Edwin

A recent acrylic canvas of Edwin, painted by my daughter.

Edwin my old boy, the herd leader.

There are many stories etched into my pshyci that involve Edwin, this is just one.

He is a beautiful horse, fast, very very fast, he won a race at Lingfield Park Racecourse by 25 lengths many moons ago, kind, talented, intelligent but a completed head case in certain situations.

He has been my friend for 24 years and I have ridden him less than 40 times in all those years. When he gets upset he is capable of doing anything, but he would never hurt you intentionally.

One day all the horses were milling around the yard, all loose, as they usually were. I walked up behind Edwin, I know all the books say that you should never walk up behind a horse, perhaps they are right, but I had done it for years before and have done it ever since that day. Edwin mistook me for one of the other horses... he kicked out. He then caught a glimpse of me out of the corner of his eye, as soon as he realised it was me he pulled back his kick enough so that it was just a feather like touch on my leg, not the bone braking thump that I thought I was going to receive. I was amazed at his ability to control himself so well at his age... he is 30. I did not tell him off, raise my voice or act in an angry manner, to tell the truth it all happened so quickly there was not time to react.

Immediately Edwin felt so ashamed of himself that he went and stood at the other end of the yard with his face pointed towards the corner, he had effectively put himself on the 'naughty step', he must have felt so bad that he almost/could have hurt me. After a bit of gentle persuasion and a lot of soothing words he got over his shame and rejoined the rest of us in the yard.

From my experience animals feel all the same emotions as we do, but theirs are genuine and from the heart.

Not all humans can claim that unfortunately.