The little horse that changed my life

It was 2005 and my dream of having my own horse was becoming a reality and Kelly was on her way from Ireland with two people I thought were my friends for the past 4 years. I met Jennifer and Lorna on a website I made that was very popular with young horse girls like myself that dreamed of having their own horse and wanted to learn more. It was called “Rachael’s Horses horses horses” yeah, I know it sounds so ridiculous but I spent most of my free time researching articles on horses and uploading details in care and husbandry, it is safe to say I loved doing it. Jennifer first contacted me showing me her horses and talked about her everyday life with her animals and what competitions she was going to. She also introduced me to various websites that helped me with my research and we hit it off talking right away. We became very good friends talking every day about horses whilst I was having riding lessons weekly and in 2005 she told me about this lovely little filly she just picked up.

Kelly came into this world in the typical thoroughbred fashion but completely in the wrong hands. The day she was born her mother was raced as they were unaware that she was pregnant and reduced her hard feed because she was getting fat. Kelly did not get the first milk and the owners did not care for her and took the mare out to race regularly leaving the foal behind. As her sister, Lorna worked on the yard she offered them some money and took the foal in for themselves and spent the next few months rehabilitating this poor filly back to good health and broke her in when she was coming up to 2 years old. This practise is very common in the equine world although horse’s spines do not fuse properly until they reach 6-8 years old depending on the breed. Horses are legally allowed to race when they are 2 years old and usually they retire before they are 6 with a multitude of problems this is just the way of life for some horses.

We had organised to meet up in early 2006 and this is when Jennifer threw the spanner in the works, I received a text message stating “Would you like to loan Kelly? I feel she would be in amazing hands with you but we just can’t keep her here we have too many, we can bring her over to you when we visit”. At this stage in my life I had a job at Chiquitos as head waitress and was raking in the money through my tips (stupidly not saving them) and after having discussions with my family about how I shouldn’t get her I went ahead and agreed.

It was midnight on the 23rd January 2006 at the Fleetwood ferry port and I finally met Jennifer, we gave each other a big hug and she opened the door to the lorry. Kelly stood quietly, a little warm from the journey, she turned to look at me as I reached to stroke her neck and introduce myself to her. We then set off for the stables, quickly unloaded her, signed the contracts for the loan and then left her for the night.

The next morning Jennifer left to go see family at the other end of the country and I caught a bus to the yard to see my new girl, she of course didn’t recognise me when I arrived but I talked to her like I had owned her for years. I spent the whole day with her grooming her, walking her around as she wasn’t allowed out to the field yet, letting her run round the small ménage and then feeding her dinner before going home- it was just perfect.

Over the course of the next few months Kelly and I faced many issues from nosey busybodies on the yard that had to stick their oar into everything (typical horse people) and Kelly continuously needing the vet for different things. I of course insured her and I am forever grateful that I did because in 2008 she really tested me but I will come back to that another time.

Early February of 2007 I had turned up to the field to collect Kelly who had been running around her field for at least 1 hour due to the girl who I shared my tack room leaving her on her own. This was the start of what would the best thing that would happen to me. This girl was a nasty piece of work and I knew that from the moment I met her but I remained polite to her and helped her out when I could- keep your friends close but your enemies closer right? Wrong. It started off with something small of me not sweeping up a small pile of hay in the tack room to her leaving my horse in danger – the rule of the yard if you are to leave a horse on its own in the field you are to bring it in, a policy she chose to ignore. Over the course of the next few weeks she made my time of the yard uncomfortable coming along to watch me ride and laugh at me if Kelly were to mess up, I even found her once threatening my horse with a whip because she kicked the door as she was teasing her with a carrot. I complained to the yard owner who at first had a word with her but it only made things worse, I had items go missing of Kelly’s, tools broken, hay bales ripped open and thrown around the tack room the list is endless. I began looking for a new yard as I could no longer cope and it just so happens on the day I went to see the yard owner about this girl’s behaviour and that I had found a new yard to keep my horse yet she asked us both to leave - gladly. I found out a week after I had left she had returned to the yard and mistakenly fed her loan horse dried sugar beet, this is a practise you do not do as it swells in the stomach by absorbing all the water, and the horse died from colic, she was obviously a liability.

The day of the move was filled with both relief but then also stress when I had to call an emergency vet to attend the new yard I had just unloaded Kelly at…

To be continued…Part 2 coming soon