RAINBOW BRIDGE

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

Author unknown...

I'll lend you for a little while
My grandest foal, He said.
For you to love while she's alive
And mourn for when she's dead.

It may be one or twenty years,
Or days or months, you see.
But will you, till I take her back
Take care of her for me?

She'll bring her charms to gladden you,
And should her stay be brief
You'll have treasured memories
As solace for your grief.

I cannot promise she will stay,
Since all from earth return.
But there are lessons taught on earth
I want this foal to learn.

I've looked the wide world over
In my search for teachers true.
And from the throngs that crowd life's lanes
With trust, I have selected you.

Now will you give her your total love?
nor think the labor vain,
Nor hate me when I come
To take her back again?

I know you'll give her tenderness
And love will bloom each day.
And for the happiness you've known
Forever grateful stay.

But should I come and call for her
Much sooner than you'd planned
You'll brave the bitter grief that comes
And someday you'll understand.

-Author Unknown

Before we owned the stables my Dad bought me a shetland when I was sixteen months old! Her name was Poppet and we kept her in our back garden! She was very naughty and my Dad had to hold my leg as he led me for miles each sunday afternoon! After a couple of years we put Poppet in foal to a little black shetland called Nelson who had one eye! Poppet was put to sleep when she was in her thirties and Beauty died when she was twenty eight. They were the start of our love for horses and that is why we will always have a shetland at Shannon Leigh! Timmy our little black mini Shetland was given to us after Poppet was put to sleep to keep Beauty company!

Poppet was a liitle bit naughty with me an would try to roll so dad bought me a slightly bigger shetland called Blackie, we don't actually know how old Blackie was but we think he was well into his 30's when he was PTS. He was a sweet boy and I had lots of fun doing gymkhannas and fancy dress with him..His show name was 'The Black Midget' lol

As our garden was not ideal for keeping the shetlands in we rented a field which we shared with some friends called Julie and Peter Pethybridge! It was while we were renting the field that the land that is now Shannon Leigh came up for sale! Dad bought the land in 1968 and built the stables himself with the help of Peter and some friends! By this time I needed to go on to a bigger pony and my Mum and Dad with Julie and Peter drove me up to Yorkshire under false pretences of selling a trailer! We arrived at the stables of a famous showjumper of the time called Andrew Fielder who rode 'Vibart' who was a famous for his bucks as he was his showjumping! He showed us to a stable and in it was the most gorgeous little palomino Welsh section B pony laying down, he was called Goldie and I was allowed to go in and sit with him! He was the most lovely pony , not just in looks but a little angel! He did everything for me, from Prince Philip cup games to Dressage, from showing to showjumping! I owe everything to him as he taught me so much! He became ill when he was twenty one and lived on borrowed time until he was twenty seven and we had him put to sleep!

By this time Dad wanted to start riding! He had always loved horses and when he was a little boy his Dad had a haulage company and still had a couple of Percherons working along with the lorries! Everyday my Dad would wait in his front garden after school ( he actually wore a patch out on the lawn!) waiting for the horses to come past so he could ride with them back to their yard!
Dad saw an advert in Horse and Hound for a palomino horse, when he arrived at the yard to view the horse he saw a beautiful palomino mare! as he was waiting , the woman came up to him and said ' oh , this not the horse, he's round the back' Dad was disapointed when he saw the horse that was for sale and asked if the beautiful mare he saw was for sale? 'oh no' said the woman, 'but we do have her sister for sale!', My Dad ended up buying the sister 'Toddy' who was a beautiful Golden Dun, 16.2hh TB x Irish Hunter. A year later he was looking through the Horse and Hound again when he saw the sister he originally wanted and phoned up straight away and bought her! Her name was 'Honey'. Toddy was put to sleep at 28, and Honey at 29.
Dad put Honey in foal to a TB HIS stallion called 'Spare a Dime' when she was 17yo and she had a lovely bay colt who we called Dime. Dime was pts because of colic when he was 18yo :-(

As I was enjoying jumping more Dad bought my a JA Jumping pony called Mandy, she was such a good pony and really looked after me, I was only nine and she was 14.2hh and together we beat all the big horses! I was much braver then! :-) Mandy lived to thirty three. She was wise old pony with a heart of gold. She could open any bolt and would often let all the horses out the field, she was an equine 'Houdini'.

