Crosshill Pacers
Well-Known Member
Took me a while to find it but here's the thread I posted a few years back after finally coming to terms with the fact I would never find my first horse again:
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?594284-Feeling-really-down-(
Twelve months later, whilst working in the STAGBI office, a transfer of ownership application for her landed on my desk. I cried hysterically for hours just knowing she was alive.
I've kept in touch with her owner, who bought her off the person we sold her to and had her for the past 9 years, and he kept saying when he'd stopped breeding from her then I could have her for nothing so he'd know she would live out her days in comfort.
A couple of weeks ago he rang to say he'd had her scanned and she was empty and if I could help him find a younger mare to buy then I could have her. I did just that and yesterday morning at 5am my friend and I set off for West Brom to deliver the new mare (owned by a third party we both knew) and collect Smokey, as well as a racehorse my friend had purchased. Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong, and to cut a long story short we returned to my house this morning at 5.30am after 24 hours on the road and a stop at most services on the M5, M6 and M74. I slept for 2 hours before getting up and going to my work, and I've slept for an hour and a half this evening. A cruel twist of fate sees me driving back to West Brom tomorrow for my work and heading back to Scotland on Wednesday (having never been to WB in my life, it seems a bit ridiculous to go there twice in 3 days) but once this week is over then I can relax because...
Smokey, my wonderful (if unpredictable) first horse who is now 22 is right this minute happily grazing in a field with another five of our horses. This is her last home. I haven't cried yet because I'm so exhausted but I suspect when I get a chance to go and sit with her down the field at the end of the week then it will hit me like a train. I have loved this horse like no other.
The obligatory photos:
Smokey racing in the days before I owned her:
Smokey and I out hunting in November 2003:
Smokey with the only foal we bred from her in 2004:
And photos from tonight before she was turned out in the field:
The relief is unreal!
As an aside, she is looking and moving brilliantly for her age. The gentleman who has looked after her so wonderfully for me for the last 9 years happens to be a young travelling man with an assortment of Standardbreds, stepping horses and cobs, who travels to Appleby each year for his family's annual holiday. He brought one of his young sons with him to collect/deliver and the lad was on the box saying goodbye to Smokey and having a good look at his dad's new mare. If he grows up to treat his horses the way his father does then he'll be just as much the horseman. We'll be good friends for a long time to come.
Smiles all round!
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?594284-Feeling-really-down-(
Twelve months later, whilst working in the STAGBI office, a transfer of ownership application for her landed on my desk. I cried hysterically for hours just knowing she was alive.
I've kept in touch with her owner, who bought her off the person we sold her to and had her for the past 9 years, and he kept saying when he'd stopped breeding from her then I could have her for nothing so he'd know she would live out her days in comfort.
A couple of weeks ago he rang to say he'd had her scanned and she was empty and if I could help him find a younger mare to buy then I could have her. I did just that and yesterday morning at 5am my friend and I set off for West Brom to deliver the new mare (owned by a third party we both knew) and collect Smokey, as well as a racehorse my friend had purchased. Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong, and to cut a long story short we returned to my house this morning at 5.30am after 24 hours on the road and a stop at most services on the M5, M6 and M74. I slept for 2 hours before getting up and going to my work, and I've slept for an hour and a half this evening. A cruel twist of fate sees me driving back to West Brom tomorrow for my work and heading back to Scotland on Wednesday (having never been to WB in my life, it seems a bit ridiculous to go there twice in 3 days) but once this week is over then I can relax because...
Smokey, my wonderful (if unpredictable) first horse who is now 22 is right this minute happily grazing in a field with another five of our horses. This is her last home. I haven't cried yet because I'm so exhausted but I suspect when I get a chance to go and sit with her down the field at the end of the week then it will hit me like a train. I have loved this horse like no other.
The obligatory photos:
Smokey racing in the days before I owned her:
Smokey and I out hunting in November 2003:
Smokey with the only foal we bred from her in 2004:
And photos from tonight before she was turned out in the field:
The relief is unreal!
As an aside, she is looking and moving brilliantly for her age. The gentleman who has looked after her so wonderfully for me for the last 9 years happens to be a young travelling man with an assortment of Standardbreds, stepping horses and cobs, who travels to Appleby each year for his family's annual holiday. He brought one of his young sons with him to collect/deliver and the lad was on the box saying goodbye to Smokey and having a good look at his dad's new mare. If he grows up to treat his horses the way his father does then he'll be just as much the horseman. We'll be good friends for a long time to come.
Smiles all round!
Very happy for you OP.
