SURVIVING ANOTHER 'COVID YEAR'

Milka and I left Writtle University back in November 2020 due to another massive Covid-19 outbreak. The world went crazy, all the countries were in lockdown, and Universities switched to online teaching. After a long and exhausting journey back home, Milka and I arrived at the new yard, which was only 2 minutes away from my house, which was perfect, as I continued spending every day with her. Finishing my second year online was quite a challenge, and I missed Writtle so much! There were many promises about 'life getting back to normal' soon, and I kept my hopes high to be able to return at least for the last month or two of the 2nd semester, but unfortunately, none of this happened, and I had to stay in Slovenia. But, the situation with the global pandemic calmed down a bit during the summer, and hopefully, there won't be any massive outbreaks anymore. I had to make a little trip to Writtle in August to finish one of the practical exams that I couldn’t do because of covid, and I can tell you that I was super emotional to be there again after such a long time. I’ve literally been dreaming about my return every day since then, and right now, I'm sitting on a plane and writing this, excited to be able to say - I'm finally back! 😊

In the meantime, I had to make a difficult decision and sell my beloved unicorn Milka. After three amazing years that we've spent together, this was one of the hardest things to do, but I knew it was the only reasonable decision I could make. Many things contributed to this decision, and even though my heart was breaking apart, I knew it was the right thing to do. I knew that I couldn't afford to drive her to England again and then back home after I finish my degree next year, and considering how stressful the whole thing was for her before (even though she handled it all extremely well), I didn't think it's fair to her to keep doing this. Thinking about my future after finishing my degree, I knew that it would be tough to keep her as I'm planning on working abroad while looking for a place where I can settle down and start my career. So, on the 12th of May, I was preparing her for a trip to her new home in Maribor, and I swear she knew that something very serious was happening. This was the first time she didn't want to load (otherwise, she's an angel and jumps on with no problems at all!) and kept pulling away and neighing. But I kept in touch with a new owner and received lots of pictures and videos of her, which made the whole process of saying goodbye to her much easier. She seems super happy in her new home, and at the end of the day, this is the most important thing for me. I am planning on visiting her in the following weeks before I return to England.

One of the rare, exciting things that happened this year was my new job. A Swiss eventing rider moved to Slovenia, close to my home with his wife and horses. He needed an experienced rider to help him with riding and yard chores, so I instantly grabbed the chance and took the job. It was an amazing opportunity, and I had a chance to ride many top-class horses! One of the things I lack in my riding is the confidence that I am actually good at it, even though I've been riding for more than half of my life, and this experience definitely boosted it up. I mean, if someone trusts me with their horses and notices the progress in each one of them, I think this is a good sign. Unfortunately, they returned to Switzerland, but with a promise, they’ll return soon. Later on, I found a job at the bar, which was also an interesting experience and something I’ve never done before-definitely useful to keep myself busy. I’ve also taken every chance I could to ride my bike or play tennis (I hope this helped me stay fit enough for all the training, gym sessions, karate and cycling with the academy crew, as I haven’t been riding for a few months now).

Overall, it’s been a long year, with more downs than ups, so fingers crossed that many exciting and happy things I’ll be able to write about will happen in future (for example how my dissy is going, yikes).