Hello ((waves)) we are Team Wurzenator and we have been asked to write a blog for Genius Equestrian!! :D
I thought as this is our first blog post we would introduce ourselves! It all started out one morning as I was surrounded by tissues nursing man flu! I had always posted updates about Wurzel on my personal Facebook page, you know the ones, here is a picture of Wurzel eating, here is a picture of Wurzel standing, here is a picture of Wurzel rolling, here is a picture of Wurzel eating again..
Then after adding a new person they say “Oh gosh, I hope its not all horsey posts”! Umm… not sure how to answer that, as I’m about to post a picture of Wurzel in his new rug!! (#awkward!)
So then it dawned on me maybe not everyone wants to see every detail of my horsey life ( I know, crazy fools, hey?!) So Team Wurzenator began.
Why Team Wurzenator?! Because we are a team!(#fistpump!) I know many of you horsey gals and guys will understand, a horse is your partner, your soul mate, you make decisions together and tackle life, TOGETHER! Wurzel gets me out of do-do all the time. Whether be hunting, when i’m too scared to open my eyes or jumping where I really haven’t got the energy to ask him to go over that last fence but he does it anyway!
Wurzel wasn’t always the horse hero he is today! Oh no! 5 years ago last month we first clapped eyes on each other. He was an unbroken 4 year old, I was naive in thinking that backing him would be easy!! I found him on Facebook (that damn Facebook where would we be without it!!). He was in the project horses for sale group. My eyes lit up at a 15.1 cob gelding inside my minuscule budget! He was listed as “being backed”. He remained in that state for about another year!! He was great to lunge, long rein, had good manners but just did not like having a rider on his back! He would rear until you got off! I was so worried about him I got the vet out to check him over! Needless to say he was fine!
Turns out he liked hacking! He would quite happily hack out with no issue but would not tolerate schooling! That was probably my first taste of his cheeky non-conformist attitude! Why follow the rules when breaking them is so much fun he says! So that was it, HE had decided, we were hacking for the next few years! And the crazy thing about it was for the first few months he didn’t know leg aids or anything. I just sat on top and off we went, exploring!
In the July we moved yards. I had 3 lovely cobs at the time and was offered grazing for all 3 for £40 a month, obviously something I jumped at and kissed the landowners feet over!! Wurzel was in and out of work here. If he was good i’d give him a rest, if he learn’t something wrong, i’d give him a rest etc so he really didn’t do much at the yard. Except one thing. There he was causally having some extra grass at the side of his field when a herd of Dartmoor ponies ran into view! Naturally I was very perplexed as I didn’t see them in rural Sussex!! Wurzel, equally perplexed, intrigued, excited ran off to join the blighters!! There he was a great big black and white thing running around with a load of small brown ponies!! “WUURRZELLL” I scream, as I grab his feed bucket and shake it furiously! He does a few laps of the field before coming over to me looking for his dinner! He’s fine, i’m a quivering shaking wreck!!!
We were only at that yard a few months before moving again. This time with just 2 cobs in tow. Our 1 year anniversary approached rapidly and to celebrate I decided to take him hunting! He is quite a laid back chappy by nature and according to the internet the best way to make him forward was to take him hunting! I was white as a sheet the entire time! Turns out, as we sped off down the edge of a field so quickly I left most of my vital organs at the beginning of the field, we had never actually galloped! Yes something that should have dawned on me before the meet!! Despite that small detail and my inability to breathe through most of the day whether that was through lack of fitness or fear, I wasn’t sure which, Wurzel was a superstar. He really did find his 5th leg, while other horses slipped and some even fell, my trusty 5 year old cob stayed upright and tackled the slipperiest countryside on a very boggy November day (again, another consideration I didn’t take into account, the mud!!).
At the new yard Wurzel decided he really didn’t like the mud. Not at all. So come the deepest darkest winter he decided he wasn’t going to go in the field! Nope he wanted to hang in the car park with a hay net! So that’s what my little odd-ball did through that winter!
By now his schooling was coming on and he really loved jumping. He was honest and talented! We rented a horsebox or went with a friend and attended lots of clinics, XC training and shows. We even tried dressage which went terribly!! He was far too lazy for that!!
By the next winter we moved again, 1 cob and 1 shetland in tow, (trying to avoid the car park situation again!!) and eventually ( 4 years on…) my parents decided this horsey thing wasn’t a phase and bought a house with land and stable so Wurzel came home.
Next month I will update date you on Wurzel’s near death experience, his claim to fame and what the main man himself has been up through the month!
Oh and guess what, here’s some pictures of Wurzel!! hahhaha Happy new Year! xx
Becky x
