My Bestie 'Benney'

Someone of you have already met "Benney" our six year old New Forest gelding. You may have read about him in "Benney Struts His Stuff on a Sunday Morning" and most recently in "How Little Did We Know" published here on 27th September 2018.

Benney is a real character and I am not just saying that because he is ours and we know him so well. Others who have met and even ridden him have all said the same.

Even the other day I was with him when he was having his regular six weekly physio and sports massage. I was talking to the physiotherapist while she was treating him.

"Benney is a real bestie. The sort of mate you would like to take down to the pub for a pint on a Saturday night if you could," I said.

The physio looked up at me from her deep massage.

"Really?" she asked.

"Yes," I replied "Why not?"

"Do you really want to go out to the pub on a Saturday night and get involved in a fight?" the physio asked.

The physio and I created this picture of Benney and me off to the pub and then getting taken away in the police van after a brawl.

"That was a good night," would be Benney's comment from his cage in the van. "Had a few beers. Got in a fight. It wasn't our fault was it?"

"No Benney, it wasn't. I wish you wouldn't tell the dressage horses that they are a bit light on their hooves. They really don't appreciate that sort of thing. Or telling the flat racers they wouldn't know what to do if they got covered in mud like New Forest ponies. But what I really wished you hadn't said was telling the warm bloods they were dumb bloods. That really kicked things off in the pub."

That sums up Benney's character. Cheeky and cocky but in a lovable and roguish way. He is always enthusiastic about everything he does be it hacking out, working in the school, or just being taken out for a walk in hand. One thing that is missing completely from his character and his personality is any form of malice. If anything he has a severe malice deficit and would never do anyone any harm intentionally, fortunately.

In the school when we are having a lesson lessons he has to be kept engaged all the time. Drop your guard as a rider for a split second and Benney is looking to see where his field companions are, falling in through his shoulder, hollowing his back and in extremis putting in small buck as if to say, "Come on, I've had enough of this, I should be out grazing with my mates instead of doing circles and serpentines."

Hacking out across the New Forest, he is in his element.

He was born out there near Bealieu. Not for him the deep straw beds and infra red lamps of thoroughbred stud farms. Just gorse and heather with no shelter from the elements. From his experiences of the early days he is forest wise like a teenager brought up in an inner city becomes street wise. Riding him through the undergrowth I put my trust in him to find the best way through and he has never let me down. In open ground he watches everything going on in his field of vision. Cows, ponies, and deer never phase him. Especially the deer when he can see them taking flight. Benney has never got in a panic.

The only thing that will wind him up to putting in a small buck or two is his excitement about cantering. We sometimes have a conflict over this where he wants to set off at full pelt but for whatever reason I am holding him back. His back end will flip up quickly as if to say, "Come on Dad, let's get on with it." But by having the right conversation with him through the reins, with the leg, and talking to him, he soon gives in and waits patiently for me to say, "Go."

It is not malicious. It is just his way of saying, "I am enjoying life and let's get on with it."

A lesson for all of us really?

In the subtitle I said, "A horse of a lifetime—again." That may not make much sense but through my time with horses I have now had three "horses of a life time" including Benney. They have all given me something and added to my ability to ride. Quirks and characteristics of the first two seem to have been melded into Benney. The sharpness of my first horse, Cara, a Welsh Section D who tested me to the point of almost giving up riding but then a magic moment came and we could both take on the world. Then there was Choice, the equine equivalent of a brown Labrador. Always willing, always keen, and most importantly always more than capable to the point of sorting out his own strides and line over jumps when I got it wrong. Sadly those two have gone but if it wasn't for them entering and leaving my life I would never have met Benney.

"No Benney, I am not coming out with you tonight. You remember what happened last time.............. Oh alright then just one but that's all.... I mean it."

Benney on the Lunge