Introducing my sponsored rider, Sam Giles…

In June this year I was renewing my membership with Recommended Equestrians, while speaking with Diana, the founder of Recommended, she told me about their partner, LegUp For Talent, which is a sponsorship based programme for grassroots riders who have talent but not necessarily the backing they deserve.

At first I was a bit sceptical as I have sponsored riders in the past but for various reasons it didn’t work out. However, Diana assured me that the benefits would be far more assured with this programme, so I delved further…

You can read all about the programme here

Diana went through the members who were seeking sponsorship and came across Sam, when her name was mentioned I had a distinct feeling it may be fate, I had actually worked with Sam many moons ago when I was working at a riding school nearby… spooky!!

What had always struck me about Sam was not only her sense of humour, but her will to succeed despite being riddled with rheumatoid arthritis, which has affected her since the age of 4yrs old, being wheelchair bound for a long time, but Sam being Sam wasn’t going to be beaten and proved Doctors wrong and worked in racing, studs, riding schools, showjumping, eventing and livery yards!

In the paragraph below, Sam introduces herself, with details of her current rides and how she feels about being sponsored:

“Hi I'm Sam Giles and I am privileged to be Sharon Johnson's sponsored rider. I'm 30 (but if anyone asks please tell them I'm 29!) I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis when I was 4 and it affects most of the joints in my body so i am in constant pain and can find some aspects of riding a bit of a challenge, I did however manage to work in the equine industry for a number of years before the arthritis got worse and have worked in racing, studs, riding schools, showjumping, eventing and livery yards. My current horse is amber a 5yo ex racehorse who I bought as a 2yo straight out of racing, she was working at novice level (dressage) and had just started jumping when she injured herself in the field so when Sharon signed me up as her rider I was unsure if I would ever be able to ride her again however I was riding a young Spanish horse that I was kindly given the ride on by a good friend, poor Sharon probably wondered what an earth she had got herself into as my horse was uncertain and then I discovered I will need more surgery soon so I will be out of action for a few months. Fortunately, sooty has made good progress and amber is back in light work and I have with Sharon's help relocated my core muscles so once my surgery is out of the way we can kick on and get back out to some competitions and hopefully get to the ROR championships! I cannot thank Sharon enough for this opportunity and with Sharon’s extensive knowledge of the equine and human body I'm sure myself and amber will be better than ever.”

As you can see, she is one determined woman, who I felt deserved this opportunity.

Since signing on the dotted line, we have had several sessions with sooty who is coming along nicely, and recently Amber (who is “affectionately” called Moo(!).)  has returned to work so while Sam is out of action I shall be taking up the reins – pardon the pun(!) – and helping with her return.

 Sam has a page on Facebook which she updates weekly with her goings on, visit it here, and don’t forget to hit the “Like” button on the following pages:

Sam Giles: Facebook

Leg up for talent

Sharon Johnson Equestrian

Below are a few pictures of Sooty and Amber aka Moo!

Amber above.

 Sooty above, taken at his first ever competition.

The blog I never ever thought id be writing….

So, my last blog was 99% positive about Rocky and what was happening in his life, I’m sorry to say this one is far from that…

I’m going to keep this brief, and basic, to enable me to type! Here goes….

After a few weeks of shear joyousness at being back together with my best friend in the whole world, things started to deteriorate, and rapidly. I had a call from the yard to say Rocky was struggling to walk out his stable, so in a mad panic I dropped everything to go see, and well, to be honest he looked normal (?) so assumed he was a bit stiff, I had been following a very strict rehab programme, and had been in constant contact with my excellent vet – sorry Janette (!)- with anything remotely “odd” or “exciting developments” I had felt, however the old Rocky had been returning, was this unseen by me or did I not want to see this? I really couldn’t say, but his attitude had returned to him being naughty and ridden work was definitely taking rapid steps backwards, but I really didn’t want to be seeing or feeling these things, so had weekly visits from Sorcha to ensure his back was ok and obviously Janette to see what was happening, with alterations to his rehab programme as deemed necessary….

Things went from bad to worse one afternoon while doing some gentle exercise in the school, something we had been doing ok for ages, suddenly the spooking and high alert rocky was back and boy, did he mean it, I do believe I would have had a 10/10 for a few “well sat’s!!” and then to top it off, when I asked for a very quiet trot, something he had been finding harder but not impossible, the sudden stop – stand vertical- toys out the pram- returned, well my heart sank. This is exactly what I never wanted to feel ever again, but here I was faced with the same symptoms from day 1, I was heartbroken. Something I’d also noticed was the, now more often, collapsing of the hock, as if it suddenly went numb (?) even when not working, just walking to and from the field, but again, I think I was opting to think this was unrelated.

A swift call to Janette (again!!) followed after the ridden incident, and she agreed to come see him – again!- we had organised to do a ridden assessment, however once she had done flexions and seen him move, we had to accept that our efforts had been in vein, the joints hadn’t reacted the way we hoped they would and effectively we had used all our ammunition on the problem. He was in pain again and it was bad. We discussed the subject in depth and after a LOT of thought over the next few days, and so many tears I should have drowned, I agreed the kindest thing to do was let Rocky go to sleep, permanently. I never imagined id ever have to make this decision, not for the kindest loving horse I ever met, a horse who even after owning horses for 35 years I never had such a connection with, a horse who had been slowly trying to tell me our best efforts just hadn’t been enough so he had to behave the only way he knew he could tell me, a horse who for a few weeks was absolutely hoof perfect and the happiest he had ever felt, no not MY ROCKY.

On Wednesday 28^th June 2017 Rocky went to sleep, peacefully and without any fuss, “a perfectly behaved boy right to the end”, quoted from the vet.

The only consolation I can take from this whole sorry episode is that I tried my very best, as did my vet and physio, an amazing team effort, but sometimes our best simply isn’t good enough…

I miss him every moment of every hour I’m awake and I know there was nothing else I could do, but that doesn’t take away the pain of the emptiness left behind.

RIP my beautiful boy, I’m so sorry.