Horsing around…..

I mentioned in my last post that I was off on a ship visit to see the Oceania Marina this weekend just gone.  I was going to write all about it but I now have a ship visit on 27th to see another of the Oceania ships (Nautica) so thought I’d wait and do a comparison between the two.  I have so much I want to say but I’ll wait.

Instead, I’m going to talk about my other passion aside from cruising – HORSES!  I’ve been horseriding since the age of 5 (I’m now nearly 32 – my birthday is in 7 days and I like Lillies just for the record) and couldn’t imagine my life without one of these glorious beasts in it.

When I took this one on, he was a bag of bones and really quite ill but I’m always up for a challenge.  He was a racehorse and had raced for years – despite only being 9 years old.  This was him the day I got him:

We had a tough winter – it was cold for a long time, it snowed for weeks and he got an infection in his leg which hindered his weight gain even more.    £700 vet bill later (thank goodness for Insurance)  the infection cleared up and after months (almost a year) of feeding him up and building back up his muscles, we have this – taken this weekend:

One very healthy, happy horse.  And I’m extremely proud of him.  Hopefully we have many (healthy) years ahead.

Ex Race-horses often come out of the industry with a lot of mental and physical issues of which I’ve seen first hand and therefore HATE the horse racing industry with a passion.

‘Oh, but horses LOVE to run’, people say.  Yes, they do, but not with a jockey sat on their back whipping the holy bejesus out of them for miles whilst jumping 7 ft high hedges.  How many horses have you seen galloping round a field of their own free will popping a hedge here and there?

‘Oh, but they’re well looked after’ people say.  Really??  Does the horse in the top picture above look like he was well looked after?  No.  He wasn’t.  And he’s not the only one.  He has permanent damage to his tendons in his front legs where he was raced before he was old enough.  He has mental issues (and I have the permanent ridge in my skull in the shape of a horseshoe to prove it but that’s a whole ‘nother story).

And lets not even get started on those that fall during the course of the race usually due to the sheer number horses trying to take a hedge at the same time or because they have a heart attack whilst running.

Animal Aid run a fantastic campaign to get horse racing banned and I’m all for it.  If horse racing is banned before I meet my end, I’ll die a very happy lady.