Vicky and Sam eye home comforts after lockdown

Setting up home together is first on the muddy bucket list after lockdown for Vicky and Sam.

It’s been exactly a year to the day since horse lover Vicky and Sam went on their first date together after discovering they had so much in common whilst messaging on Muddy Matches.

And its been an interesting 12 months, not least with lockdown bringing extra pressures. The good news though; the love is still blossoming and now the pair are hell bent on properly building a life together once the world settles into something resembling a ‘new normal’.

In fact, few will have had more excitement than Vicky when certain restrictions were lifted on estate agents last week; after all a place of their own is first on the pair’s muddy bucket list to sort.

“When lockdown is lifted, I think we will be back to our normal adventures out and about in the countryside but we are looking at having our own house together so this is what we are aiming towards.” Vicky tells us.

The duo are currently shacked up together, with Vicky’s mum, at Vicky’s mum’s place in Leicestershire. It’s her happy place and somewhere she ensures us she won’t be far from when the pair do make their move.

“It’s in a village very close to some lovely countryside where we can take our dogs over fields and we have a country park on our doorstep too but it does get a bit too busy at certain times to enjoy a peaceful walk.”

There’s a definite fondness as she talks but she admits she has been somewhat lucky to have Sam by her side 24/7, especially when other couples have been forced to spend lockdown, shielding and isolation apart.

“Sam was living with us before the lockdown and I am very thankful for that as I couldn’t be without him. She adds. “Things are good at home. Yes, there are different opinions on the situation as you’d expect but generally it has been okay.

“But it will be great for Sam and I to have our own space and life” she adds.

Vicky and Sam’s muddy year started back in May when Sam’s profile caught Vicky’s attention as she felt they ‘had a similar upbringing with traditional values.” Although she questioned whether he was her ‘type’ or not at the time.

We put that down to a case of the online dating wobbles.

“Never judge a book by its cover” Vicky tells us, almost apologetically. “When I first saw Sam’s profile picture I honestly thought he doesn’t look “my type” whatever that type is. But as we got talking I really liked his ways and we had a lot in common so I thought I’d give it a go.

That give it a go spirit, so important when online dating, led to a series of messages and a real life meet three days after mutually matching.

“We went on one date and we both knew that we got on so well; there was nothing awkward. And since then we saw each other every day for walks with the dogs, he’d help me with my ponies and in my spare time I would help him with his engineering in the workshop. Safe to say, in fact, I did very much like his looks and his quirky ways. I knew i wanted to be with him for the rest of my life.”

And the shared muddy love continues.

“Sam also relief milks at the weekends in which I will go with him some times to help. The summer months last year we helped with combining and carting on a farm where he does some contracting.

It’s a world away from Vicky’s typical 9-5 working in an office but when there is a horse that she rides and competes ‘whenever’ she gets the chance – there is no doubting her country credentials – even if she does ‘boo’ the idea of being stuck indoors.

Something tells us a countryside view and, dare we say, a paddock will be somewhere on Vicky’s wishlist when the house-hunting starts.

Everyone at Muddy Matches wishes Vicky and Sam the best of luck in where their muddy life takes them.