My wonderful Violet! By Jordan Probert
I
n 2017 I was given an opportunity to move to the wonderful New Forest and was surrounded by my true passion, horses!
My wonderful boss Tania had found a very large pony wandering around our car park, on the brink of being put to sleep because she was so unwell; starved to almost death, covered in flees with a traffic cone round her back leg. She wasn't chipped and nobody came forward to owning her.
The minute I saw her, I looked into her eyes and fell in love with her story; it was clear she was broken and suffering. My first memory of violet was watching her trot, she has the most natural beautiful trot I have ever seen, even though she was thin, scruffy and angry with the world.
I spent 6 weeks walking her in hand around the forest and understanding her life. Don't get me wrong it's been challenging the whole way through, and every day has its moments! It soon came to my attention that she was just too head shy to even have a bridle on, so we tried to find her a home where she could have a companion and a stress free life. It broke my heart, the thought of losing her, but I needed to put Violet first.
She gave me a whole new look at life. Aſter about two months of walking her in hand, I decided to drive to Birmingham and pick up all my old tack from my horse that passed away. It wasn't the best, but it fitted.
The day I came home she was giving me a look of love; I knew I could trust her. It took me an hour to just build her bridle on her head (I still do to this day). People think I'm mad, but it’s a stress free way and now it takes me just a couple of minutes. That saddle then went on, and so did I! Not a hoof wrong. She was perfect. We would go jumping, cross county and I even hunted her. Sadly, it all went down- hill very quickly when work made me move.
In 2018, sadly I was moved back to Somerset, taking her with me. Violet started to have panic attacks. I had the vet look her over and there wasn't much we could do. I would go out riding and she would freak, the screaming she would make was unreal. I had her looked over head to toe, but they all said the same thing ‘it was a severe case of anxiety’. People told me she was being naughty, and she soon picked up the nick- name of being the ‘Nappy Appy’ on the yard. Everyone was trying to give me advice, telling me to tell her off and that she was no good, but I knew her better than anyone so I kept persevering. I'd get off and calm her back down. Every time my boyfriend would walk by the side of her whilst I rode her she would be fine. The second he would walk off, she would freak.
I had so many people asking me why? Why pay for a bad horse; it costs the same to keep a good one? I knew however, she was just having a hard time.
Next, I became very ill myself and was in and out of hospital. Without her, I would never have gotten through what felt like my darkest hours. She was the reason I kept going, and always will be.
Aſter three months of being off sick with poisoning of the blood stream and not being strong enough to ride, I gave her the same time off to recuperate. It did her the world of good. Once I was back in the saddle, the girls at the livery yard planned to go to a local show and asked me to join, so we did. I had never done showing in my life, but she loved it. It
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Above: Was broken and suffering. Below: Happy and healthy.
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