Why girls love horses …
Lucy Cavendish tells of her own very personal love affair
1 | I FIND horses graceful, | My first ever love affair was with | 9 | I don’t think men feel this way | people don’t normally see. In a car, | |||||||||
glorious creatures. There are so | Puffles, a tiny little Shetland pony. | about horses. They love them, of | you go too fast, on foot you are too | |||||||||||
many things that are perfect about | 6 | After Puffles there was Monty. | course they do, but to them they | small. --Horses can be companions. | ||||||||||
them: the way they move, their | He was kind and safe and greedy. | are living beings with a job to do. | We trust them. In the past, | |||||||||||
fluid bodies and shining coats, the | But then a friend of mine did his | Men hunt horses and show-jump | people have | |||||||||||
way they smell, their velvet noses | back in and pretty much gave his | them. They look after them, yes, | travelled miles on them and never | |||||||||||
and ticklish ears. They are | horse Roger to me. | but they don’t worry about them | been let down. When you are in | |||||||||||
handsome creatures with lots of | Lucy Cavendish as a child with Monty. | the way women do. | true simpatico with your horse, | |||||||||||
attitude and character. | 10 | There is something within most | then you are a very contented | |||||||||||
2 | There’s a difference in how | of us women that romanticises | person. | |||||||||||
women feel about horses and how | horses. Maybe it is, in part, | 14 | Last week I was riding through | |||||||||||
our male counterparts do. Women | because they still seem wild. They | the Sierra Nevada mountains with | ||||||||||||
have love affairs with horses. We | still have the fight or flee instinct. | my friend, her husband and their | ||||||||||||
kiss their warm soft noses. We | They are still strong, sometimes | older sons, aged 10 and 15. It was | ||||||||||||
brush, bathe and rub them. | frighteningly so. And people love to | tough going. We went up | ||||||||||||
3 | We give them garlic and | conquer them. | mountains and down gorges and, | |||||||||||
molasses in their feed to keep them | 11 | It’s not for nothing that we use | one day, we rode through harsh | |||||||||||
healthy. We put boots on them so | the term ‘breaking in’ to describe | terrain for over six hours. --of | ||||||||||||
they don’t hurt their legs. We talk | the process of how a young horse is | the boys complained in spite of | ||||||||||||
about them as if they are husbands | turned into a reliable riding horse. | being saddle sore and exhausted. | ||||||||||||
or lovers or babies. We call them | 12 | horses will always be | In fact, they enjoyed it. | |||||||||||
‘my boy’ and ‘my lad’ and ‘he’ as in | unpredictable. When you ride them | 15 | On the last day, our tour leader | |||||||||||
‘he doesn’t like it when...’ and ‘ooh, | 7 | Roger was my greatest love | you are aware of that. They are | and guide, a talented horse woman | ||||||||||
my boy’s in a bad mood today’. | affair. He was fast and furious and | stronger than you. If they want to | called Dallas Love, turned to my | |||||||||||
4 | I know women who spend | stunning to look at and very, very | get you off their backs, they will. | friend and said, ‘I don’t know a | ||||||||||
every penny they earn on their | lively. I couldn’t stop riding him. | 13 | But we still fall in love with | thing about children but, if your | ||||||||||
horses. They spend their weekends | 8 | In the summer I loved the late- | them. You can run away on a horse, | sons were horses, I’d be very -- | ||||||||||
and evenings cleaning tack, | evening riding. In the winter it was | you see. You can go fast down hills | if they were mine.’ It was the | |||||||||||
mucking out stables and grooming | horribly cold and dark. I had to put | and gallop along beaches and | greatest compliment of all. | |||||||||||
them and then, finally, riding; | lights on me and the horse just to | through forests and over plains. It | ||||||||||||
because it’s not just about the | go up the road. Then Roger died of | is the ultimate escape. And yet you | ||||||||||||
riding, it’s about being near them. | a heart attack and nothing was the | can also just walk along, at one | ||||||||||||
5 | l have always been horse mad. | same again. | with your horse, seeing things |