Lows and Highs

Rosie is not the only mare in my life....there is also the little black mare called "Coco". She is the other apple of my eye whom I bought as a 3 year old with my 21st birthday money all those 5 years ago. Coco was (& still can be) a tough little cookie. My time was divided equally between Rosie, Coco and any other horses who passed through. March 2009, we were jumping some walls out the field and disaster struck. Coco spooked at something and reared up and fell back on top of me....leading to a halved collar bone and severe hemarthrosis in my leg. That put a swift stop to my riding for a considerable amount of time. Coco went into the bad corner and was taken on by some friends to keep this fresh little maggot working while I tried to recover. In the meantime Rosie had well deserved long break for a few months. During my recovery I decided to treat myself to a brand new John Whitaker saddle. Throughout all this time I was studying in UCD. Sitting in Simmoncourt stables finishing my exams with one arm, little did I think the next time I would stand in those stables I would have Rosie in my right hand.

Recovery was extremely slow with me placed in a back brace and mentions of surgery. Each time I went for a checkup the first thing I would ask the consultant is....when can I get back at the horses....never given an answer. As I began to heal I would sit up on Rosie to get myself back to action. She was such a lady and minded me every step of the way as if she knew I was hurt. The first evening I sat up I had my new saddle on and it felt amazing.....it was like going from a little Micra to a Roll Royce! I gave her a trot around and then a gentle canter. Everything felt great. Then Mary stuck in a cross pole, up we went and no problem we popped over it (which was great considering I was holding on with one arm). I asked Grace to sit up on Rosie to give her a few right jumps and up she jumped....down to the jump....BANG.....on the ground....hated the saddle. Then Mary put Rebecca up.....down to the jump....BANG.....on the ground.....hated the saddle. Rosie was only delighted to have the girls riding her properly and felt so happy with life that she was bucking them off (even to this day the poor Whitaker saddle is hated!!!). So all in all Rosie was my road to recovery and each day we took things a step further and went on again to win the winter league in Galway Equestrian Centre. 

This leads the story to 2010 where I was fully recovered and Rosie was in tip top form. Although we had occasionally thrown the idea of the RDS around the table we never fully committed to the idea until a certain project caught our attention. A retired racehorse was the center of media attention as he had been rescued and was aiming to go to the RDS in August 2010 with the help of sponsorship. Highgrange began to follow his story on Facebook and watch his vlogging (Video Blogging I believe it is called). It was so interesting and really heart warming to see this fellow get a second chance at life through the help of these people who were going to invest so much energy and time into. We all became addicted to his story. Each week another update would be published and he would be the topic of discussion over a cup of tea after the riding was done in the yard. He lit a fire our bellies and then there is was....on the 25th April 2010 it was decided....Rosie was on the road to Dublin.