The long and winding road…

I’m in a somewhat contemplative mood. Many tears have been shed over the past few weeks. On Monday we said goodbye to my beautiful old girl, Rosie. I’ve said goodbye to many horses over the years, but this has been perhaps the hardest. I wasn’t even planning on writing about it, I could hardly talk about it. But I do want to share the joy she brought me over the years. I liked to joke that she was my eldest daughter- I was present at her conception, at her birth, by her side throughout her life, through injury and ill health. We didn’t have as many years together as I had anticipated, and circumstances meant that we never achieved the many hopes and dreams that I had when I first took her mum, Geri, to the stallion. But we did learn so much together and she was the first horse that I had that I felt truly enjoyed carrying me around the place. What we had was friendship, and because of that, I knew that when the time came I had to do the right thing for her, no matter how hard it was.

I’ve been sad every day, I still am. But yesterday Suzie and I went for a ride with Kaikoura and Juliet. Kaikoura’s journey has certainly been a long and winding one to date! We have faced quite a few challenges along the way. But it seemed fitting that yesterday was, I felt, our happiest and most relaxed outing so far. I still have to lead him for the first bit, particularly since the lambs of doom have appeared in the fields. He gets very worried by their unpredictability and tendency to ambush him from behind water troughs.

We have done so much careful work to build his confidence and calmness. It feels like maybe, just maybe, after what seems like a lifetime of laying down sheets of paper one at a time, we might actually be getting to the point where we have a substantial pile to work from.

He is such a loveable boy. I never wanted a gelding, nor a pony, nor a cob cross, nor a piebald, nor a grey (which is what he’s becoming). I loved my big flaxen haired chestnut girl. But somehow he picked me and I couldn’t let him go. He’s the childhood pony I never had, the steady rock (when he isn’t bolting!!).

Yesterday he was just the medicine I needed. I don’t know where ‘there’ is. Or if we’ll ever reach it together. But Rosie’s lesson to us is to accept the long and winding road and to love the journey for what it is.

Meanwhile, project pony club pony, also a while in the making, is developing nicely. Juliet is learning to jump with Suzie and they are enjoying getting out and about. I like to think she is a role model for all potential pony club ponies. Positively trained, no whips, no fear, no force, a team built together over time and based in trust and friendship ❤️.