I always wanted my own horse since I was a teenager, I finally got one when I was in my thirties.
Max was my very first horse we started to go on holiday with him and met a lovely lady who told us all about trec. We went to Flash on a training weekend and that was it we were hooked. We did trec to the top level as a pair, we travelled from Yorkshire all over the country, to Wales, Scotland and all the way to the South Downs, made some fantastic friends and had wonderful times.
As he aged, we used to show him and he won numerous local competitions, we had so much fun with him, he was amazing. I always thought Max was special and I would never find another like him. I started to look for another horse whilst he was still alive and travelled miles looking for one.
After 18 months of looking my husband saw a horse at a dealers, I was dubious, but we went to look, we’d been to this lady before and it was quite a way from us.
I’ll never forget, we turned up early, they’d only just got her out of the field and were bathing her, she was a coloured, with quite a lot of white and was filthy and didn’t look much. But fate had brought us together, we bought her and another at the same time for my husband. We had them vetted by our own vet and the lady even brought them to us.
She was everything and more I wanted in a horse, but she always loved to be dirty, just like the first time I saw her and her character was unbelievable, I couldn’t believe it, I fell in love with her.
The bond we shared was unexplainable, she looked after me so well, she rarely spooked, went passed combine harvester’s, tractors, bags flew up in her face. She didn’t bother, in all the years I had her, I only fell off of her three times.
She did trec, to the same level as Max, she also did riding club events and was on the team for combined training and dressage, for a coloured cob type. She did really well, through the horses we even met Martin Clunes.
Some of my most pleasurable memories were when my and my husband and his horse were hacking out together, but when we lost his horse it was just me and Duffy. When I turned up at the field, she would often call out to us.
We have been through thick and thin, 3 years ago she was diagnosed with problems with her hocks and she had ulcers, no problem for us we had to ride her through this. Managed to get this sorted then she got a rare front foot problem. This was the worst time of my life, we battled on together for over two years, during this time she had injections into the foot, was given medication twice a day, she was a fighter, you could see she was glad to be alive and our vet was wonderful.
Then a few weeks ago she lost her fight and there was nothing else we could do to help her.
I don’t have a favourite moment with Duffy because when something like this happens you realise, every single second and day spent with Duffy was extra special and precious.
I cherish every wonderful memory both good and sad. She meant the world to me and will be so truly missed and leaves such a big hole in my heart. But my beautiful bracelet you made, means both her and Max are with me all the time and let me reflect on the wonderful times we had together, she just went too early.
Denise, August 2020
