I remember as a kid being absolutely drawn to horses, but I never really understood why. I have been asked the question, why horses a few times, but I could never really answer.

now that i am a little bit older, im starting to find out why horses have been such an important part of my life. Each horse that I’ve worked with has been able to teach me something different, especially my first horse I ever owned- Ollie.

Ollie had been sitting in a paddock for two years and the owner decided to sell him. I remember going out to see him for the first time and riding him around the small paddock. Everything was easy with him, and he was very willing to do everything I asked of him.

I didn’t want to show too much enthusiasm when it came to the purchase, but I guess im pretty easy to read. Plus I came back everyday for 5 days and then decided that I’d take him home.

Ollie was sold to me as an out of work 21 year old Throughbred gelding. He was delicate in his make, and was very plain, a bay with a white star and maybe one hind white bit.

I purchased him for 800 dollars with his saddle, that apparently was fitted for him. Turns out he was a schoolmaster and had even evented in his day to 3*. I am still not really sure why I got such a good deal, but I was not complaining.

Like I said before, everything i did with Ollie was easy. He gave me more and more confidence and trust in him, because he always did what I asked him to do. I self loaded onto any float, he stood quietly for the farrier and for me to saddle him, he tied and ate up his feed with no issues. I even led him from my car a few times. He would jump anything you pointed at, do automatic flying changes and was easy to gallop and come back, with just the lightest of aids.

there were only two things I couldn’t do with him. Ride him bareback, and worm him. That was okay.

Now, when I look back, he was the absolute dream horse but also he was able to give me confidence in him and his ability, which in turn lead me to trust him deeply. When you can trust a horse with your life- like i did with Ollie, your able to give a special part of yourself to that horse- your heart. When you give your heart to your horse, he gives you his body.

back then I didn’t even have to think about it. It came to me as natural as breathing. But when Ollie passed away in a paddock accident, it changed me. It made me brace. I built up walls and didn’t feel like I could really let them down. And I carried the brace of his death with me for such a long time, I’ve only just recently been able to pick it up, and look at it for what it was- and that’s okay.

Horses really do come into our lives exactly when we need them the most. And in came Luna. I had settled into Australian life quite well, and was really enjoying working with the weanlings and yearlings in the barn I was at. Then COVID -19 happened and life as we knew it changed for maybe the not so bad after all.

I lost my job, along with my accommodation, so I needed to find a job really quickly. Fortunately for me it didn’t take too long and I had two jobs to choose from. One was a full time, permanent position for as long as I wanted on a newly established property in the area. The other was working for a very established company with a good name and reputation, but it was just for the breeding season.

I ended up choosing the latter, because it paid better and if I didn’t like it, it wasn’t for too long so I’d be out in a few months.

one day at lunch, we were all just talking and I was just saying to one of my work friends, that I was looking for a project. She actually mentioned there were some long yearlings at the other end of the farm, so on our lunch break we drove over.

we got up to the fence line of the paddock, and the little herd of horses, came rushing over albeit with a little hesitation if we got too close. That’s when I saw her for the first time and I got this feeling in my gut that I already knew this horse, I just couldn’t put my finger on it. She was curious, but wouldn’t come up very close and was using her friend as a shield, so she always had space of another horse to protect her and I couldn’t even touch her.

The very same afternoon, I decided to visit her by myself. Gosh she was stunning, this little bay filly with the most deep black points on a bay I’ve seen, a cute little head and two blue eyes that were on high alert, almost the entire time. I just knew in my soul, I had to help her.

So the next day I inquired about her, making sure I didn’t sound too interested. My boss agreed for me to take ownership of her, I later herd stories of how she was the most difficult horse to handle. But I was happy and my boss sure was happy to have her off his hands.

now, i had this long yearling filly that I had to convince to catch. It wasn’t super hard, because the horses weren’t on much grass and she was very hungry. So I used food to encourage her. Turns out she would become food aggressive for a little while after that, but I was able to give her consistency in having a feed everyday, and it definitely disappeared, quite quickly.

A friend of mine who had a horse float, helped me load her up on the float. Interestingly she got on straight away to my utter surprise. I was glad to get her off at the other end, settle her into her pen next to her new herd which she stayed in for a few days before tipping her out. Yeah, I tossed her out with her new herd, knowing she was hard to catch. What I didn’t realise is this is the best thing I could of done for her and our relationship. Because it didn’t take long for me to build her trust in me. I would turn up everyday, twice a day and feed her and then she would decided to spend time with me, or not. It didn’t matter because I was present and being near her back then, was enough. I left my ego at the door