My mother used to say that the very first word I spoke wasn’t Mummy or Daddy – it was horsey. I am entirely willing to believe her.
Like most young girls, I loved horses. But in my case, it was a love affair I never grew out of.
Circumstances over the years changed the nature of my relationship with horses, but I’ve never lost that first great love, as evidenced by the fact that of all the books I’ve written, only one does not include horses. For that one, I had to go to Antarctica.
With all that in mind, it won’t surprise you to know that on my recent trip to Melbourne, I spent a lovely afternoon exploring the National Gallery of Victoria’s exhibition entitled – you guessed it – The Horse.
The first thing that struck me as I walked through the gallery was the incredible depth and breadth of the work on display. From the ancient world to the modern, from the Far East, through Europe to the New World: everywhere people have lived… horses have lived too (including Antarctica).
The horse has touched every facet of our lives – from the most basic use as a beast of burden, or a source of food and skins to religion and legend, warfare, art and fashion.
Horses of course, aren’t the only creatures we have held so close. Sheep and cattle feed and clothe us. Dogs are our loyal companions as well as working for us. And cats – well, cats have their own universe which they condescend to allow us to share.
Our relationship with horses is all of these are more – and here’s my thoughts on why…
Horses are smart – equal to or even more than dogs and cats. We like smart creatures.
When you spend time with horses, they respond to you and they look at you with awareness. They will wait to see you and greet you with recognition and obvious pleasure. You don’t get that kind of response from a goldfish.
A horse is useful is many different ways.
Horses are stronger than we are, but at the same time they are willing to form a partnership with us.
Sitting on a horse makes us taller than everybody!
The hairs on their muzzle tickle as they sniff out faces and their eyes are like chocolate.
Horses have a sense of humour – they truly do. Not like pigs. Pigs have no humour at all.
Horses are warm and comforting – and burying your nose into a warm horse’s neck on a cold day feels just wonderful.
Riding a horse makes us faster and stronger then we could ever be on our own. It makes us feel powerful.
I could go on. And on. While there are many animals which give us some of these things – in my world, horses are the only ones that give us all this and more.
And to top it all off – they are beautiful.
The exhibition in Melbourne was a very pleasant few hours being reminded of my very first love. So – the next questions is – will there be horses in my next book?
Very probably.