I have been riding since I was about 14. My parents were too poor to buy me a horse of my own so I had to wait till I could hold down a weekend job. I sold fruit and veg from a road side stall for 12 months before I had saved enough money to buy my first horse.
I had a break from horses while I was at Uni but as soon as I had a steady job I bought Scarlet, a first cross quarter horse mare. She was only 18 months old so I waited till she was 3 then with the help of her breeder broke her to saddle. She was competed in Quarter horse events, Stock horse events [after being classified], camp drafting, eventing, and even a couple of hunts. We had heaps of fun together. I even bred a couple of foals from her when she was 6 & 8.
Various other horses came and went but Scarlet always stayed. I promised her that I would never move her on and that she would have a home with me for life. In 2000 we decided to breed her again. We wanted another filly just like her. Sandi arrived and is now Darren’s fabulous mount. As Sandi wasn’t the filly we wanted we decided to try again. The next year [2002] Neon arrived. He was so pretty I thought he was a filly but alas he was a boy! By this stage Scarlet was 22 yo so we decided to give it away and be happy with the boys. And now they are our Dressage stars (well in our eyes at least!)
