|
As you can see, two were Arabian horses, though very different in their builds and temperaments. Sally, the fifth, well, she is a rarer breed: a Rocking Horse.
Emblem gallery Emblem’s Birthday Photos
Many of you will have heard me speak of Emblem over the years, and for those that knew him I am sad to tell you that he recently passed away. It was a huge shock, and very sudden as he had been in fine health. It was heart failure, very quick and very peaceful. I will always treasure the fact that I was there with him during his final hour.
Em and I became a partnership when he was just five years old. He reached his 30th year, but passed away a few days short of his actual birth date in June. He was the most special horse to me and we spent many wonderful hours, and covered hundreds of miles together over the years.
From the age of six he competed at Endurance Riding and Racing and we reached Gold Series level together. He accumulated more rosettes then I can ever display and I have many fond memories, and of course stories to recount. He was always very expressive and liked to let his views be known!
Over the years he allowed my young nieces and nephew to have their first horse ride on his back and tolerated (his expression told this!) some very bumpy first trots, round the world exercises, and children riding backwards…..he may not always have had a smile on his face but he always took care of them
In his senior years, he was still happy to take short hacks around the village and given the opportunity never wanted to miss the chance to go much faster than he should have! I miss him terribly, and as one friend said “there is a large horse shaped hole in my heart”.
Sequoia gallery
I am sad to say that following a long struggle with reoccurring Laminitis and Cushings disease, we finally had to take the heartbreaking decision in July of having our lovely Sequoia put to sleep. We miss her terribly and she will always be in our hearts and memories. These photos are a lasting memory of her in happier times which will always make us smile....
Aensley (Photos to follow)
Anesley is a beautiful Haflinger who spent time with us after his owners emigrated to Australia. He was used to living in a very busy yard with many horses, and having lots of fun with his teenage owner. So life with us was far too quiet and soon his boredom became apparent! So after some time we found a super new home for him with another lovely teenage girl… Much more to Aensley’s liking. An unexpected, but happy ending.
Photos to follow
Johnny Boy (Photos to follow)
Johnny was one of the most intelligent horses that I have known. I bought him from a dealers/livery yard in Yorkshire, two years after first spotting him there as an unbroken four year old. He was in a rather sorry state second time around. Nervous and often up on his hind legs when handled. Thin, worm infested, suffering from rain scald and not very sound behind. Sporting only one shod hoof which was on his ‘suspect’ leg.
We decided to let him recoup through the winter of 2008 before restarting him in the spring. He settled well and became very much a member of the family.
Johnny had outstanding looks. Despite a passport saying ‘Cob’, he looked like an American paint. Not long after we got him home we began to notice some ‘unusual responses, or rather lack of them, and soon realised that Johnny was in fact deaf. One endearing memory is how during the short dark days of winter he soon learnt that the flash of torch across the field meant time to come in for the night. After all, there was no point calling, especially as by that time Emy was pretty hard of hearing too! The torch signal continued into the lighter days, where he would just stand and watch us, waiting for the flash of the torch to communicate what he should do
His colour pattern was ‘Overo Splash’ and after some quick research we discovered that this ‘pattern’ has an increased genetic predisposition to deafness. His until then undiagnosed deafness explained a lot about his background of being passed from home to dealer, dealer to home and back again.
Then in Spring 2009, when I was so looking forward to building a relationship with him along the lines that I enjoyed with Emy, he became very lame behind in his ‘suspect’ leg. Investigation diagnosed a torn suspensory ligament. By the end of the summer the ligament had recovered well but the lameness continued and x-rays showed degenerative joint disease in the hock, he would never be ridden. In Spring of 2010 our hopes of keeping him as a companion were dashed when the deterioration of his hock had become so bad that we had to question his quality of life. After much soul searching we finally agreed with our vet that the kindest action for Johnny was euthanasia. A hard decision to make for such a fantastic young horse. I’m sure that most of his problems stemmed from what had happened in his young life, and I regret not buying him that first time I laid eyes upon him.
Sally gallery
My father bought her for me when I was very small and I often wonder if she sparked my enthusiasm and first love of horses. As a child I rode her for hours in the back garden; to the stage where her tack fell apart, her mane and tail were lost, and she had no paintwork left on her…poor thing. She has moved home with me several times over the years and spent a number of years in my garage. The children used to play on her, wrap her legs in travelling bandages, and dress her up. Then, a few years ago, she underwent a wonderful restoration and is now back to her former glory, being ridden again as you can see.
You can see several larger pictures of all the horses in the gallery.
So for now, apart from Sally, I will remain ‘horseless’, until the time feels right and another wonderful horse comes into my life…
|
