Unable to sleep and trying hard to hyperventilate quietly so that the rest of the household remains oblivious.
I feel sick.
I have just read the rules of tomorrow's competition and I have right royally fucked up.
Just how I am going to get out of this mess is anyone's business but its bound to involve other people getting pissed off with me, my rider son getting pissed of with me, my other son getting pissed off with me, my husband getting pissed off with me, me getting pissed off with me and rounding it off, George getting pissed off with me and standing all half tonne plus of glorious cob on my right foot.
Welcome to the joys of horse ownership without a manual...
To put you in the picture - because all good stories start at the beginning rather than a year in - I own a horse. It's my first horse and I wasn't really as prepared for all this as I thought. Perhaps if I had thought at all, I may never have started.
But would I not do it?
Would I not do it all again knowing what I know now?
Come on - that's a silly question!
Of course I would!
...I suppose.
It was about this time last year that I first got wind of George. I had after years - and I mean years of hoping and praying - got my husband to agree to a horse in the family. Both my eldest son Xav and I ride, and to say we are obsessed about it, is an understatement - ask my youngest son, who has been known to request politely that we 'cease and desist' from talking about horses and riding and grooming and horses, when we are all three in the car together, and he will tell you it lasts about two minutes - if you are lucky.
The BIG idea was that Xav and I would share a horse, which we would get on loan to see if it was at all feasible. I honestly don't think I got as far as thinking about feasible and was more interested in that fact that we would be getting a horse...
And that is probably where my troubles first started.
Where do you look to find a horse - a horse for loan?
With hindsight I probably should have waited, and waited and waited and kept on waiting until one came up that a) I knew about personally or b)I was introduced to via one of my coaches...
Don't get me wrong he wasn't the first horse I looked at or anything - I looked at loads and loads of horses...on line - but I will admit he was the first horse we actually saw in the flesh and rode.
His advert came up on Facebook via a friend who knew we were looking for a loan in particular. There he was this glorious hogged cob leaping with ears pricked forward over a hedge thoroughly enjoying a day out with the hounds. A cliche photo if ever there was one.
Utterly gorgeous.
Couldn't possibly go after him.
He was a cob!
My son did not want cob.
He would have feathers (hairy legs to you and me)
My son did not want feathers
He was a coloured (brown and white patches)
My son did not want a coloured
He was 15.2hh (roughly 5ft 1 inch at the shoulder basically allowing me to peer over if I stood on tiptoes)
My son wanted a 16.2hh at least (Basically a solid wall I cannot look over or under and requires a step ladder for me to mount)
So an obvious choice then.
But the problem was I had been talking so much about getting a horse to all who would stand still long enough - whether they wanted me to tell them or not - that eventually I got called out.
"Have you ACTUALLY been to see any of these horses?" says friend
"Well I haven't found any that are what we are looking for as yet..." says I. "I can find loads of sale juts not any for loan. They are all not quite right."
"Of course they are not quite right, no horse is quite right - just get out there and look at one. You'll never find the horse that's right for you by just looking at the photos and the write up on the Internet."
She was a tad bit exasperated with me I could tell; in fact a lot of my friends were...even on FB!
I hadn't quite realised it but I had been dithering and blathering for a lot longer that I thought! And as one FB message put it: "Don't just talk about it - DO it!"
So I did.
"We'll go and look at a horse, we won't have to take it if its not what we are looking for and its available loan, so if we do take it, and we don't like it, we can give it back. Yes, I know its not what we are looking for but to be honest we need to get out there are actually look."
Yep - famous last words...
Meet George...
