BaileyCakes

Sunday 28 June 2015

Eventful weekend at Aintree National Show

This weekend has been slightly eventful to say the least, Lucy and I have been away at Aintree Racecourse for The Equi-Trek National Show with a Forever stand to spread some aloe love.

Our weekend started with an hour battle in the wind putting up the gazebo and boy the sense of accomplishment once we had done this was pretty amazing and we were on a roll, well so we thought...

Once the gazebo was up we went to unload the table and stock however, the car was locked... and... Lucy couldn't find her car keys...

Yep, you've got it... Lucy had only gone and LOCKED her car keys inside her car! So at this point we had no stock, Lucy didn't have her phone, my handbag was in the car which contained my purse which contained money for a) breakfast and b) a cup of tea! A hungry and caffeine craving Jess first thing in the morning is not good. Luckily for us I realised I had my phone on me and we were able to eventually get a hold of Lucy's mum who, lets face it, was not impressed in the slightest as she had to make the hour drive over to us to drop the spare set of keys off.

We thought whilst we had a free hour we would take a look around the show to see what was going on and it seemed like our bad luck was following us around too. We watched a foal break loose in an in-hand class and go galloping around the ring, we then bumped into a guy who had taken a head butt from a horse and ended up with a nasty cut on his head along with concussion! This was all too much to take in before 9:30 am. We did however manage to explore the race grounds a bit and find Red Rum's statue. Not long after this Lucy's mum turned up to save the day and we were able to set up our stand - hooray!

The rest of Saturday consisted of advising people on the benefits of aloe vera to humans/animals, as well as showing them the product range and trying to keep the gazebo on the ground. In the end we resorted to tying our gazebo to a port-a-loo which was nearby (desperate measures and all that), borrowing a dozen electric fencing posts which were already in use by the racecourse and a lot of twining string!

Sunday was a much quieter day for us, we endured another day of tackling the gazebo in the wind and even though we didn't spread as much aloe love as we hoped we did have a really good time away.

Over the weekend we did get to meet some lovely people who also had some stands, there were two sisters from the Manchester area next door to us who run Equine Mania which provides everything for both horse and rider (www.equinemania.co.uk) and four ladies who help out at Beechley Stables RDA, Allerton, South Liverpool. The use of the stables is for the benefit of disabled children. As a horse person myself, I know I couldn't live without these beautiful animals and I don't think anyone else should either. This is such a valuable cause and I would highly you recommend you check out their website to see what they do in full and how you can help (www.beechleyrda.org.uk).

Here are some of the snap shots I managed to get this weekend :)

www.beechleyrda.org.uk

Couldn't resist this putting this on too - Talk about slacking!

That was my weekend, I hope you all had a good one!

Jess x

I still haven't outgrown pony days...

Over the past 7 and a half months I've had my head in my thermography course non stop, I've passed my three assignments and finally sat my exam last week. I almost feel like I'm back in school again whereby my exam is done and I can just relax and enjoy my summer...

Well that's what I plan on doing until my Flir T420 thermal imaging camera arrives in the next few weeks and then I can start the final part of my qualification - the case studies! I am so excited to get started on my 10 case studies, I will definitely be sharing these with you as I'm doing them.

But for now with my exam done it's freed up sometime for me to get back in the saddle more often, so as any horsey person would, I had a much over due pony day with my two favourite boys, Nugz and Toby and this is what our Sunday afternoon looked like...

Hey aunty Jess!

This will always be my favourite view!

Cool down hack!

One small jump for man, one big jump for Tobykind!

To most people this is nothing, but for me to just have more time with my favourite boys it meant the world! I'm lucky to have good friends who let me ride their ponies - Thank you Elly & Laura!

I've just signed up for Bloglovin' please take a look!

//www.bloglovin.com/people/jessbarker4-13738813

Jess x

How Aloe Vera Helped My Friend's Horse!

Aloe Vera.

Two words which have now become an extremely popular marketing buzz word ingredient, with many products having added aloe vera included.

Given a choice of two products, one with aloe and one without, which would you choose?
You would more than likely go for the aloe vera based product due to it's health benefits right? - Same here!

In the past I have used an aloe vera after sun spray due to having severely burnt my chest and back whilst on holiday with the girls (ouch! - safe to say I haven't sat out in the sun like that since). A good few coatings throughout the day of the aloe spray/time out of the sun and my sun burn had massively improved. This was my first real dealing with aloe and its benefits and I've not stopped there. I now use aloe: tooth paste (my absolute favourite!), deodorant, moisturisers, gel drinks and more.

Aloe Vera has three important qualities:

It provides essential micro nutrients
It kills bacteria, viruses, fungi and yeasts
It reduces inflammation

What I love about aloe vera is how it's not just restricted to humans, it's for all animals too!

Below is my friend Lucy's horse, Star.

One Monday morning in March, Lucy noticed Star's leg had swollen like a balloon. The vet was called out to check her over as a precautionary and it was found that whilst out riding Star had got a thorn lodged in her distal limb on the Saturday and by the Monday the leg had really swollen up. Swelling is part of the body's inflammatory process used to remove foreign objects from the body and can take around 3-4 days to go down unless an infection has reached the bone.

Pre Aloe Gel

Lucy asked about applying Aloe Vera gel to the leg and her vet said to go for it as it should help.

She applied Forever Living's Aloe Gelly and MSM Gel to the leg, rubbing it all down the tendons and fetlock. Four hours later Star's leg looked like this...

4 hours after applying Aloe Gel

These are amazing results if I do say so myself and so would Star I'm sure!

Over the past few years aloe vera has really taken off in the equestrian industry. Even Mary King is an avid aloe vera fan and uses it on her horses to treat skin conditions and small wounds. With the strict dope testing now heavily implemented, a natural product is a must!

There are so many amazing aloe products, I highly recommend these for animal use:

High aloe vera concentration
Multi-purpose
Can be helpful in dealing with ringworm, mud fever and contaminated wounds

Contains aloe vera and bee propolis
Soothes most skin conditions
Provides a protective barrier on the skin

100% stabilised aloe vera
Soothes, conditions and moisturises skin irritants
Aids healing of small wounds
Perfect for the first aid kit!
Doesn't stain

Soothes strains, joints and muscles
Contains pure stabilised aloe vera gel & MSM
Contains Lignin - a component of the stabilised gel allows the product to penetrate deep into the skin carrying the MSM to the affected tissues

If it's good enough for King's horses, it's good enough for everyone's horses!

Jess x

New business - New Wardrobe - New Wishlist...

A new business surely calls for a much overdue new wardrobe right?! - Yes, I thought so!

My recent posts have been quite wordy so I thought I would be quiet and share some of the equestrian wear I'm eyeing up as I look to revamp the wardrobe...

My new favourite find has to be Aztec Diamond, I recently bought the technical leggings (below) and they are perfect, especially for summer! I'm now planning on investing in the rest of the collection.