PLEASE FIND TIME TO LOOK THROUGH THE SLIDESHOW BELOW this shows Honeys little life
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We had the privilage of owning Honey for just over seven years, a life so prematurely cut short.
I first met Honey in 2002 at a livery yard I stabled my horses at. When I first saw her I immediately thought she was the prettiest pony I had ever seen in my life (and i've seen many!!!). I just could not believe how pretty she was, I thought straight away I would love to have her! Today, I have not seen one like her, her beautiful colouring, markings and face, after all, a grey is a grey, a bay is a bay, if you've seen one, you've seen them all (sorry horsey owners). Sadly, I had too many horses at the time including two ponies, one sports pony and one for rehabilitation none of which would ever be for my child Jessica. We looked after Honey on occasions for her owners as they were busy and their teenage daughter was doing her serious exams at school. One day at the livery yard her owner came to me and said " would you like to buy Honey"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!! I was so upset, Why??? because I couldn't buy her!!!!!We had too many horses, I couldn't justify having another. Not only that, with the way Honey was at the time, razzed around in a pelham as a teenagers pony she was no way a pony for my child, no way hozay , I couldn't justify having three ponies of which none were suitable for my 7/8 year old daughter. I had to let the offer pass. I hated it!!! I had to pass her every day hating the thought I could have her if I wanted. Some time later, they had sent Honey over wyre and sold her to a stud farm.
In the meantime we sold our jumping pony.
Looking through some equestrian adds three weeks after Honey had left the livery yard we were at, I saw Honey up for sale, bloody hell, the new owners had only had her three weeks!!!! I phoned up straight away, there was NO WAY on this earth I was going to let another stranger buy her! She was always destined to be ours i'm sure of it. Over the phone, the deal was done, I said to them I know the pony, I have no need to try her out and that I will pick her up in a couple of days! I was also told in that phone call she was put in foal! WOW! She had only left the yard three weeks ago and she was already in foal! The stud owner said if I wish, they could abort it for me!!!! No way! How cruel! Picking her up from the stud, I was in a state of shock to be honest. The stallion she was put in foal by was a 16hh!!!! rake!!!! The yard was a shit pitt and Honey was lame with an abscess. I didn't care, I just wanted her with us.
Bringing her back to the livery yard she was originally at, she shared the barn with our other horses. I immediately set Jess to her pony, one she could call her own, one for her to bond with and teach to be a slower kiddies pony. Straight away, Honey knew she had to act differently around this young girl. They hit it off straight away. Jess and Honey spent every spare minute of the day together. Their first ridden session had me pooing my pants, but Jess did lots of walk and halt transitions teaching Honey that it doesn't all have to be one speed ahead. Slowing Honey down was quite a long process, after al,l she was a fun razzing around teen pony. Not only that, when Honey was around 5-7years old she was a junior jumping pony and had been taken to pony club camps for weekends away by her little boy owner, after that, she became the razzing fun pony of the girls family we knew. She had always been a fast fun thing so Jess had a task to chill her out and teach her to relax. With Jess's soft calm light handed mellow style of riding, Honey did eventually go down a gear. Of course, I put her in a simple snaffle straight away, changed her tack to tack that fit her! And had the rider change the feel of the hand to the mouth, not being lazy using different bits for her to come down the gears.
Jess did all Honey's training, she was destined for this pony, destined for one to call her own and Honey was the one. It did take me years to allow Jess to canter her freely, but that really was down to me, I never trust horses! Especially with mine or any other persons child.Its just me. Honey would have looked after her, it's just I wasn't ready for it.
Building our own yard I allowed Jess and Honey lots of freedom, this is the point I allowed her to start having real fun on Honey so her and honey could whizz around safely.
Honey had become verbally responsive under saddle and did everything she was told. She became very well schooled and always remained in her tiny little simple snaffle no matter what activity or where. You could stop her out galloping on a field at hundred mile an hour using your voice first if you wanted. Honey was just fantastic at everything. Jess did loads with her, she was superb out hacking, she would be lead pony, last pony or a pony out on her own. Her last owner didn't trust her out in traffic she said she was a nightmare and didn't like taking her out. But with someone spending lots of time with her she became superb to hack out, one of her best things.
Honey always looked choppy and fiesty to look at but she wasn't, it was just her way. She could appear to look fast and furious but it was just her way, she was safe and extremely stoppable, she just looked bonkers at times. She had beautiful Welshy extravagant paces in serious work or natural but her ordinary work was potty, choppy and bunny like, weird to watch, but that was Honey, she didn't want to look or be the same as all the other little ponies lol. If you watched her ridden you would not want your child on her lol, she just had that nuts look about her like she was about to explode lol but she would never in a million years. If I went to look at her as a pony for my daughter and didn't know her, there would be no chance in hell my child would be sitting on her, she had THAT kind of look about her awwwwwwwwwwww. That's judging a book by it's cover in a big statement!
Honey, was that needle in a haystack childrens pony. One you would have to search far and wide to find and one with extreme good looks to top it too.
Sadly, Jessica outgrew Honey, it was so sad to see. Jessica always remained sad that Honey was too small for her. Jessica had also grown into the typical teenager that had 'another' life outside horses. I encouraged this side of things as there was no point Jess going to stables every day to be sad she looks daft on her pony. Jessica always remained Horse mad but had nothing suitable to ride. Because Honey loved children and lots of work and fun, I put a little advert on line for a child to come and have Honey on loan at home a few days a week. A couple of children came but they just weren't right. One wasn't even willing to do the 'trial' bit, the 'getting to know her' bit, 'to see if they were suitable' bit, they just wanted on and to bomb it across the fields, sorry .... but not a chance !
I then had a little note from a mother of a lovely little pony mad girl,it said they didn't live too far either..... surely that was too good to be true? As it worked out, this child became Honey's new adopted mummy of which she remained her adopted mum until yesterday, the day Honey died. Her loan family had her on loan at our yard for quite some time and were so dedicated, you couldn't have asked for more, they were perfect!!! Yep!!! IF I was ever to part with Honey, they would certainly have been the family, I had always told them that! The thing with 13hh ponies, is that their rider always outgrows them!
Her new family had to move away to Lancaster where a new opportunity in life was awaiting them (see other blog-Honey's move). This proved a dilema for them, they knew I wouldn't allow Honey to leave and they didn't want to give her up either..... but, when they asked me I decided I would. I didn't want any one else but them to have Honey, they treated her like she should have been treated, they loved and respected her and were never awful with her, with Honeys little looks and ways, some people in the past have found her offensive, she has a mare thing of sometimes putting her ears back, she did this before we bought her but it means nothing, she was ever so harmless. That's the trouble with people, horses are horses NOT people! if thats their way, then thats THEIR way!
We took Honey to her new loan home late August 2010, it was heartbreaking for us, we missed her instantly, I was very reserved about it because of putting my own pony out on loan as a young girl, but Honey would have lots of fun and her pony mad adopted mummy was so happy, it is so rewarding that your pony is giving so much love and fun to another child like she did for my own and our family's children.
I visted Honey last month, she was so cute (see previous blog for photos and update). I would never have known that just within weeks, something could take such a dramatic turn. What is it about horses that leave me!?
25th March 2011, Friday morning I received a phone message that said Honey had a nasty accident in the field, to tell you the truth, I didn't really hear the rest, I didn't take in what was said and didn't take in the seriousness of it by any means. I was at work on a break, a place that there is a 'no phones' policy, her adult loan mum said that the vet needs to contact me, I wasn't sure what was going on, I seemed to be miles away more worried about how the hell I was going to be allowed a phone carried around the building for phone calls. Anyway I put the phone down, I walked into the office said " I have to go home, I have an emergency I need the phone on me all day and with it being a no phones policy here, I have to go", it wasn't an ask to go thing, it was I'm a going thing! This says to me, minutes later, maybe somewhere in the back of my brain, I did take some of the information in with that phone call? To me, it was just ******* history repeating itself (see Jenny blog). I phoned her adult loan mum back and said i've left work, give me the vets number, I will see what they say and get back to her.
Driving home the half an hour journey was seen through tears, I cried my eyes out all the way home. Some of the information was sinking in dramatically, a big stake through her leg and body my god!!!!!!!
The yard owner where Honey was stabled, had left a big wooden rake / harrow machine in the field and forgot about it, it had over grown with grass. Honey must have ran into it at some force as the wooden rake went straight through her leg through to her uterus!!!!!!!! Are you reading this correctly, its killing me to write it! Can you imagine what poor poor little Honey chops was suffering, she had to be travelled with that rake in her to the horsey hospital miles away, my god!!! She went for surgery, I was told it was fractions away from her femoral aretery! The vet had kept me informed all day long and was actually going to be the one on call all night, they were going to give her 72hours to see how she does as this stage is critical they needed my verbal consent over the phone to put her down if it felt necessary at any stage, they did say if she got much worse and see no improvement, that they will have to put her to sleep.
They had pumped her with every pain killer they had but it was having no effect. She was in agony, they tried and tried. They phoned me to say they had managed to help her up and she hobbled to eat. She still had a high temperature, they said it was probably due to an infection because of all the dirty wood and splinters etc that had gone through her. I chatted to them about Honey and how she would be hating this with two men looking after her as things easily upset her and that she can be quite a drama queen with strangers. Through the night her stats and news were up and down, she perked up a touch and ate, she was in pain and didn't eat , she just got worse. 6.30pm Friday evening the vet phoned and said it wasn't looking good at all, there had been no change, she was very reluctant to put weight near her leg, wasn't eating, temperature was still high, she was in so much pain, the morphine and drugs can't touch her, he then said they will only give her 12 hours instead of the 72 as there was no improvement at all at this point. An hour later, the vet phoned again, I did think "oh no, that is so sudden"! He said he was more hopeful, she had got up by herself and had some sugar beet so fingers crossed lets hope it's not just the extensive nerve damage and swelling keeping her down and that it may be a hint of her being a drama queen there. He said he was going to phone me at 6am ish if he had put her down so told me not to wait by the phone all night. The phone call didn't come, phew!
He phoned early 26th Saturday morning and said he was going off shift and that Honey is now being watched constantly by another vet, who also later phoned me to introduce himself. Early afternoon with phone calls going back and forth through varies people, staff etc. Early afternoon the vet phoned me and said Honey looks terrible, there is no improvement and she will need to be put to sleep. We drove to North Yorkshire at the Equine Therapy Centre to see Honey in the clinic for the very last time. Seeing her was too painful, she was in agony, I just couldn't believe it, I can't believe it.The vet said nothing is touching her, she is feeling all this pain, she looked a horrific state, shaking in agony, hot and sweating, ******* painfully upsetting. I could not see her like that. I didn't want to take in what I was seeing. A waste, total waste! I just can not believe it, I really can't. I was distraught for my child seeing her like that, it was so heartbreaking, heartbreaking beyond belief, it can not be put in words seeing a beautiful little innocent pony looking that way. It was all a horendous nightmare. It was awful seeing the children (her adopted mummy too) so painfully going to miss the most beautiful pony that took their hearts for such a long time. It is upsetting for her loan family, they will feel I have trusted them with Honey yet Honey is now dead! I know they are going through such turmoil. They also have a child at an innocent pony mad age, she too was all Honey Honey Honey, that little girl will now have a massive empty hole in her life where at any spare moment she would have been with Honey. I feel saddened for my daughter that with nature had to outgrow her and sadly didn't get to see her them weeks ago when I went to visit. It is heartbreaking and hitting her very hard. Honey tolerated everything, she was the best pony ever. I thank my daughter for bringing the best out in her xxxx
HONEY YOU WILL ALWAYS BE THE SPECIAL ONE! WE WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU, RIP xxxxx
