When Style Met Safety...

Recently I have felt like the most un-equestrian equestrian going. For a moment, other than going to HOYS, seeing or being on a horse was a distant memory and with that feeling I felt like I couldn't or even shouldn't blog. My mum has been in hospital with pneumonia and so as any child would, I dropped everything to be with her. I was also hat-less as you probably saw in my last post so I was unable to ride. (I'm not about sweating up someone elses hat haha!)

Well things have improved massively, my mum is out of hospital and doing really well and I finally have a hat! 

I ended up going for the Charles Owen Ayr8 Leather Look, I've ridden in it a few times now and I must say I'm really impressed with it! 

It's stylish, easy to wipe clean, comfortable and with the ventilation panels where they are the hat doesn't make my hair all sweaty - winner! 

I must admit I'm one of those kind of riders who doesn't change their hat all that often, I can't even remember when I got my last hat if I'm honest. I have definitely had it about 10 years which is absolutely shocking - I know. I just assumed because I hadn't taken any bad falls (I'm talking three falls in that time and two of them I landed on my feet) that the hat would be still be fine, but after riding in this hat a few times I actually feel like I have protected my head once again and I'm not just wearing a hat for the sake of wearing it, if you get me?

I just want to stress to anyone who is like me with their hat I would definitely consider investing in another riding hat for your own safety, put down the new turnout rug and treat yourself :)

The technology in these hats are changing all the time and I'm sure some hats out there wouldn't pass the safety regulations of today.

I suppose I owe those pesky spiders a thank you after all! (My last post explains all)

Isn't she a beaut!

Jess x

All About That Thermal Life

I find myself sat at my desk in the midst of putting two reports together for my thermography qualification, with an urge to blog even though I feel I haven't been up to much when really, I have. 

Thermography

I've had all 5 case studies approved, I have one in for review at the moment and I'm looking to submit another 2 this week. That leaves me with another 2 to be submitted for approval and then I will be looking to start a whole new chapter starting up my own business. It feels kind of surreal, little old me having my own business... Who would have thought it?!

I just wanted to briefly touch on a scan I did last week of my friend Rachel's pony, Bow. I was asked when was I going to be officially qualified as they wanted to book in a scan as Bow just isn't quite right in canter at the moment. At this point I had another 4 case studies to complete so I thought we may as well kill two birds with one stone here... I'll use the scan as a case study and we can also see where Bow has some inflammation going on. 

Knowing her pony as well as she does, Rach knew it was the offside hind limb which wasn't right and she wasn't wrong... 

Here we can clearly see that there is inflammation in the offside hind limb (as Rach suspected!) and we can identify the main area of concern from the white dot in the middle. 

Prior to having the scan it was going to be a case of having the vet out which would have resulted in a full lameness examination with nerve blocks all the way up the leg. Now I'm not saying this method does not work, it clearly does otherwise vets wouldn't do it however if I had the choice of treating my horses leg like a pin cushion or taking some images, I know which I would choose... 


Anyway - get well soon Bow!

Tack Room Disaster!

You know when you have one of them 'meh' weeks at work or even school and you just want to ride to clear your mind and cheer you up a bit? Yeah, me too! I had one of those last week and I was seriously looking forward to riding on Friday evening. Like seriously looking forward to riding. 

I get to the yard, I bring Toby in and groom him, I get him tacked up and all I need to do now is get my hat... I go to put it on and find it covered in cobwebs, ergh! As I'm clearing them away (with a knife and not my hands - ew!) a huge spider jumps out at me, I throw the hat on the floor and the spider scurries off. At this point I was squealing like god knows what and needed to get a grip whilst on the yard. I pick the hat up again thinking it was only the one spider to clear the rest of the cob webs and I notice there is a nest of eggs in there and upon closer inspection another spider sat protecting her eggs! Obviously she had to leap out at me too and then refused to leave my hat. Uh I don't think so missy! If I wasn't having my hat then neither were you! 

To say I was fuming was an understatement, not ONE but TWO tarantulas (ok slight exaggeration but they may as well have been) had evicted me from my riding hat! 

I eventually realised every cloud has a silver lining and with that I have found myself looking forward to some hat shopping. I'm thinking a Charles Owen hat like the one used by Charlotte Dujardin...?

Jess x

P.S How incredible is Charlotte's young horse Florentina?! 

Burghley Horse Trials...

Hiiii guys!

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, I've been super busy recently with my case studies, the old day job and spending time with my boyfriend, Ryan. 

Fact about me - I'm in a long distance relationship with the most incredible person ever! He's so so supportive of me with my blog and my thermal imaging (queue the awww's haha!) so I spend quite a bit of time out of Cheshire and in Liverpool which is pretty cool. 

This week I'm also embarking on an 84 day Habit Project whereby, with a group of others I will be participating in daily tasks to ultimately help better myself. With this I'm hoping it will help out with my up and coming Thermography business and for future goals.

Anyway less of my babble (even though this is a blog for me to babble away on) I want to share with you some of the shots I got when I went to Burghley Horse Trials this weekend! I didn't end up going with my tutor as I said in my last post due to some hardware issue however, I thought that isn't stopping me from going so my mum and I made the 2 and a bit hour journey down on Saturday morning to Stamford for the Cross Country and this is what we got up too...

Enjoy!

Thermography - How it's helping our beautiful equines...

Hiiiiiiiiiiiii everyone!

Hope you're all good!

Just an update on the old thermal imaging, I submitted another case study on a lovely Selle Français called Jimmy earlier this week which has since been approved! That's 3 down and 7 more to go! Bring it on!

