6th October 2010

Charlot's last day in Shetland!

A few month's back a friend offered to take Charlot, so that I could concentrate on getting better.

Realistically, it is the best option and Jo and I have talked endlessly about what would happen this winter.

Charlot is the only one who wears a rug and I often find it undone with straps swinging. To ask Richard, my partner, to try and catch Charlot to put his rug right, is impossible. If Charlot doesn't want to be caught, he won't and he pisses around the field with straps everywhere being difficult. I would be told and could do nothing, lying in bed with my enforced post-op bedrest for 2 months. I would then worry about the cold getting in, Charlot being miserable and the rug getting more damaged. Not a very good plan imho.

So, when this offer was made, I casually thanked my friend but as the reality of back surgery arrived, my surgeon (and mother) made it very clear that they expected me to have no more dealings with my horses and ponies for a very long time. Grudgingly, this does make sense. How can I get better, how can the bones re-grow and the healing process happen if I am worrying, taking risks and trying to catch Charlot? I want to get better and get him back. I am no use to him like this.

So, I after seeing my surgeon and having the no-horse lecture, I rang my friend and said "you know this offer you made to have Charlot ....?" in a hopeful tone, and she sweetly said "send him when you want!"

Luckily a friend of hers has bought 2 of our ponies as well so Charlot will to start to live with them. She is a certified equine Sportsmassage Therapist and Rolfer (?) and I think Charlot will have landed on his hooves with someone who can understand his needs to trust and work totally with body language.

The more I think about this, the better I think it will be for Charlot to broaden his horizons. He tolerates other people but he trusts Jo, Daisy and me 100% which is all very well but he has to learn to talk to other people too and to work with them sensibly. He needs to see the world and to stop dining out on his "poor-me" life story.

So we loaded them all up (he marched straight in), and we drove slowly to the ferry terminal. We unloaded them and led them through into the byre. Charlot was very relaxed, didn't remember this place from when he arrived a few years back and happily munched on the hay provided, making friends with a very distressed foal next door.

I was happily surprised. It will be a smooth crossing. His new keepers are under strict instructions to photograph and tell me of his every movement. Let's see what this brings.

I have done this for Charlot first and foremost. Shetland can be harsh in winter. I cannot be there for him. Jo has the stallion and bebbies and lives 4 miles from me. The roads can be blocked for weeks. If I can't help Charlot, it is not good. We have cut back on our number of horses, selling many of our training stock. Those we have kept are all self-sufficient (read fat!) in the winter and hopefully will be fine in fields full of this year's ungrazed grass, with hay for emergencies.

It is hard not to feel that I have failed him now, just as we are beginning to see a light at the end of his tunnel (or is it through his ears?) but needs must when the Devil vomits in your kettle and there is no one to hold your hair back!

Make me proud, Charlot!