Once I'd left school and had found a job working for a vet who had Point to Pointers, I was bitten by the thoroughbred bug! And from then on my favourite breed of horse has and always will be the thoroughbred. I bought Jarva who at thirty years old is my foundation mare for most of the horses I have bred! The vet I worked for was called John MacIndoe, a small scotsman of few words, but with a big character! I must have driven him crazy as I would ask him questions all the time! He vetted Jarva for me when I bought her and I knew I had a good horse as he kept saying 'nice mare , nice mare!' and from him that meant a lot! :-)During my time working for Mac I looked after a horse called 'Mac Napp' (Plummy) he was named after Mac and the farm he was born at! I taught him everything while he was at Mac's and we had a great partnership! But he fell in his first race and after that would never eat up all his feed and for a racehorse thats not a good thing as without fuel in the tank they just don't run!!! Mac decided to sell him as he was not going to fit into racing! I was heartbroken as for two and a half years I had been the only one looking after him and riding him! I had already got Jarva and the ponies so didn't have any money! I begged my Mum and Dad to lend me some money and asked Mac if he'd let me pay the rest off when I had it! As I say he was a man of few words! he gave me a nod and said 'you look after him' I brought him home and he settled into his new life and was a fantastic horse, a brilliant cross country horse and won me a few affiliated newcomers and foxhunter classes! He was never lame or sick until at 23 he got colic and because of his age I didn't want to put him through major surgery! He was a one person horse who gave me his all!

Jarvas second foal was my much awaited bay colt! He was beautiful! he was special from the start! When he was only half born he was trying to stand up and I said ' she's had a monster, not a foal' I named him Monster Man as a nick name and it stuck. He was so lovely in everyway that I kept him a stallion. He was the most affectionate horse ever!my pride and joy! He was so laid back and I did all the disaplines with him, but he floated at Dressage! In the summer I used to turn him out at night time with Troy or one of the other boys and one sunday morning he came in lame. Three weeks later while up at Cambridge University he had to be put to sleep , he was 11, they couldn't tell me what was wrong even after all the tests, but I believe he damaged a nerve in his shoulder, probably from slipping over in the field, and because he couldn't feel his leg he could only stand on three legs. I miss him terribly as I do all of them! But I have fond memories that will be with me forever! :-) I've been told that when I meet them at Rainbow Bridge there will be a stampede!!!

And Troy's mum Needlepoint. I first saw Needlepoint when she was a Point to Pointer while I was working for Mac. Several years later I managed to buy her from the Riding School down the lane from me. This photo was given to me by John Window whom I bought Needlpoint from.. his hobby was Point to Pointing and the photo is actually of his horse at the time coming 2nd to Needlepoint in the winners enclosure. Maria Draper is holding Needlepoint on the left..her sister Julie rode her to victory :-)
Poor Needle was pts because of colic at age 27 in January 2003

And my beloved Sammy :-) Sam was a special one! He found me. A friend came round to ask me if I had a bag of pony nuts I could lend him as his cousin was a bailiff and had just repoccessed a horse..he was not horsey and owned a garden centre!I lent him the bag of nuts and later that evening got a phone call saying they had to leave him in the horsebox as he wouldn't go in the pig shed! I went round to help and found the most gorgeous looking hunter..clipped out hunting fit!!! I lead him to the pig pen (which was a huge shed) and he walked straight in for me :-) I spent the next fews weeks looking after him everyday. The old owner didn't pay his debts and he came up for tender..we offered £1500 and he was ours :-) I hadn't even ridden him but knew he was special..and boy was I right lol
I have no idea to this day what his registered name was or where he originally came from but who ever had him originally had done a very good job! Sam was the perfect gentleman in everyway and I had so much fun on him and did a bit of everything. Our best moment was coming 5th at The Royal Windsor Horse Show in the Open Working Hunter..it was a huge class..over 50 in it and all the eventers were out as well as the usual workers! The photo's below were taken a week after I got Sam at a local show, I bought the first one on the day of the show and the second one was given to me by my friend Clare Drury (who is on the grey) recently :-)
Sam had scaring on his near hind hock from an old injury before I got him and it develpoed into arthritus in his later years.. just before last Christmas 2005 in got cast in his stable and couldn't get up (he had trouble in the field during the summer too)..we tried for 6 hours to get him up and I had to make the decision to PTS as it would have happened again and I knew he could have really hurt himself if it were the middle of the night :-(