I've had a couple of scans scheduled in for this week and unfortunately, these haven't gone ahead so I've moved them to next week. So scanning wise this week I've had a pretty quiet week. 

That said, I've received some amazing feedback from Lucy who owns Star - one of the horses I have used previously for a case study. 

At the time of the scan Star had gone lame following a visit from the farrier. I believe another visit from the farrier and some box rest and Star was still not sound. I took some additional pictures of the underneath of Star's foot which highlighted inflammation on the insides of her front feet. 

This week I heard back from Lucy, she has since changed her farrier to one of the best in country and found out that poor Star had a corn and had also received such bad shoeing - a good trim and a new set of shoes, the pair will be getting ready to head out competing again in no time!

I cannot tell you how happy I am to hear this kind of feedback, it means the absolute world to me to know I am doing exactly what I've set out to do. 


I'm still working on new ideas to expand my blog so watch this space over the next coming weeks!


Jess x

Hard work does pay off!/The future of BaileyCakes...

Evening! 

At the end of last week/beginning of this week I submitted two of my ten case studies needed to complete my Thermography Technician qualification. 

The scans I have done previously I haven't been 100% happy with for different reasons such as the stable environment not being big enough to capture a certain area in the frame, one of the horses was a tad excited and the angle and composition of the other just needed some tweaking. I want to make sure I'm not just a good thermographer but a great one so I have scheduled to re-do these scans. 

The horse and the pony

So for the two I have submitted I borrowed two of my friends gorgeous horse and pony; Toby and Star.

This is Toby, he is a cheeky welsh x arab who mainly works on the flat and does the odd unaffiliated dressage test. He is also one of the ponies I am currently riding to a) keep me in the saddle but without the commitment of having a horse just whilst I'm setting up my business and b) to help my friend Laura keep him fit as she has about 3468548 different jobs! Ok slight exaggeration but she's a busy lady so she may as well have that many jobs haha!

This is Star, she is a WB x TB and just so happens to be a very talented lady who does BSJA. I must say Star has one of the most adorable relationships with my friend Lucy and I loved working with them both. 

The review

After a nervous week of waiting for my tutor Sandie to mark my scans I booked some time in with her to review them. I know how much of a perfectionist Sandie is and so I was a little apprehensive about our review however, that was all for nothing as both of my scans got approved!! 

During our phone call Sandie also asked whether I wanted to do the Licensee Programme with Equitherm where I would basically be able to work as a Thermographer but under the Equitherm brand rather than going out there in the big wide world alone. Ok so this is an option for students when you pick your course but to actually be asked to consider doing it meant a lot to me.

Then if that wasn't enough...

The following night after my scan review I received an email from Sandie asking me to call her urgently, in a bit of a panic I rang thinking something was wrong with my camera order or my case studies. 

Isn't it just always the case that when someone tells you to ring them it's urgent you can never get through on the first attempt? Yeah I had that too! For the next 10 or so minutes after I tried to call back through I had what I felt was a mini mid-life crisis thinking of all of the possible things that it could be. 

I eventually got through to only be asked whether I wanted to go to the one and only Burghley Horse Trials with Sandie and some others to promote thermal imaging! At this point I had gone from worrying my head off to ecstatic within the space of 30 seconds! 

It just goes to show hard work really does pay off!

The future of BaileyCakes...

Over the past week I have been thinking a lot about my blog, don't worry it's not going anywhere as I absolutely love sharing my different view of the equestrian world with you. I'm just thinking of what else I can bring to the table or blog should I say. 

BaileyCakes works so well and I have had so much good feedback about it on a global scale that I didn't think it would ever have. So before I went ahead and made changes I wanted to know how you guys would feel about me re-branding the blog?

The things I have in mind to add to the blog are:

• Putting together some product reviews
• Career advice/motivation
• Guest bloggers
• Equestrian Fashion

I named this blog after my late horse Bailey and I'm 100% not just ditching him now, if it wasn't for Bailey I wouldn't be doing my thermal imaging and I wouldn't be doing my blog. He is my inspiration for everything I'm doing now whether that's helping be the voice of the horse via thermal imaging or sharing my findings with you on here in hope that they either help you, make you smile or even inspire you to go after your goals like I am.

Please comment below and let me know your thoughts :)

The man behind it all! - BaileyCakes x

Jess x

15 Things All Equestrians Will Relate To...

ALL equestrians will relate too..

• Since your first canter you've been hooked and never looked back!

• You suffer with RWS (Riding Withdrawal Symptoms) when you haven't ridden in over a week

• No matter what kind of day you've had seeing your horse makes everything much better

• You will find more pictures of your horse on your phone then any family members

• Over the years you develop two tack rooms; one at the yard and one at home

• You turn into your local weather reporter with your outstanding knowledge of the forthcoming weeks weather

• With all of your weather knowledge you then have the big decision as to what weight rug to put on...

• Then you have to decide whether to put on the rug with the neck rug or the one without...

• Then if that wasn't enough you're then faced with do you put on the checked rug, the red one or blue one? Because we all know there are at least three options per rug weight... you know just as back ups and not because of our obsession with shopping for our horse which leads me onto the next point...

• The excitement of shopping for your horse is much greater than it is for when you go shopping for yourself

• When you know you're coming off...

• Your first horse was your dog

• You find your colleagues pulling hay/bits of mud off you for the whole duration of your shift after a wet 'n' wild morning on the yard

• Your colleagues think you just sit there on the horses back and don't understand how dressage is a sport. We all know this would be them on their first go...

• Ultimately your best friend is your horse

Jess x