This time of year everyone reflects on the past 12 months & looks forward with hopeful anticipation to the next... and every year there are high points & low points .. even more so when horses are involved… 2024 was no exception.
A (not so great) fall in January that kept me grounded for some time… then an unexpected and sudden death of a close family member... 2024 really didn’t start well. But of course there were also some mega highlights through the year..
A super training clinic with Skye and Andrew J Murphy at Dovecot Equestrian Centre’s brilliant facilities in Oxfordshire. Two cheeky flying visits to Paris for the Olympics to see the eventing cross country and show jumping individual final were unexpected treats!
And then being a part of the USVI Paralympic Team at Paris 2024 - as chef de mission. It’s always a huge honour to be involved and the opportunity to be there with full access is not to be underestimated so we tried to get to as many sports and venues to support all the athletes. The atmosphere, sports, venues were all amazing to say the least!
And to round off the summer, had a fabulous surprise trip to Croatia with my son & daughter for my birthday.
Special memories like that are priceless.
But we also had to say a heart-breaking goodbye to Rhapsody which was really hard... as anyone with animals knows only too well. He was such a truly special horse to everyone who was a part of his journey…. ❤️
Following not far behind - I made the difficult - but right - decision to retire Skye.
I planned to do some BD competitions with him this year, he was going really well when we got back training again in late spring, but then training was so up & down with Paris etc. When we finally got back down to serious business again - it felt that something was not quite right.
Investigations, treatment… etc etc… it looked hopeful at first but he’s always been a horse that doesn’t hide his feelings (I’ve got the scar to prove it) and when one day seemingly happily out hacking, it was suddenly clear that he really wasn’t happy so we turned back to the yard.
Some may think it is a temperament issue – no hiding the fact that he’s not always been the easiest horse – but it really wasn’t a temperament issue - he just wasn’t comfortable in certain situations. So, I called it a day.
Is it just good fortune that he loves living out 24/7 in his little herd - rain or shine… but happily, comes in to call for his feed each day… or is it nature?!?!
I wish everyone a Happy, Healthy and Successful 2025!!