10 years ago, my gateway drug back into horses was this 👇 rescue racehorse from the sales.
She’d raced til she was 7 and bred every year for the next 11 seasons…and with $700 in earnings and the conformation of a giraffe, I imagine it was solely because she had a uterus.
Anyway, muggins here bought her from Facebook and learned very quickly that she was physically broken (not quickly enough to stop persisting with more rescues, it seems 
)
I rode her a few times.. Which wasn’t great.
And even though the riding bit didn’t go so well, it did kickstart a passionate yearning to have horses in my life again.
This was 👇 our first ride… Neither of us had saddled up for over a decade – a bold move, indeed.
Anyhoo – within a few months her physical ailments made it pretty obvious that she didn’t want to be ridden.
(❗I need to insert here that I didn’t willingly purchase an 18yo TB broodmare as my re-entry horse.. She was advertised as a 12yo stockhorse – wasnt til she arrived and I did a brand search I found her details)
So I sucked up the error of my ways and found her the most wonderful retirement agistment… It had shelter belts, fodder trees, dams, gullies and all the things that a horse would want.
Then in 2020, her time was up.. so the agistment owners arranged for her dignified dispatch with a high powered rifle and she was laid to rest on the property.
********************
IN the following years, I’d often think of that property while I was planting trees and trying to make my own horsey haven.
That glorious place was etched into my brain… without a post and rail fence, nor a man made shelter -it was perfect for exploring and horsing – not standing at the gate.
Then in 2023 a bushfire threatened my small acreage.. which was surrounded by land bankers and bludgers who gave no fucks about their land.
The serrated tussock was waist high on three sides which was like being surrounded by a large moat of kerosene…
At the time I had 5 horses and a 3 horse float – which prompted the torturous choice of which ones to leave behind.
Later, when the fire was controlled (and I was still nicely heightened) I had one of those huffy puffy moments and said “Fuck this” I’m moving… which was absolutely not the plan.
But I flopped on the couch, flipped open my laptop and did a search for real estate.
“ANTHONY!!! THE PLACE! THAT PLACE! THE MAGICAL PLACE IS FOR SALE”
Nek minnit, I’d dragged the poor bloke to Kyneton while my eyes spewed love heart emojis all over the joint.
Of course, a mild inconvenience was the $3million dollar price tag… made somewhat more challenging as I had a few hundo in my account.
But as any woman tasked with the impossible (said with full awareness of my privilege) I said “it’s just got to happen”.
I had some inheritance from my Dad tied up in trusts and promptly sold my property… Knowing that would leave me more than a million dollars short.
But with more determination than logic, I barged forth.
I’d meditate, I’d manifest and sniff the wormwood I pinched from their garden, getting gradually more frantic because I’d sold my own small farm and had nowhere else to go.
But with 5 weeks left before we moved into a motel and my animals were agisted…my offer was accepted.
It had taken 5 months and during this time, I’d haggled and I’d haggled hard… I even resorted to saying “I want you to know that I will love this place” which is like sending a sample sized pack of jelly beans for goodwill.
Then, when the time came for changeover, I said awkwardly “Um, you won’t recognise me – but my horse lived here and you euthanised her. Could you tell me where she is please?”
This spot shows where she rests…And I’d like to say that I come here for woo woo rituals- but mostly I dont.
I usually just zoom past doing all the jobs.
But every now and then, when things aren’t too crazy – I sit with her.
I spend a minny remembering her getting off the truck, skin and bones and how she reignited my love for horses (when matching saddle pads were the height of welfare)
But mostly I remember that indignant, difficult, opinionated chestnut mare and how she brought me here 🙏
