The owner of a horse who broke a leg and had to be put down when a car collided with them on the road is organising an awareness ride she hopes will be a fitting legacy of her “best friend”.
Hope Jarvis broke her wrist when her part-bred trotter Holly died on the Dungeness Road in Lydd, Kent, on 27 July. She is still in a cast but hopes to be mobile in time for the ride, on 14 September in Bethersden, Kent.
“Rather than anger or revenge, I’m trying to channel all my grief into trying to do something to stop this happening to someone else,” Hope told H&H. “Holly was one of a kind and did not deserve to go like that. I feel if I can do something for her, I’ll have done her justice.”
Hope and Holly were out for a normal Saturday ride when they met a large number of motorbikes coming the other way.
“They were so respectful,” Hope said. “They all slowed right down, put their hazard lights on and got behind each other. She was a saint on the road, nothing fazed her, but there were so many of them, I think the noise made her a bit uneasy. I got her on the verge to let her see, and they all disappeared. But of course as they did, they got faster and louder and she got a bit agitated.”
Hope said it is a straight road, so she saw the car coming and tried to get back on the verge but Holly may still have been upset by the encounter with the bikes.
“The car went straight into her,” Hope said. “It broke her leg, and she had to be put down at the scene.”
Hope said the police did not prosecute the driver and she wants to raise awareness herself of the risks riders face.
“It’s not until something happens to you that you realise how often it does happen,” she said. “I’ve organised the ride and it’s just blown up; the BBC has contacted me and the British Horse Society has been in touch. I want to do something about how drivers see horses; I saw what was going to happen before it did and screamed at the driver to slow down but she said she couldn’t see me.
“The message I’m trying to get out is that people need to be aware, of what horses are and their natural instincts. And maybe we can get them to think twice.
“Accidents happen and this was a freak accident; as much as I could say it’s her fault and I’ve lost my best friend, it was still an accident and I don’t want backlash against the driver. I just want to raise awareness.”
Picture by Jem Pryke Photography
Hope has also been in touch with the council in hopes of installing warning signs on that road, in memory of the mare she had owned for five years.
“She was the first horse I saved up for and bought myself,” she said. “She wasn’t really anything I was looking for when I bought her but she went from being a horse who was scared of her own shadow to flying round Hickstead. She was just magical.
“She was a real mare; sassy and dominant. When I got her, she’d been passed around, then left in a field, but in the end she was the most trusting horse – she was an absolute diamond. I taught her to give me a kiss and a high-five, she’d follow me round the field. She just needed someone to understand her and prove her worth.”
Hope said she posted on Facebook when Holly “gained her wings”, and was overwhelmed with the response.
“I’m so glad I posted as I hadn’t realised how much she’d made an impression on people she’d met, or we’d been on yards with, and it made me feel better,” she said. “She wasn’t just a horse; that’s another message. You see all the time ‘It’s just a horse’ but she was my life. She was beautiful.”
Similar rides will be held across the country that weekend as part of the Pass Wide and Slow awareness campaign; at Hope’s, there will be a raffle and ice cream van, and numbers will be limited.
“As it’s an awareness ride for road safety, the last thing we want to do is block the road,” Hope said. “I’ve been blown away by the response, I think it’s something close to everybody’s hearts.”
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