| Timba's Story |
| This Is Timba, she is the eldest at 9 (2005) and she is the "main" one. She is the one who does most of the driving etc etc. I bought her from a field in Lincolnshire when she was supposed to be three, she was 14.00hh and looked like she had just come off a tether. Feathers, mane to her knees but short tail. I didn't pay much for her and I later found out (due to her losing teeth) that she was in fact just over a yearling when I got her. I left her for three years before we trained her to ride and she was so good. We didn't really have much to do at all. In her 4 year old year, she competed in showing (winning everything) I took her autumn hunting, where she was so well behaved we were put on point duty. We went showjumping (not my forte) and still managed a second and a third, did a long distance sponsored ride, had a go at dressage (why are we going round in circles mum - don't like this) and generally had a play at anything and everything. One day, we were riding through the village, minding our own business when we were approached by a chap who had just moved into the village. He was from travelling stock and admired Timba and suggested that she would look good in harness. I replied that she would, but I couldn't afford to buy a carriage and harness if she didn't take to it. Wait there, he said, and disappeared into his lorry. He emerged a couple of minutes later with a set of harness. Borrow that, he said. So I did. Over the next couple of weeks, I long reined her round the village three times. On the third "Foxy", my traveller friend stopped me and said she was ready to "yoke up". I told him I had only long reined and not dragged anything yet. He dismissed this with a "she'll be reet" and put her to. She behaved as if she had been doing it all her life. I bought a carriage and set of harness and proceeded to train her further (not that she really needed much training) but she wouldn't stand still. I got nervous at road junctions so gave it up as a bad job. So that the carriage and harness didn't go to waste, I bought Tilly 'T' Trotter. A piebald traditional mare who had been there and invented the T Shirt. We had a couple of good years together but at a show drive, she broke down and was later diagnosed as having suspensory ligament trouble. The trouble was such that her fetlock was nearly on the floor and the vet advised that she should be on 24/7 box rest for the rest of her life, no play out, no foals and she should be kept thin to keep the weight off the injured tendon. Poor Tilly. I couldn't let her suffer like that, just waiting for the weight to finally snap that tendon and put stress on the other leg, so I made the hardest decision I have ever had to make, and she was put to sleep on 28th August 2003. This was a particularly bad time for me as I had lost a friend to suicide, my uncle John died, my father died suddenly, my mother in law fell down stairs and broke her neck and died 4 days after my father died. Then Tilly. Two weeks further on, my favourite uncle died suddenly and I found life just a little hard to cope with. I was so utterly devastated, I took Tilly's harness and put it onto Timba, and long reined her round the village.. Tbe next day, I put her to and have never looked back. Things have gone wrong since. My lorry blew up on the way back from only her second competition last year (2004). But, we bounced back, my new lorry (albeit a long time coming) is now up and running. Watch this space..... |
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