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thebigirishgrey · 4 years

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NAF - RIDER SPOTLIGHT

My name is Caroline Murphy and NAF have kindly asked me to write a short piece about myself for their Horse and Rider Spotlight! I am absolutely thrilled to be able to do this and talk about my wonder horse, my soul mate, Coco!

I am a disabled person who had to pull out of secondary school at 6th form, just before my A levels, with a debilitating condition which had very physical effects on my body as well as my mental health. I had just completed my AS levels and was set for a promising career in the arts at Sir Paul McCartney’s drama school, LIPA. I was just 17 and all of this was ripped from my hands as condition after condition took over my young body and left me completely bedridden for most of my twenties and thirties. After being bedbound for an entire decade I was left feeling as though I could not carry on with my life, I had been riding horses and ponies, from my Aunties welsh section to 17.3 hand thoroughbreds, since I could be held on the back as a tiny newborn baby and wanted to be able to do this every day of my life but with an extremely rare brain condition that only 1 in 100,000 people have AND which was blinding me permanently, could I?

I said to myself I would try one more time, I went to a hacking centre with a ménage and I tried one more time to sit on the back of a horse, pushing with all my energy to leave the sanctuary I had called bed for over 20 years of my life... I pushed with all of my might and I was up!!! Despite severe muscle waste I was sitting on a horse but could I stay on?! I tentatively squeezed my legs and I was off.... not off off but walking...., and then trotting! I couldn’t believe it I was riding with all that was wrong with me! I was borrowing the legs of this beautiful beastie. I wanted more!

I went back with renewed vigour and a thirst to really ride and there was this beautiful big white horse, they type dreams are made of, standing in the barn tacked up waiting for someone...., for me!!! She was known as “the scary horse” apparently left there by her owner who had lost her confidence on her, scared and lost this horse would spin and bolt, no one on the yard would ride her and she was rarely booked in for hacks. That made me want to ride her more, I felt a connection to this wild spirit immediately and couldn’t wait to make that connection a physical one by sharing our first ride.

I mounted the huge horse who I found out was called Coco, she was a 16.2 Irish draught mare, from Ireland but brought over to England and sold via dealer to one owner who lost confidence who sold her to the yard who then met me! I was one of her first rides and boy couldn’t I wait....

I slipped gently into the, she had been sitting with head very low and glum, dull eyed but wary and ready to spin on a six pence should anyone come close. She was pulled to the mounting block... as our bodies met she turned sharply to look at me and stopped, it was as though the world around us was on pause. I stroked her neck and spoke to her, “hello Coco! What a good girl you are!” I spoke to her about everything and she didn’t take her ears off me for one minute! The hack was for an hour through forest and woodland on Wenlock Edge and we regularly saw wildlife such as buzzards and deer that excited me every time but I could have seen a whole herd of deer that day and not taken my eyes off Coco for a second. She was captivating, I couldn’t tell who was more interested in who but we had the most incredible ride together, she listened to everything I asked of her though obviously she had only been hunted and asked to walk and run in a straight line, she was so keen to learn and please me I was in love. I really hadn’t want to own a horse with my disabilities but I wasn’t letting this unicorn, this horse of a lifetime, get away.

Months passed and our bond had become so strong that comments were made by all who saw us together, word had passed around the yard about how we worked so well together and it had to be said, even Mum who is terrified of horses had fallen in love with this noble steed! On a hack with my yard owner I muttered those fated words “what would you say if I asked to buy her please?” The silence fell and it felt like forever before he said “we asked your Mum last week if you’d like to loan her but of course, we haven’t bonded, you’d make the perfect owner for her!” I smiled a smile so big you could see it back at the yard several miles away but also felt a little sick that I’d ruined Mum’s surprise.... she was planning on loaning my beautiful Coco for me for Christmas, now I’d bought us a horse!!!! Oops!

Coco and I became owner and Mummy on the 1st of December 2018, I’d got everything for her, rugs, tack, Numnah in every colour at least twice, you name it, she was SPOILT! So much so we began to get bullied by other people on the yard for having so many nice things!!!

We enrolled Coco in the horse health programme with our vet and got them out immediately, I had suspected that Coco had something slightly wrong with her due to sometimes reacting to things as though they’d fallen from the sky and noises before seeing things. I was right, she was blind in her right eye! I HAD A BLIND HORSE, LIKE ME!!!

