — if someone’s wearing jodhpurs and boots, it’s them.

We don’t even notice it anymore.

Money can’t buy happiness — but it can buy a horse

We know, they’re expensive.

It’s sometimes best not to even tally up how much has been spent.

The reality is that all of your money goes towards the horse fund. The truth is, you don’t really mind all that much.

Who needs a beach in Spain when you can go to Riding Club camp, anyway.

Satisfying odd jobs

Picking out hooves is oddly satisfying and there is something really rewarding about a freshly swept yard. It will only stay clean for about two seconds, but still.

The smell of freshly cleaned tack and the sound of content horses munching hay.

So good.

Withdrawal symptoms

A few days without riding feels like a lifetime and you start to have dreams about being back in the saddle again.

You see pictures of horses, drive past horses in a field, hear people talk about horses and are just filled with this sense of longing.

Then you ride again and everything is right in the world.

(PS You have a good luck every time you see horses in a field — even though you’ve got your own.)

The equestrian tan

You get the weirdest tan lines, and your legs will never match your arms.

One day you might just turn into a hay bale

Hay and straw gets everywhere. No matter how tidy you think you are, you will always find some in your hair, in your boots — and even down your jodhpurs!

Getting into the house without leaving a trail of hay behind (and inducing the wrath of your parent/partner/housemate) is a skill you (and we) still seem to be working on.

It’s all worth it!

All that time, money — even the heartache — it’s all worth it in the end.

Of course it is!

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