Horse Sense...

...the selling of a beloved horse should not be trouble free. The decision, in the first place, to part with the beast in question should itself be taken not lightly.

There is, shall we call it, the professional dimension to consider: if one feels that equestrian aspirations of top-notch dressage are not within its capacity, how confident can one be that the next nag would be any better? Never is there the perfect horse; they - as their riders - all carry some degree of imperfection and only time tells if there is a possible partnership that can develop to some level of acceptable harmony and performance. When you buy you simply don't know if it will work out well or badly.

Then there is the far more potent moral matter: having committed to cherish the animal on purchase, having grown quite to love the thing over five years, how could any other person be entrusted with its care? The vetting process for any new owner has to be utterly rigorous. They are scrutinised and quizzed, third-party information is sought and considered. Only then, when that can be as satisfactorily resolved as may be, is the horse to be submitted for its own vetting.

No one of course seeks to ask the horse if she would mind awfully leaving for another yard, another rider and another life. Impossible even to let the thing know that this is what is intended. Nature has not equipped the respective species with opportunities for mainstream communication. One has, therefore, to go by clues and cues, being sensitive to both but not sure of either.

Today though our mare has spoken out loud and clear what she thinks of the whole thing. Irked by the initial proding, not happy with the eye test in a darkened stable, clearly unsettled by the intrusive flexion tests; no sooner then had E mounted to show off her paces than we were all treated to the horror show of a wild, untamed mustang-like affair, all rearing and twisting and bolting, with E at once thrown to the ground in a pained heap. Horse then bucking its way round the arena quite out of control and all character.

E is carted off to hospital for check-up, potential buyer flees in tears, vet stands aghast and we are all puzzled to have seen something so dire and unprecendented.

Later check-up calls to the stable reveal that horse has resumed its habitual stunned-donkey nonchalance, quietly munching away without a care in the world and, presumably, thoroughly happy with her performance guaranteeing she stays just where she is.