Riding school pony
In my early 20s, as a recently qualified riding instructor, I decided to open my own riding school near my home in Norfolk. It was a lovely little school, and I mainly taught children, focusing on confidence building and safety. While most of the ponies were ‘working liveries’, I did also buy three ponies. I actually got each of them by accident. I accompanied some clients to try out a pony. Humphrey was there, handsome and available, only two years old. I fell for him, so I bought him. I backed him myself and trained him in English and Western with the help of a friend. He is now 29 years old and doing well at the time of writing.
Tamworth Adventure
In 2000, after I had closed the riding school, I made the decision to move to Tamworth for a change of scenery, and of course, my ponies and my collie dog Danny came along with me. My farm cat Smudge had already decided to move in with the Mercers, who owned the farm, so he happily remained with them. A lot of people thought I was crazy to keep the ponies, but to me it goes without saying. Anyway isn’t it our dependants that keep us going , during the most trying of times?
As we began the adventure, I had rather an empty bank account, no job to go to, and I had £60 in my pocket which had been pressed on me by my dad’s girlfriend as I said goodbye ( ‘Don’t tell your dad’)
I drove behind the horsebox all the way over and it took about 4 hours. I was rolling the dice, while I had located a paddock in Polesworth where the ponies would live, I wasn’t sure where I and Danny would stay. My sister helped me by finding me a room and texting the details to me when I arrived. Once the ponies were ensconced and munching grass, we drove to Tamworth to find the address.
As we got towards the town, the car suddenly stuttered and died. I could have cried! I had to call a local rescue vehicle to take me to my new address. Little did I know it was less than 100 yards away! That was my £60 spent and now I had no vehicle.
I soon got the keys and was able to enter my lodgings, having dumped the car on the roadside. It was one room, complete with 80s decor, and the bathroom had a missing floorboard so you could sit in the bath and see down into the kitchen. My roommate was a Swedish man, who worked in IT and was also renting one room.
The following day I got the paper and began to search for jobs and signed up with a few agencies.
And that’s how our adventure in the Midlands began. Not the most auspicious start. The following weeks and months felt like a nightmare as I worked out how to get to the horses twice a day and to various job placements, and back to Danny at lunchtime on the bus. Once my car was fixed, I used to try to take Danny to work with me as I had in Norfolk, but that didn’t go down terribly well! This led to a whole summer working at a place giving donkey rides, which worked out well because I could take Danny along, and the owner picked us up. The downside was we got £20 cash for a very long day, usually 12 hours. One time, I had worked so long I was dead on my feet and somehow by the time we got home I had lost my £20 note, I was devastated!
Life in the Midlands
Anyway, we stayed here, and over the years the ponies have lived in quite a few different locations, as situations changed, but we have certainly managed. I remember at one point, they lived in a nice yard in Lichfield, and I took one full-time and two part-time jobs to cover the costs for us all. I used to finish at the call centre, race home, pick up Danny, race to Lichfield, sort the horses out in the dark, run as fast as I could, and then drive over to Congerstone to my pub job along with Danny. Rushing in the dark, I once accidentally caught a large sheep instead of my Shetland pony. Luckily both Larry the Lamb and I realised my mistake straight away.
When I look back now, it’s all a million miles and years away from my nice artist’s life here with Mark and our girls in the National Forest.
Happy ‘Retirement’
Two of my ponies passed away in their mid-20s. Danny lived to be 18. This year I moved Humphrey to a lovely yard only a mile away, and this is the closest geographically he has been since we all left Norfolk. I’m really enjoying having him on the doorstep. He is enjoying all the extra attention I am able to give him, and he has a field full of good friends.
