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You may not believe it but most humans are truly gobsmacked by my graceful, majestic presence when they first see me. Clearly this is not my day. My best friend, Gulliver, has just died, leaving me very lost and utterly alone, as the rest of the family, including the mare to whom I lost my heart many years ago, is on the other side of the world. The good news is that my humans are planning a family reunion over there with me as the guest of honour. The bad news is that, unless we come up with a solution, it may break the bank, which has me seriously worried about the impact on my feed rations.

 

Repent You Sinner

Perhaps I should tell you my name before we go any further. I haven’t had much luck with names. Perhaps it’s because the few humans whom I have known in my life have failed to see the real me. I like to think of myself as a young prince. Handsome, intelligent, noble, yet also sensitive, playful at times and inclined to moodiness at others. More of a Hamlet than a Harry. Yet for some strange, inexplicable reason my humans have really scraped the barrel in the names department. It could also have something to do with their failure to note my destiny. With my demeanour and qualities, I was clearly destined for a life of romance, a moderate amount of tragedy, extravagant comedy and considerable quantities of good food.

Unfortunately, my first humans, lacking both insight and imagination, failed to see this. First they started me on a race track in what must have been pretty close to the Australian outback at a very tender age. My poor bones were barely strong enough and were not even fully formed, yet they wanted me to carry a rider and to do so at top speed. What were they thinking? So I resisted. Perhaps this is how I got my racing name. Repent You Sinner! I kid you not. This is what they christened me. You can just hear the name ring in the racetrack commentary box: “Surging through the field on the homeward stretch, Repent You Sinner gallops across the finishing line as intent on attaining racing heaven as the most repentant sinner on Judgement Day”. Eh, not quite. I think I managed nine starts before they threw me out in disgust, knowing that they would never recoup their investment.

 

My name

Round about this time I was sold – for a fraction of my true worth, mind you – to a young woman called Vicki. She was kind, generous and attractive to boot. This is a little bit of alright, I thought, until I soon discovered that she had a partner. Andrew, the name says it all. Bit of dour lad and a bossy one too at that, although he did try to be fair, or so he thought. He was the one who came up with my second name, the one that has stuck.

Farinelli! Yes, he of the angelic voice,[*] for which he paid a price similar to the one that I had forfeited for the right to remain in human society. The young man had his soaring voice, I had my majestic lope and for these we had both paid the penultimate price. Oh, destiny, thou blade is sharp!

 

Crossing the world

But I digress. I was telling you about my mate, Gulliver, who has just died. Sure he was old and doddery, almost 30 when he went. And he could no longer play as much, as we used to do. But he was like a brother to me, a friend with whom I could seek shelter and snuggle up against. We were together for 22 years. And I am only 25 (going on four, mind you, according to the vet). Just think about that for a moment. I was a kid when we met. We spent a lifetime together. Of course we had our moments but we were always friends. (For more about Gulliver’s death see http://horsesandhumans.com/blog/2019/06/14/gulliver-is-dead-long-live-gulliver/.)

Yes, I’m getting on but the vet has given me a clean bill of health to cross the world. Why do so, you might ask. My humans say it’s because they need to care for me as I grow older but it would be far too expensive to move the whole family back to Australia and financially challenging to provide appropriate care with annual long-stay visits from the other side of the world. Me joining everyone in Europe is the only viable option if they are to be able to care for me personally.

 

Rescue horses and treats

I wonder what it will be like to live over there, to be with the family again, to see my beautiful Anaïs. Will she still be the tough beauty I fell in love with or will she have mellowed? But first I need to get there. Vicki says it is a very expensive business. It will really stretch us all financially. Does that mean less hay? Not really, surely? So that is where you come in. Vicki says that they have various things which they can use as treats for humans who can contribute to the cost of my trip, so you will get something in return for being generous. But perhaps the best treat is to know that you have helped reunite me with my family.

Gulliver and Farinelli: mates groom each other, don't they?

Gulliver and Farinelli: mates groom each other, don’t they?

More importantly though, I have insisted on making a donation to those horses that are doing it a lot tougher than me. Because my humans work with rescue horses as Equine Touch bodywork practitioners and instructors, they support my good intentions.

For every €5.00 that you donate to help reunite me with my family, my humans will give €1.00 to one or more horse rescue centres.

So you think that’s great, do you? Well, how about this?

Every single euro over and above the target is money that my humans will give to one or more horse rescue centres that are active in Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands or Spain.

Full financial disclosure and updates will be provided in the course of and at the end of this fundraising campaign.

A friend with whom I could seek shelter and snuggle up against

A friend with whom I could seek shelter and snuggle up against

 

Help! Can you help us please? Just a little?

 

Donations can be made here:

 

Treats to reward your generosity

My humans, who are also Equine Touch bodywork practitioners and instructors, are offering the following treats to reward your generosity.

 

Minimum Donation

Treat

               €25.00

E-book: In Search of the Master Who Dances with Horses: Challenge

               €50.00

2 e-books: In Search of the Master Who Dances with Horses: Challenge and Growth

               €75.00

3 e-books: In Search of the Master Who Dances with Horses: Challenge, Growth and Being

             €100.00

4 e-books: all of the above and When Horses Speak and Humans Listen

             €375.00

A free two-day course – Equine Touch Introductory Course – at a centre in Europe where and when we teach it.

             €650.00

2 free two-day courses – Equine Touch Introductory and Foundation Courses – at a centre in Europe where and when we teach them.

           €1000.00

2 free two-day courses – Equine Touch Introductory and Foundation Courses – and 1 three-day course – Equine Touch Intermediate – at a centre in Europe where and when we teach them.

To claim your treat, simply email your request to us at blog@horsesandhumans.com along with details of your donation within one month.

 

[*] Farinelli was a male Italian opera singer, one of the greatest of all time, who sang soprano thanks to his castration in his early teens.

 

 

 


Equine Touch

Our Equine Touch business is called Humans for Horses, you can find our website at:

http://www.humansforhorses.com/

and our Facebook page at:

https://www.facebook.com/Humans.for.Horse

 

Horses and Humans on Facebook

May I remind you that we now have a Horses and Humans group on Facebook. If you would like to leave a comment, you can do so on this blog or on the the Horses and Humans Facebook group page. All new posts will feature on that page along with additional content posted by any of our members. Please feel free to join us at:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/horsesandhumans/

There is also a Horses and Humans publications page, which contains information concerning the publications released under the Horses and Humans imprint. Some of those publications will be free of charge. You will find it here:

https://www.facebook.com/horsesandhumans

I also have a Facebook page through which you may contact me. You will find it at:

https://www.facebook.com/andrewglynsmail

 

2 Responses to “Help! Can you help me please? Just a little?”

  1. Patrick says:

    I was going to write…’beggars belief’.
    But decided to stick with the words…’fascinating idea’.

    • Andrew says:

      Hi Patrick

      I can understand the initial response. Most people think that we are crazy when it comes to horses.

      Seriously though, if we weigh up the costs of keeping Farinelli in Australia (livery and feed are very expensive) along with that of visiting him at least once a year, this is a much cheaper solution. We also know how difficult it was to find suitable livery in Australia for an older horse with the kind of health issues which Gulliver had.

      For the moment Farinelli is very healthy and hopefully this will remain the case. But older horses get issues and we would like to be there for him if he does.

      Be well!
      Andrew