How COVID has impacted the mindset of equestrians

Slightly off the general topic of horses, sponsored riders, tack and competitions, however, still relevant for absolutely everyone. I'm going to say it and I know everyone has heard this a thousand times already, but COVID-19 has had a massive impact on our lives, and for the most part, this has not been a positive one. We all know someone who has lost their job or had to stop/limit working because the kids are home from school or businesses have closed. We all know someone terrified of making a family member who is immune deficient sick, and I'm truly sorry if someone you know has unfortunately passed away from COVID-19. Hopefully over the coming months if we continue to practice all our preventative measures, things will continue to improve. I don't think we have ever had this many bottles of hand sanitizer at Kentaur before, but we are doing our part to stop the spread!

Even though COVID-19 has disrupted our lives in ways we didn't think were possible, it's forced us to change our day-to-day routine, and I can't help but feel somewhat refreshed by this. There was a meme going around last month saying that 2020 has been "cancelled". Don't get me wrong, I was 100% on that bandwagon and already waiting for 2021 to arrive, but the more I thought about it, the more I couldn't help feeling that this might actually be what a lot of us needed. It's the first time in my life where people have literally been forced to rethink their daily routine. For a lot of us this is what our weeks would look like pre COVID-19: wake up, feed horses, ride horses, go to work, come home, ride more horses, feed horses and repeat. Then on the weekends we would be competing, and so the years roll by. In between our busy lives, we try to fit this in, try to fit that in, do ½ of that job and never start another. I feel like I'm painting a picture a lot of us know too well.

So since this pandemic started, I have made it my mission to try and feel grateful for the spare time we now have. Some of you may be aware that we have recently moved to a new property. This happened in November 2019, and let me tell you… It's been a process, and we won't be doing it again in a hurry! The Kentaur shop is slowly coming together, and the horses have settled in nicely. However, now things have slowed down we are using this time to finish the shop renovations so all our lovely customers have a great space to come and visit us when things are back to normal. This is one of those times we feel grateful that Kentaur is predominantly online as our business processes haven't had to change, though we are looking forward to having a shop space. 

Competitions have been suspended, this isn't ground-breaking news, but the more people I talk to, there is a real divide of opinions. There are the people who are champing at the bit to get back in the ring and others who are enjoying some weekends not riding horses. Either way, here at Kentaur this has given us the chance to focus more on the young horses that would usually be at the bottom of the list if we were mid-season. Don't get me wrong for the 4-5 yr olds that are ready for their first run of shows, this is frustrating. However with extra training under their belts, they are only going to handle the work better when everything starts again. As for the older horses, not jumping their legs isn't going to do them any harm and this gives us time to fix any problems from last season or to improve. The most recent EWA email regarding COVID-19 said that show jumping is looking to be back up and running in WA by September-October if all goes well, which means we will be thrown into all the championship shows. I have a feeling that at the Patrons Cup we might know who's been training over the last six months, and who had an extended summer break!

We have also been making headway with our new website and have finally uploaded the new images onto our landing page. This new website has been in the works since early October last year, and with the web developer designing a carousel at the top, we thought this 'prime real estate' deserved some fantastic photos! Luke Harmer is one of our sponsored rider and his partner Ashley Grant @theblachat took these stunning photos! With the fires, floods and then COVID-19 they have finally made it to the home page this week, and we love them. As always Ash's work is second to none.

We also found a day to photograph all the babies. Due to our annual ACE assessment being cancelled this year we had no professional photos of the young horses. A massive thank you to Jordyn Colleran @equinebyjordyn; we love your work. Small things, but none the less another tick off the list.

You're probably thinking I'm saying all of this like none of this would have happened prior to COVID-19, dont get me wrong it would have, just much slower! I think the difference is, we now feel like we have the time we need/want to put into these things rather than magically finding some more daylight to fit it all in. We need to use this time to reassess what's important to us, so when life is back to "normal", we can use this mindset to be more productive and be able to evaluate where our time is best spent.

You never know, 2020 might be the year of 'getting it done' rather than the year that got cancelled.