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Ginger Lily

We started looking for a horse in October 2000, buying all the freeads papers and looking through any adverts for our dream horse. We were looking for a 15-16hh possibly TB cross, suitable for both my mum's hacking and my Pony Club and jumping activites. However, there was one advert we overlooked, probably as we weren't looking for a pony! It said:
14.1hh Welsh Cob mare, ex-school mistress, with saddle and bridle.
My mum got a phone call from one of her friends the day after the freeads paper was out, and she was told that there was a horse for sale in the village and maybe we should go try her out. So my mum grabbed the paper, found the ad and phoned the number. We went over straight away to the other side of the village.
We were then greeted by a small black mare and a slightly larger, obviously Welsh Cob mare with a stunning white face. The first memory I have of this horse is a gorgeous cobby mare doing her arab look!

Lily was caught and un-rugged to reveal the skinniest horse I had ever seen. She was promptly tacked up (after a lot of spinning on her part) and my mum and I set off along the road. Lily was an absolute angel (once I had got on her - again, more spinning!) and when we got back we were informed that a family that had known Lily from her last home and were too slow to buy her last time were rushing out to buy her quickly. They were even bringing a trailer to take her there and then! I had been apprehensive about buying her as she was only the second horse I had tried, and during my years of begging my parents for a horse I had read in countless magazines that said you should always take time over the decision and visit a few times and try them on different days. But once I heard that she was in demand and that this would be the one and only chance of buying her, I agreed!

Within around 30 minutes, my life was changed forever! I now had under my care a 10 year old 14.1hh Welsh Cob mare with a tendancy to spin and hate being tacked up, and who was dreadfully thin. My mum and I started feeding her up straight away.
Since then Lily and I have battled through the muddiest, wettest winter for years, began attending the Pony Club rallies, overcome a bad injury (she walked thorugh a gate which fell over and caught the electric fencing, so she had a heavy electrified metal gate attached to her leg. She had a cast on for weeks!), gradually got fit again, attended a Pony Club cross country rally where I fell off at the last fence, had many saddle fitting problems with months off work, and started showjumping and entered our first class (2'3" and we were eliminated at the third fence!). I have had many deckings, some painful (I have so many scars!), and some funny (my mum and I chased Lily for nearly three miles when she chucked me off after a bad attempt at jumping tyres!).

But even though we have been through a heck of a lot, and haven't even had one uneventful year together, Lily was described as 'the best pony we could have got' and I totally agree with that. There is no love like your first, and there is no pony like your first!
We sold Lily in March 2005 as I am going to university in September 2005, and we can't keep Lily while I'm there. She was also becoming too small for me and too difficult - we had 18 months off of jumping because I lost my confidence, and things were getting worse where we had had saddle problems and mum and I had lost confidence in Lily when doing basic things (for example doing up the girth!). I decided that I really need to be able to come out of university and get a horse that I can just go out and compete, and so we reluctantly decided to put Lily up for sale. She was sold to a lovely family in the village (two doors up from the yard!) who are having fun hacking her, and even took her to a hunter trial!
I really miss her, but I know she is happy where she is.

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