We were both visually impaired which brought us even closer together and we were inseparable. I knew how to handle Coco as I had learnt to cope with sightloss myself, we were PERFECT for each other. Just as I borrowed her wings as I rode, she borrowed my good eye as we walked the roads and manoeuvred objects and coped with high stress situations like tractors passing together. We were an unstoppable force.

In 2019 we spent the year learning side saddle, going to our first fun rides together, winning a fancy dress competition and even going drag hunting as I don’t want to hurt animals but wanted her to have a lovely run! What next I hear you cry?! Well..... that’s just it!!! Coco suffered badly from lameness due to her previous life so we moved to our fantastic new home mid 2019. We had received comments such as “she’s just a happy hack she doesn’t need any vet help”, whether she was a happy hack or an Olympian we would still help her with anything she needed, and we did! To date Coco has been insured and had treatment and surgery some covered and some exempt for:

flat feet - remedial farriery

Melanoma inside her right eye blinding her and detaching her retina

Melanoma on her left eyelid injected with mitomycin-c gel which will be lasered if and when small enough if it doesn’t shrink with the injections alone. Melanoma also found inside the eyeball on this side.

Melanoma under tail debulked with laser (40% so far) the rest will be removed with laser or mitomycin-c whichever is more successful

Melanoma found in the guttural pouch on left side

One diseased tooth 309 lower left to be removed soon by dental specialist

So she hasn’t had it easy has our girl! However... earlier this year we began our dream of becoming a pair of dancing diva and were taken on by our new coach Sir Lee Pearson CBE! What a man he is! I couldn’t believe it when he said yes as we have been talking about having lessons since the London Paralympics in 2012 but either I haven’t been well enough or I haven’t had a horse to ride and then along came this SO CALLED “spooky, scary, lose your confidence, only a happy hack, not worthy” ponio named Coco and she is absolutely loving it! She learns and takes in new information incredibly quickly, she had never seen the inside of a school and how to train before I rode her in the ménage and she is now doing shoulder ins, leg yields and some more advanced dressage moves which even I haven’t got the hang of yet! She’s going to need to sell me and get a better rider I think! I couldn’t be more proud of my little lady, at 13 I hope we have many more years together despite the fact she has been so unwell.

You can follow our story together and watch us grow at www.facebook.com/thebigirishgrey if you’d like to. I have to keep reminding myself it’s only been less an two years that I’ve owned this girl, she’s my horse of a lifetime and will be with me for whatever lifetime she has I can assure you that! We will grow old and blind together and be happy doing so!

Thank you for all of your support!

Lots of love from Caroline and Coco

Products we love by NAF:

NAF OMEGA OIL: this makes a great paste with NAF’s turmeric with black pepper!

NAF TURMERIC PLUS : with the added black pepper it’s much better for horses and we love making a paste out of it with NAF OMEGA OIL.

NAF MINT AND GARLIC: we feed this all year round for a healthy coat and it’s exceptionally good for putting off biting insects (and vampires! Hehe)

NAF APPY / CHERRY / HEDGY / MINTY TREATS : Coco goes wild for these and she is fussy with treats I can tell you! She won’t go for salt licks and various things in her food but she will do anything for a NAF treat!!

NAF PAINT IT BLACK : for those extra black hooves on show day or for looking shiny on a hack to show off to friends! Sssh!

NAF OFF EXTRA EFFECT: a natural fly spray that helps my grey horse who gets covered in flies!

NAF PURPLE SPRAY: you always need a bottle of this around in your tack room or horse first aid kit! For those little bumps and knocks that horses ALWAYS get!

NAF VET WRAP: this is another first aid MUST for me, before the vet gets there, you can pick some groovy colours too!

I have to say that NAF is one of those names that just screams quality to me, if there’s a product made by NAF and someone else I will always choose NAF because they are the mark of honesty and the mark of horse care and lovers for me! Thank you NAF!

(NOTE: ALL OF THE PRODUCTS ON THIS LIST I HAVE USED AND WOULD NOT INCLUDE ANY I HAD NOT PAID MONEY FOR AND BOUGHT AND USED MYSELF MORE THAN ONCE).

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