Cultureshock

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Video transcript

I was only two when I started my relationship with horses because my brother used to have riding lessons. After each lesson I was lifted up into the saddle, I'd go up and down the lane once and get off and I did that every week until the stables got too expensive and I had to stop going up and down the lane that I loved.   It wasn't until I was four that I started having actual lessons but I could only go in the summer when I went to my aunty's. But when the Christmas of 2006 came, before I got to seven, got booked in for an 'own your own pony day' and after that I started having regular riding lessons.   I go riding every week now at Stepney Bank Stables and when I go to my aunty's I usually get a lesson there too. I've gone from just liking horses and wanting a 'go', to absolutely loving them. I can't be with horses enough. I love the smell of them, their warm breath, their strength, their personalities. I love mucking them out, feeding them, grooming them and tacking up. hen I'm on a horse, I feel free. I feel I'm myself. Best of all is cantering. The speed makes me feel excited and alive.

My all time favourite horse was Angel. He was big and black with a white stripe. He was gentle and had an easy trot. It broke my heart when he left Stepney Bank. Since then, I’ve come to have several favourites: Melody, Pepper, Rupert, Sooty, Brandy, Dooley, Rollie, Comet, Topper, she left, Sunny, he retired, and Wizard.   Horses fill nearly every thought of mine. I draw them, I write about them, I play with toy ones, I even make quilts with them! Most of all I want to spend my life with them. I wonder if I'll ever do show jumping? Perhaps I'll become a mounted police woman. Or own a riding stables. Or be a country vet. I know I'll always want horses in my life.