"The Air of heaven is that which blows between a horses ears"
The Beginning Of The Rest Of My Life By Hannah Penfold
“What should we call this baby horse, Hannah?” asked the farmer.
“Foal” I replied.
Since a very young age, I’ve had a fascination in horses.
My earliest memory is when I lived in Scotland, a local farmer owned a grey mare, her name I’ll never remember, but the farmer asked me what I wanted to name her newborn…. And I instantly replied foal… I don’t even remember knowing what a foal was.. But it sounded good at the time!
After leaving Scotland, at the age of 4, we moved to Cornwall- the opposite end of the country, due to Dad being in the Royal Navy.
After hearing that my friend's sister had fallen off her horse and broke her arm, I thought it sounded like an amazing hobby to have, so I begged my parents to let me have riding lessons, they finally gave into my persuasion, this was around the age of 6 I think?
By my 6th or 7th lesson, I was jumping, and loving every minute of it, but I became bored after a few years and gave it up.
We then moved to West Sussex, when I was 9 years old, where I decided to take up riding again. I would help out at the local riding stables, in exchange for free lessons, which I loved, but due to bullying, on three different yards, I had to give it up, I thought my equine life was over… how wrong could I be??
At the age of 14, I landed myself a weekend job at an Arabian Stud. I loved it. I learnt so much I never knew existed , it amazed me. And the first covering I viewed? Well, that was an eye opener!! The family who owned the stud were so good to me, as was the stud manager.
One day, when I was 17 years old, a foal, out of a mare named Miralda was born. This foal was poorly. A bit of a wobbler and didn’t have full flexibility in his neck, therefore couldn’t suckle on his own. I spent as much time as I could with this gorgeous chestnut colt, and the owner named him Hannabal--meaning Grace Of God, which is also the meaning of my name.
She named him after me.
After three weeks of constant visiting, and skipping college, he was on the mend!
One day, I actually decided to go into college, I figured I was missing too much and my parents would be contacted. I got home after a long day and Mum came into the kitchen, looking quite upset. “Pete’s phoned” she said, “Hannabal's being put down tomorrow”.
Well, that was it, I burst into tears and Mum took me down to the stud to say my goodbyes. Hannabal was trying his hardest to stand up to greet me, but couldn’t, it was heart breaking. Mum took me home and I decided that night, April 16th 2004,that I wanted to spend my life with horses.
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