And of course not forgetting our dogs and cat. Charlie Orange a very cool dude, died after a short illness from heart condition in February 2004, he was half persian and was eleven years old. He was king of the yard and was the friendlest cat ever! And our beloved dogs Holly ( black) and Flanangan ( chocolate) they were brother and sister born on 14th June 1989, like Charlie we also had their mum Truly, she was a yellow lab, when she was 2 she had an affair with a springer spaniel, just before she was pregnant she had cancer in her mouth and had an operation at the Animal Health Trust in Newmarket, she was given the all clear but while she was pregnant it came back very aggressively. When the puppies were one week old (she had seven live and two stillborn)we had to have her PTS It was heartbreaking, but I had seven puppies to bottle feed and I found good homes for the other five and kept Holly and Flanagan! We lost Holly just before Christmas 2002 from Kidney failure and Flan the Man in August 2003 when someone accidently ran him over with a horsebox, one of the worst days of my life! There will never be another Flanagan! :-( My loyal friend. I miss them all.

Philip lost his Peggy last week (22nd Feb 06)
We had rehomed Peggy when she was 11yo and she idolised Philip. She was 15yo which is a great age. Philip is heartbroken :-(

It's taken me a while to be brave enough to write this but I lost my lovely Jarva on November 4th 2008 aged 34yo :-(
Jarva was born 19th March 1974 and I was very lucky to buy her when she was 6yo on the 14th April 1980.
She was my first horse (I'd had the ponies before)but she was mine to be responsible for and pay for now I had left school.
Dad paid for her with the understanding I paid him back £6 a week...lol yes you heard right £6 a week...well I was only earning £33 a week back then!...actually I think I still owe him some money!!!
Funny thing was that I decided for my first horse I wanted a 16.2hh 4yo 3/4 TB bay gelding and had been looking at adverts for that type of horse when I saw in the Horse and Hound a 16hh TB chesnut 6yo mare!...why I went to see her remains a mystery?...but something made me go and look ;-)
I'd just past my driving test and had only driven locally but decided I would borrow dad's car and drive myself all the way over to Chobham in Surrey to see her.
I can remember driving round a roundabout twice because he had funny indicaters on the steering wheel and I got all muddled up !
Anyway I went to see her and she was owned by a lovely family called the Murphy's.
Their daughter Kim had bought her as a 4yo from a girl called Valerie (who bought her as a yearling from her breeder John Mead)Valerie named her from the initials of her families names.
Kim found Jarva a bit lively to ride and that's why she was for sale. Mrs Murphy adored Jarva and for about 18 years sent me a Christmas card to keep in touch :-)
I absolutely fell in love with Jarva for two reasons...she was sooo gentle :-) and she moved like no other horse I'd seen...she wasn't schooled for Dressage but had the most amazing natural extended trot I'd ever seen!
When I checked her pedigree out I found she was bred to event not race and I was thrilled.
When I got her home I could see why Kim found her lively lol...she would shy at a bird and would wipe round so fast you'd be facing the other way in a split second....but luckily for me I'd been riding the racehorses and they'd taught me to sit tight!
I soon got her out of the habit and she also taught me to ride properly and see a stride to a fence...it's a big difference jumping a pony who sorts themselves out to riding a horse with a big stride.
I had lots of fun on Jarva..we did everything together :-) We came 4th in our very first BSJA show in a Newcomers, clear in our very first Hunter Trail (West Kent Hunt Open) and nearly always won Hunters Trails (she won a £50 at one Hunter Trial) and only did the opens!..she nearly always won the Working Hunters as well but only if the judge could ride properly lol..her trot wowed them everytime :-)
I bred her first foal Maddie when she was 13y..unfortunately Maddie got joint ill as she was a month premature but survived to carry on Jarva's legacy :-)Monster Man was born 3 years later (RIP MM) and Cassie 4 years after MM.
I owe sooo much to Jarva and miss her sooo much after 28 years BUT I have no regrets and no sorrows because I know she had the best life any horse could ever want :-)...she was loved and cared for her whole life and she lived it not only with her human family that loved her but also her horsey family too...she babysat the foals and to see four generations together is a wonderful thing...I'm very priviliged to see that and happy I could let Jarva spend her life with her children and grandkids...and great grand kids lol
Jarva will always be with me as her family are around me everyday.
Thank you Jarva you gave me so much and asked nothing in return xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx