Dear Diary
I had so much to tell you about my week…
I’d been out fun hacking with mum and my main man Billy, which was amazing; I’d done more jumping with Aunty T, which was fab; and even uploaded videos of me doing a minor amount of poncing onto my facebook pages.
I was going to moan about the fact mum let Aunt T give me a haircut and then PLAIT me like I’m some sort of girlie Barbie horse, which has left me having to walk about with a bucket on my head to hide the shame.
But I can’t.
Because it wouldn’t be right, not after the other events of this week. After we were given a poignant reminder of how precious life is and how suddenly it can be taken away. As I even type this I am still in shock, but tragically I have to tell you all we have lost my wingman Hot Stepper this week. He laid down for a summer snooze and fell asleep for eternity.
He was only a few years older than me, more talented than I can dream of being in a million lifetimes, and had gone some way to mending the hole Fit Mare had left in his mum’s heart.
There aren’t words for how shocked we all are, but it does seem that life can be very cruel sometimes.
As I stand here in the field looking for a friend who will no longer come, I can smile as I think he’s probably with Sid, Bertie, Fit Mare, Arnie, Timmy and all the other horses we’ve loved and lost, teaching them all how to river dance in heaven.
So as I always do, I have written him a poem — my attempt to say goodnight to my wonderful high stepping friend:
“Sleep tight my friend, in peace now be
You’ve left us all behind, so suddenly
We were robbed of the chance to say goodbye
But you knew we were friends, you and IYou were my wing man, partner and friend
And we’ll meet again at my journeys end
For now you’re at my shoulder running free
Wherever I am, you’ll prance with meSo rest easy my friend, I’ll comfort them here
Your friends and your mum, who held you so dear
Like all of us horses, you were only on loan
And your time had come, god wanted you homeSo when I tell your mum to listen, to open her ear
Softly whicker beside her, to tell her you’re here
So when I tell her to look up high in the sky
Bring your spirit closer as you canter byYou’re now over the bridge, on the other side
With all our beloved friends who’ve ever died
So I won’t cry you friend, you’ll be back someday
When my time has come, you’ll show me the way”
In loving memory of Dino “Aka Hot Stepper”.
Hovis
