Cassie was my first horse, bought 1st July 1987, as a 4 year old Ride
and Drive. She was anorexic when I first got her as she'd been living out on the welsh hills with a yearling at foot, before
being put through two sales, and then shipped down to Essex!
Naturally, I got straight down to feeding Cassie up, and very soon discovered that the well behaved Ride and Drive I had tried out
was not really well behaved, but just too weak to resist me! As soon as she started to put on some weight she decided that she didn't really like
this riding stuff, and certainly didn't want to wear a bridle or saddle! When you eventually got her tacked up she flat refused to leave the yard!
Fortunately, Mandy, who ran the yard we were at, was very experienced with "stroppy" mares, and after one ride out with Mandy, Cassie decided to behave on hacks.
There then followed a year or two of intense work, getting her used to me riding her, and taking lessons with Jill Day to get her schooled properly.
With the continued help of Mandy, and my friend Linda (and her horse Hazel), Cassie soon turned into a very nice little riding horse.
We competed in lots of local riding club competitions over the years, in almost all disciplines, the highlight probably being when Cassie was asked to
represent the Dressage Group in the annual team competition at Woodlands Equestrian Centre. Despite being rather unpredictable in her level of dressage performance at shows,
Cassie decided to behave on this occasion and took 1st place in her test by quite a margin. That really showed the bitchy crowd who didn't want her (a pony) in the team!!
Over the years Cassie has show jumped to 3Ft (unaffiliated), done Dressage to Elementary level(unaffiliated), done cross country and 1 day events, been on
sponsored rides, shown in hand and under saddle (local and County), hacked all over the place, and generally been a superb little horse.
She is very well behaved now, even teaching several children to ride from scratch, as well as giving many others pony rides!
She's a dream to handle, groom, shoe, have her teeth done, and good with the vet. However, as noone is
perfect... she still HATES being clipped, even though she's never had a bad experience, and she
HATES big lorries going past on the road (which all goes back to an inconsiderate driver who frightened her one
day in the first winter I had her.)
Cassie is a superb mother to Kelsie, and did a great job raising her. Kelsie still totally respects her mum and will always back down to her - even though she's now much bigger!
Now around 23ish Cassie need a little bit of food in the winter when its cold (she generally lives on fresh air and sunshine, and has to watch her weight - like her owner!)
She also needs to be wrapped up nice and snug when it's wet and cold, but she is still full of life and a fun hack,
especially for me as she knows I think its fun when she spooks and is silly.
I hope you enjoy these pictures of Cassie - tracing her life from that skinny, scared little 4 year old, to the happy confident mature lady
running the show at home!
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