I got back in the saddle in my late 30's after 13 years of not riding - turned out there were a few of us 'Mummies' who used to ride so we all went on an amazing 2 hour hack (fast hack!) around Windsor Great Park - it was wonderful getting back in the saddle and it was just like 'riding a bike' got on and just did it! My God I couldn't walk for a week afterwards!! Anyway we then got let out of the house on a Sunday morning once a month, marvellous!
Roll on several years and I became unwell, unable to work too, so I joined the local Carriage Driving for the Disabled and loved it, BUT it wasn't quite enough, so at the age of 50 I finally got to have my own horse! I found to loan a beautiful old Gentleman called Sydney, who was 22 but had been there, done that, got the T-shirt but needed a quieter life. We just hit it off completely, he became voice activated for me and would stand for ages at the mounting block as it was a 2 man job getting me on and especially off! Didn't behave perfectly for anyone else mind, just me! Sadly, eventually it took me longer and longer to recover after each ride so had got some sharers sorted for him - a couple of days before we were about to move him however I found him VERY lame in the evening. It looked as though he had been playing and running up and down with the younger horses, so I gave him some extra Bute and organised the vet for the following morning. Sadly he went down overnight and couldn't get up - he had gone down beside a fence and we weren't able to roll him over - it looked though as if he hadn't even tried to get up, as he had been down before and had just needed a bit of a shove to get him to his feet .... I think he knew and had gone down deliberately in that place somehow?
He went with 9 of his best people around him, including his other Mum who I had called, with his belly full of his favourite things - pears, carrots, parsnips, apples off the tree next to his field and Murray Mints - the vet said she had never seen anything like it! It wasn't a pleasant experience, but it couldn't have been any better at all .....
I miss the old boy dreadfully, but it was sort of time for us both to give in He was such a character ..... his eyes were particularly expressive and said it all!