I stumbled across this beautiful girl whilst trying another horse to buy at the same yard. It was by pure chance that as we were just leaving, a man stopped us and said his girlfriend was selling her horse in the next barn and my friend and I thought "why not". As I got to the stable this equisite face appeared over the door and I was in love. She could have thrown me off and I'd have still bought her because she was simply the most beautiful animal I had ever laid eyes on. As luck would have it, she didn't throw me off (thank heavens she was huge), but schooled nicely and popped some jumps with such joy. I came back to try her on a hack the next day with an envelope of cash and after a lovely gallop across some rape fields, there was no question, for either of us. It was fate.
Fern was quirky, she was different in the winter to hack but I was never cross because she just loved life. As a showjumper she was a dream, she'd have done anything I asked. On one occasion a friend and I went to a show, but while I was getting ready to load I turned my ankle. But she was so excited, and my friend insistent, that we loaded up and I drove an hour away. The pain was intesifying but my friend gave me a leg up and said "we're here now, might as well jump". And so sweating and green, feeling slightly faint I managed to point her in the direction of the jumps and clung on as she flew over them. As I tried to leave the arena to quietly throw up the marshall said "get back in, last to jump, first to jump off". I was crying and incoherent by this stage, I think they thought I was drunk. But Fern knew what she had to do, even though mum wasn't helping much, and off she whizzed to a double clear with a big lumbering useless weight on her back. That was my most precious rosette when we were placed, and my ankle turned out to be broken.
That was my Fern, the most genuine horse in the world, who loved people and horses, cats and chickens. She was simply the happiest horse alive. Sadly, after a 7 year partnership with many a health hiccup on both sides, Fern became unwell and at 16, having tried everything we could, the vets said the only option was to cut her open and try and find something. I didn't want the pain, the recovery, the chance they couldn't do anything and she'd die horribly, because she owed me nothing and I owed her everything. And so on the 21st July 2015 I told her she was the best horse in the world for the very last time as she went peacefully away from me. They found tumours and damage that hadn't shown up in a scan during the post mortem, and they said they couldn't have done anything and so I knew I had made the right choice to see her off happily, stuffed full of apples. The vet took some tail for me, which I admit I slept with and cried into, until I heard about this wonderful place where custom jewellery could be made, and today my gorgeous bracelet arrived and I couldn't be more thrilled.
She was one in a million, and if I'd have taken her show jumping the day before she died, she'd have jumped her heart out. She didn't ever let on that she was in pain, and others doubted my decision, but when you know a horse so well, you just know, despite the cheerful whinnying and the daily trot over to me for her treat. I'll never forget her, and now I can take a piece of her wherever I go. Thanks again for the bracelet that I'll treasure.
Alex August 2015
