I blame Anna …..

It’s all Anna Blake’s fault, this post and so much more …….

There’s no blogger or horse author I know of who has published such consistently insightful, readable writing on the equine/human relationship. I blame her for making me and horsemen and women everywhere put their horses first. For delving deeper into the horse’s mind than a forensic scientist with a very sharp scalpel and revealing exactly why aspects of of our time-honoured practices and horseman’s wisdom are counterproductive. For shaming us into thinking about the suffering humans inflict on horses, even unintentionally. And she knows how to do it with a lightness of touch and a sense of rightness that mirror the horsemanship she advocates.

Enough of the fan mail. Except to praise the loyalty Anna shows to her blogging community: she never leaves a comment unanswered and is always encouraging.

I commented rather lengthily on her last post, which led to a brief exchange about amateur horsepeople like me needing ready, willing and able back up in the face of illness or injury. This arose from a heartfelt admission of my own precarious situation.

If you were a reader of this blog before I decided to give it a break in January 2015, you may remember that my health had frequently impacted on my equine plans. Well, I say impacted ….. more like ground them into the dust and spat on them.

Having bought a new horse to live alongside our two retirees in late 2009, I broke a leg – the only horse-related accident – then fractured my jaw and skull, had another leg op., a period of loss of balance, a broken foot, arthritis in my shoulder and knees, worsening osteoporosis….. the litany goes on. So there was never enough riding time to make the progress I’d hoped for. However, time on the ground absolutely transformed my relationship with my younger horse, who initially threw more challenges at me than I thought I could handle but, as time went by, responded eagerly to every learning curve I lobbed back.

Now sweet sixteen, Pom, the one-time Spanish delinquent, became the horse I always wanted.

And just when, last Autumn, we were getting back into fitness after the heat of summer, I was walking up a small bank and turned at an awkward angle to see if the horses were going to follow me out to the field, when I heard an almighty crack and my left leg crumbled from under me. Luckily the horses were still in the barn.

I won’t bore you with the detail (at least not in this post!), but what a sense of déjà vu!

Four months later I am still using crutches and Pom has learned how to pick them up if I drop them. Anna said she’d like to see it, so please bear with me as I’ve not posted a video before, in particular the sound is a bit loud in the first and the second two are rather murky! 

Anyway, now Anna gave me the impetus I needed, I intend to return to regular posting, but, for the moment, for Anna, Cheryl and all of you whose comments and friendship I’ve missed, here are three very short clips: