Let's face it, in Poland if you want to own a horse you are going to have  LOT more trouble keeping one than you do in sunny Oz, stables are just not an issue here! But apparently horses are in my blood as one of my great-grandfathers had a passion for them and knew the names of every horse, pony, donkey and mule in the village and surrounding townships! Well, a couple of generations later this trait was brought up again in me.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

Well, my first memory of horses comes with a picture of me on a skewbald pony. While we were in Austria for a while my brother worked in a local pony stable. One day two ponies showed up in front ofthe house we were in and i remember thinking :I WANT ONE OF THOSE!!!!! I was put on a skewbald pony while my brother followed on a grey. A girl led us along and i remember that i ADORED every moment of it. I can still remember the feel of the thin reins in my hands and the way that pony moved under me. I also remember getting my legs scratched to pieces on the bushes either side of the lane.

I turned ten and still no pony, finally i took the big step and asked my parents for riding lessons. I figured, if  I learn to ride and care for a pony, my parents will give in and get me one. So, off to Miranda Riding school it was. I started out on a kindly old brown pony named Brandy who took very good care of the skinny little kid on his back. I graduated from Brandy to Bree, a small gray pony who was an utter DEVIL but i adored him.  I took my first fall off Bree! Then it was on to Baron, a gray Arab-pony who loved to jump so much that i soon lost my fear of it and adored flying with him. I outgrew both Bree and Baron too quickly. Then i moved on to Nanky, a buckskin mare who taught me a lot of basic dressage. From there it was on to bay and blazed Toby who taught me the importance of a soft, light, gentle hand. Other riders jerked Toby a lot as he was too much a gentleman to fight back. I'd see him jerk his head with pain when the others rode him so i commandeered him as soon as i could. He would expect pain every time i touched the reins but soon learned that i wouldn't use them if i could avoid it, he is probably to blame for the way i carry my reins so loose! Another girl with soft hands was appointed Toby so it was onto chestnut Honey. Honey used to be a jumper, and boy did i love riding him! He had spirit and guts but was always so gentle. It was from him that i learnt to trust the horses under me in difficult situations. I rode Honey for the rest of the time i stayed at Miranda.

I DISCOVER THE BUSH

While still learning to ride at Miranda I went to a week long riding camp in the Gippsland Mountains. There i discovered that there is a lot more to riding than just going round in circles in a yard and jumping colored poles! I rode JB most of the time i was there, a palomino gelding that had more than a small dash of Arab blood! I also rode Captain and Sunny, both nice horses but nothing like JB. We rode into the never-ending mountains for hours on end, galloping down hill, leaping logs and dodging logging trucks. I got a huntsman spider crawl up my leg out of my riding boots, i had saddle sores in the most amazing places and my face was tanned so deeply it stayed brown until mid-winter! I had the time of my life and swore to myself that as soon as i got a horse, there would be no showing, no dressage, no jumping colored poles, just riding in the mountains!

BACK HOME AND STILL NO PONY

I returned from the mountains and swiftly discovered that i just couldn't keep going around in those circles at Miranda.  I adopted a old white donkey kept at a community farm and after much bribery with carrots and apples and scratches, she soon would come galloping up to me with ear shattering brays. She didn't seem to like a lot of people very much but i guess even a crabby old donk can't resist a bit of spoiling. For a year, every day after school, i'd walk down to the farm with Khaitek and play with Snowy, my donkey. She was put down in her paddock when old age became too much for her. I was lost, i had lost 'my' horse and couldn't stand it any more. I sought out and found a place to hire horses by the hour. The owner soon saw that i actually could handle a horse okay so put me on a new fat little buckskin. This horse was the hardest horse i had ever ridden! He pig rooted, he wouldn't jump, he couldn't walk a straight line and he couldn't walk! Just jog, jig, jog. His name was Danny. I rode a couple of other horses there, youngsters, devils, gentle mares and a palomino i fell in love with. The palomino was brought out from under me and i found myself back on Danny, now much worse than before as the cowboys who had ridden him had totally paddock-bashed him into the ground. I started riding him every Saturday, and fell so in love with him that there was no way i was going to leave without him.

I TURN 16.

I couldn't believe my ears! If i kept my grades up i could have a horse! After working very hard to lower my blood pressure for the first ten minutes, i immediately thought "DANNY!". I tried to get my parents to look at him but they thought he was too brumbyish, i think they thought i wanted an Arab. Of course i wanted an Arab! I ADORED Arabs, i dreamed of them, read about them, drew them! But i wasn't ready for an Arab as my first horse. That's why i wanted Danny. It took a series of disastrous horse-hunting ads   before they finally gave in and let me have Danny. I came back after a birthday ride, and was about to hand Danny to the groom when mum told me he was mine! I nearly died right there and then. We loaded him up and took him to the farm where i had made friends with Snowy. Then began my REAL education! Danny is cold-backed, he used to rear when i put the saddle on, now, six years later, he still acts up! He wouldn't let me pick up his hoofs, so i taught him how. He didn't want to be caught: carrots work wonders.

BARRY

Soon after i got Danny i noticed him had started to favor a foreleg. I called the farrier the RDA recommended and to my horror we discovered that his entire inside hoof was full of seedy toe (a nasty bacterial infection that arise from damp, unsanitary conditions when there are cracks in the hoof wall). It took FIVE YEARS before Danny healed completely from what we had to do that day. The farrier is Barry, he's one of those outback characters that every horse-person should know. He could ride before he could walk, i still think he rides better now! We battled Danny's seedy-toe, the abscess, the cracks that just kept coming back, until finally a winter passed where he was not lame for months on end! Since the seedy toe would hit so hard and often i could not ride Danny very much for those few years and so he grew very fat. He is heavily built at any rate but he was so fat that i was terrified he'd die. So he was put in a Jenny Craig paddock, lunged, half starved (not really!) and ridden as much as possible until now he is looking pretty much okay! Danny has quite a personality. He will cross fire for food, he WILL NOT stand still for longer than three seconds once the saddle is on his back. He also LOVES doughnuts, in fact he likes them so much he will sneak up and STEAL them out of my hand when he thinks i haven't seen him. He HAS to be at the front of every ride and who cares if he almost kills himself trying to out pace the bigger and faster horses. He is also very gentle, has a sense of humor and will put up with just about anything, including being a babysitter! Enter Destiny.

A FILTHY LICE INFESTED DREAM COME TRUE

This is the abridged version of Destiny's story, if you'd like to read the full heartbreaking story then click  Destiny. Destiny came to me unloved, wild and with terrible fear of humanity. It took a lot of love, mammoth amounts of calmness, a terrible accident and heavy gloves before her true loving nature came shining through. Destiny is a well bred pure bred Egyptian filly raising four in 2000. At the moment she appears to be leveling off at 15hh and there are currently a number of bets running at the paddocks of what color she will actually turn out being! For the moment I'm happy enough calling her a 'bay roan'. I hope that in a few years Dessy and i will be competing in endurance riding with our partners Lisa and Jordan (ADD LINK TO LISA'S PAGE)