Edwin

A recent acrylic canvas of Edwin, painted by my daughter.

Edwin my old boy, the herd leader.

There are many stories etched into my pshyci that involve Edwin, this is just one.

He is a beautiful horse, fast, very very fast, he won a race at Lingfield Park Racecourse by 25 lengths many moons ago, kind, talented, intelligent but a completed head case in certain situations.

He has been my friend for 24 years and I have ridden him less than 40 times in all those years. When he gets upset he is capable of doing anything, but he would never hurt you intentionally.

One day all the horses were milling around the yard, all loose, as they usually were. I walked up behind Edwin, I know all the books say that you should never walk up behind a horse, perhaps they are right, but I had done it for years before and have done it ever since that day. Edwin mistook me for one of the other horses... he kicked out. He then caught a glimpse of me out of the corner of his eye, as soon as he realised it was me he pulled back his kick enough so that it was just a feather like touch on my leg, not the bone braking thump that I thought I was going to receive. I was amazed at his ability to control himself so well at his age... he is 30. I did not tell him off, raise my voice or act in an angry manner, to tell the truth it all happened so quickly there was not time to react.

Immediately Edwin felt so ashamed of himself that he went and stood at the other end of the yard with his face pointed towards the corner, he had effectively put himself on the 'naughty step', he must have felt so bad that he almost/could have hurt me. After a bit of gentle persuasion and a lot of soothing words he got over his shame and rejoined the rest of us in the yard.

From my experience animals feel all the same emotions as we do, but theirs are genuine and from the heart.

Not all humans can claim that unfortunately.

Ewdins' tale

It was another beautiful May day and my daughter, Sophie, decided she would take Edwin for a walk to The Green. Edwin had not left his home ground for many years, if you didn't count the times that he had escaped, well I hesitated to call it escaping as that would imply he was fleeing from a bad situation, it was more that he went on an adventure. He had visited our neighbors paddock twice, the village school playing field once, and the golf course on an outing with his two pals, Jack and Colin, that's about it really.

Edwin is a complex horse, you have to gauge his mood before you try to do anything with him, he is a male after all, even changing his rug can be tricky if you don't pick the right moment. He is not moody or temperamental, (got to be fair here... as some females might be) he's just sometimes a bit more highly strung than others. People see him and think he is a 'dope on a rope', a horsey expression for a very quiet equine, and he can appear to be that. But ask anyone who has spent an amount of time with him and they will tell you a different story. There are many tales that involve Edwin, some that I'm probably not aware of, as he was in livery for several years, and one that I would have to write using innuendo for it not to be X rated, which happened while he was on livery at a stud farm!

Well... back to this story. My daughter bought Edwin through the side gate to see how he coped with that, that could be a big thing for Edwin on a flighty day, all went well, he seemed calm. He then went through the next gate in just the same way... great we'd picked a good day for an outing for him I thought. They were now in wide open territory, no gates to keep him contained should he decide that it was all to much for him.

They both walked up the track, Edwin having the occasional munch of something green that took his fancy along the way, and still behaving like a gentleman.

Just before The Green there is a footpath that joins the Bridle Path... suddenly two cyclist appeared. Edwin was taken completely by surprise and reared, he is a 16hh horse, which is quite a big horse and rearing made him even taller. Sophie is only 5'3', and very petite in build, Edwin is not! The cyclists were shocked, and very kindly offered to wait until he had calmed down. He did settle after a short while and they went on their way, thankfully the opposite direction to that of Edwin and Sophie, and with a good story to tell when then got home.

When Sophie and Edwin arrived at The Green, which was only a few strides after meeting the bikes, my daughter was quite rightly concerned how he would react when he saw a moving car. When one eventually passed he did not flinch, he was more interested in the delicious grass that he was munching. Even the man in a house opposite The Green moving some large sheets of roofing did not bother him, which was most unusual because something like that would have normally freaked Edwin out.

After a short time of munching, for Edwin that is, not Sophie, a young lady, a lot younger than my daughter, led a small horse by. Sophie decided to let Edwin see that another horse was passing. (We had suspected that he had become a little deaf due to old age, or it could just have been him being a bit cantankerous and pretending he did not hear us call... another thing that can develop in old age! All our horses usually come to call, just like the dogs, horses are no different dogs if they love and respect you, it's just that most horses don't respect their owners, they go along with their requests and tolerate most human behavior towards them... but that's not respect. Gulliver's Travels tells a good tale about a role reversed situation with horses and humans, it's a very interesting book.)

As soon as Edwin saw the other horse he lost 'it', the mare, and I am presuming that it was a mare, (with all that Sophie was having to deal with... checking out the horses gender was the last thing on her mind) she must have been so beautiful to Edwin, and the potential love of his life by the way he reacted. He transformed into a wild stallion, neck arched, prancing and dancing and trying to get away from my daughter to get to her. The mare on the other hand continued to walk past as though nothing was happening... a real classy lady! (You cannot control a horse with brute strength, they have far more power than any human, it's technique that will enable a human to stay on top of the situation. Sophie had learned from an early age what Edwin required to keep him in check. She would place her elbow on his shoulder and keep his head slightly turned towards her... it worked every time. In less "exciting" situations a packet of Polos would do the trick just as well!) Edwin had been best friends with Sophie since she was born, and loved her dearly, sometimes more than me I think, well, he definitely had bucket loads more respect for her, he knows I was/am a push over in many ways. He has literally done it to me too, it was not exactly a push either, it was more of a punch and a trample!

By this time Sophie thought 'best to go back home'... so both she and Edwin, thankfully still together, headed back down the track. He was piaffing nearly all the way. Because piaffe is a non forward going movement the track took so much longer to get down, much longer than it would have if doing a normal walking stride, however slow the walk was! (Piaffe is a dressage movement that highly "trained" horses perform, well, that's what the "trainers" believe, all horses are capable of doing it, it's one of their ways to show off, but some humans in their arrogance think that they "teach" the horses to do it. When in fact all they are teaching the horse is that they would like them to perform it on command, just like anything else a horse does for a human.... communication is the key.)

When the pair reached home, no more than several hundred yards, but it must have felt like miles for Sophie, Edwin was soaking wet with sweat. I expect Sophie was a little hot under the collar too, but ladies do not sweat, they just glow. Edwin was so relieved to see his two horsey pals, who incidentally neighed to him the whole time he was gone... he did not answer them once Sophie told me... too busy enjoying himself! He rushed over to them, did all the things that horses do to say hello, then laid down for a long long rest. I expect he relayed the story to them a little later of what had happened during his excursion to The Green. Telling Jack and Colin of the 'beauty' he saw, but I expect the two greedy ponies would have rather heard about the grass and herbs he had eaten, or perhaps not... they might have got jealous.