My love of horses started at the young age of 18 months when my family moved to Swansea, behind my house stood a huge field with around 10 ponies, my mum would quite often find that I had wandered to the bottom of the garden to say hello to my new friends.
I started having lessons by the age of 4 (the nagging drove my mum mad) and owned my fist pony Bonny at aged 7, she was a very pretty dappled grey who sadly turned out to be very poorly and died just 1 year after buying her, grief stricken my parents wasted no time finding a replacement and within a few weeks Topic arrived (my favourite chocolate bar at the time) he was just 2 years old but I fell in love with him immediately.Topic stayed with us for nearly 2 years but again tragedy struck when he was stolen, never to be found.
Topic
Brandy arrived 6 months later and was a fabulous skewbald (chestnut and white) he was my dream pony and taught me how to compete as his previous owners persuaded my mum to let me join the local pony club. A very crafty and skilled pony who took great enjoyment in teaching me that riders are never really in charge!!.
Brandy remained with us until he passed away at a grand age of 27.
Brandy and Me aged 10
With ponies now a firm part of the family we adopted a small colt. Looking more like a rescue case, we paid a huge sum for him at £30; little did we know what a talent he would be! But we did get a taste of it when he jumped a 4ft high barbed wire fence and needed 8 stitches at the grand age of just 12 months!
He grew up to be horse of a lifetime with a natural talent for show jumping.
We won many great prizes together and qualified for some big championships. Lancer is still with me to this day aged 26, only now he’s a bit of a Victor Meldrew.
By aged 7 Lauren showed no interest in horses until a visit to Pembrey Country Park to visit Lancer who was on loan to the trekking centre there.
Lauren was too scared to get on one of the small ponies that Dave (the owner) had got ready for her, but after watching a young 3 year old having a ride her pride got the better of her, lol.
The second she jumped off those dreaded words came out “I want to learn to ride”. Lauren then attended a local riding school showing a very natural talent and learnt to walk and trot competently in just 6 45 minute lessons.
At this point I decided to try and find a small pony on loan for Lauren and decided to teach her the rest myself.
Ozzy arrived just a couple of weeks later and although a super pony was not for Lauren. Then Alice arrived, she had been owned by several children in the area and at the grand age of 27 turned out to be perfect for Lauren, really teaching her the ropes.
It was 6 months later that I wanted the stability of owning her pony that I decided to buy Zippy a beautiful pony who introduced Lauren to Neath Pony club.
Lauren was growing so fast that 18 months later needed a bigger pony and along came Cassie. A stunning part bred Arab which was the prettiest thing I had ever seen and she jumped like a stag this was the start of Lauren's competitive career as she was never out of the 1st 4 at shows jumping courses of 2ft – 2ft 3 aged 9/10.
Sadly due to complications with traveling in a horse box (basically she just plain refused to!) Cassie was sold to a lovely family in Scotland where she will give joy to 2 little girls for many years.
Abby arrived with us in February 2008 a Dun Connemara x Arab at 14.2hh.
What can I say about Abby except she is the safest most reliable pony I have ever seen, she is brave, clever and absolutely stunning to look at, it’s a shame she can be pretty grumpy to be around, lol.
Abby was what we call a school master having done everything and competed at quite a high level herself, she was perfect for Lauren as although talented she was a very nervous competitor and never really wanted to progress, Abby changed that in 2 months, Lauren was riding cross country courses and competing at 2ft 6 and 2ft 9 in a very short time.
It was at this point that we decided that Lauren was good enough to progress to the next level and entered her at some big shows including a 3 day show at David Broome’s in Chepstow. With over 60 experienced old and young kids in the class my words of advise were “just go in there and enjoy” Yeh right!! Lauren went into the lead at an early stage and stayed there until the last rider beat her time by 300th of a second, This happened again in the next class and Lauren had the most amazing weekend being placed in top 4 in all 4 classes.
That was the start of it and during summer of 2008 clocked up a massive 70 placing of 1st – 5th with limited shows thanks to the wonderful British weather.
I am immensely proud of Lauren and Abby having progressed to 1 meter and 1m 05cm by the end of the summer. She competed in her 1st Derby (banks and water), qualified for the pony club championships, qualified for the Shires Welsh rider final where she was placed 1st out of 65 in the warm up class, she also qualified for the Championships of GB on several occasions throughout the summer.
We have some stunning pics of Lauren (below) which were taken by Allen of AGC photography, he has kindly allowed us to use his pics but please visit his site using the link below he is an excellent photographer who has a fab personality.
Who knows what the future holds for Lauren all I know is I’d better start saving!!!
Horses