An owner has credited the former racehorse she bred in helping her through cancer treatment. She now looks ahead with hope, to “new adventures on horseback” yet to come.
Michele Hill-Perkins’ journey with Waqaas dates back years before the gelding was even born. In 2012, she was part of a small group of amateur owners who decided to buy his dam, the retiring racehorse Red Mischief, as a broodmare for £3,000.
“The newly formed Red Mischief Partnership chose the then unproven stallion Showcasing to cover their mare. This decision was against advice to choose a “proven” stallion, but it turned out to be a fortunate one,” said Michele, adding the colt, named Waqaas, was born in 2014.
“He looked fantastic. His conformation and movement were superb. He seemed to glide along the ground when walking.
“We were delighted that he fetched £82,000 guineas at the Tattersalls foal sale in 2014. And even more so when, just nine months later, at the 2015 Doncaster yearling sale, his Yorkshire-based purchaser sold him to the Shadwell Estate bloodstock agent for £170,000.”
He spent time with Charlie Hills and Jamie Osborne and then in 2018, during his racing career, he came back into Michele’s life. She learnt that Waqaas’ previous owner was looking to sell him and, fortunately, she was in a position to buy him back as part of a new syndicate with her sister, a friend, and another member of the Red Mischief partnership, to be trained by Mark Usher.
In January 2021, Waqaas aggravated an old tendon injury and retired from racing with three wins from 30 starts to his name, as well as four top-three finishes and fourth place in the Group Two Richmond Stakes.
“There are so many retired racehorses. And they all need homes. Don’t all working horses deserve to live a decent life in retirement?” said Michele.
“Waqaas had a lovely, calm nature. Mark suggested that Waqaas might be a good candidate for retraining as a riding horse, if the injury healed. We agreed to look for a suitable home where he could be rehabilitated and then retrained if this was possible.
“I began to think that I may be able to keep him myself. I felt not only a bond with Waqaas but an obligation. I had known this horse since he was two days old and followed his career in detail.
“I offered to finance Waqaas’ rehabilitation when he left the yard and then planned to find someone who could retrain him, so that he could hopefully be ridden if his injury healed sufficiently. Then I thought that, maybe, that owner and rider could be me. The whole project was a bit of a risk, but I was determined to ensure Waqaas was looked after properly.”
Michele added that she had not ridden since she was a teenager and recognised that she would need to enlist experienced, professional help. She found the “perfect yard” for Waqaas to be rehabilitated and retrained, which was Radnage House Stables, owned and run by Irish Paralympic dressage rider Tamsin Addison.
Waqaas and Michele Hill-Perkins.
“Tamsin and her support team managed to rehabilitate Waqaas (renamed Waqqy) over the next few months. Meanwhile, I started to prepare myself by having riding lessons at Ham House, Richmond, in London,” she said.
In 2021, Michele was “thrilled” to ride her horse for the first time.
“Learning to ride had been quite an adventure, and I felt elated when I started hacking out in the glorious Buckinghamshire countryside. But just as I felt that I was making good progress with my riding, I had the devastating news in June 2022 that I had ovarian cancer,” she said.
“I had major surgery, then six rounds of chemotherapy. Over those six months of treatment, the few visits to Waqaas in his box and the occasional careful ride around the arena, when I felt well enough, were very important for my mental health and recovery.
“There is no doubt about the therapeutic power of horses. I always felt happy after I had been to the yard.
“Now that I have completed my treatment and am in remission, I am starting to recover and enjoy gentle rides around Radnage. The thought of getting back to riding has helped sustain me over the months of my treatment and recovery.
“The combination of horse ‘therapy’, the countryside and fresh air has provided me with a tonic that I hope will help drive me forward to new adventures on horseback.”
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