Claire Heenan
I was a typical horse mad young girl – with non-horsy parents that were wise enough not to ‘buy me a pony’! I knew all the horses and ponies in the suburb and rode most of them as some stage. My parents did indulge me in school holiday camps – one of which was at Willow Park where I was awe-struck watching Miguel Tavora work his horses each day.
When I had finished Uni, had a job and a car, I got my first horse. Strauss was straight off the track (aged 6yo!), huge (I am only 155cm tall) and slightly bonkers! It was a short lived partnership for which we are both grateful. My second horse was Kahlua. A definite ‘love job’ – the well-bred 2yo bag-of-bones spur-of-the-moment purchase that grew into more of the ugly duckling than the beautiful swan. He was built down hill and extremely suspicious of people – not a dressage horse but now lapping up the life of a trail horse for a mature lady.
I have owned my current horse – Gwaihir Dom Perignon, since he was 2yo. He is an Arabian WB and such a fun horse. He is kind hearted and willing to have a go. I live by the one-horse, one-husband rule (two horses, no husband), so Dom has to do dressage, jumping, eventing, trail riding and giving my horse-mad nieces pony rides. Competitively, we stick mostly to dressage, but last year we started (baby) eventing (aged 36!). It was just something that I thought I would like to do. After a few miscommunications (see picture), and the EI interval, we are having a more enjoyable time!
Although I am passionate about horses, I have to live in the real world of full-time work & family, so Dom finishes well down the list (don’t worry he still eats well!). Marvellous Dom has to progress in dressage and eventing (and put up) with 2 rides/week –he is kind hearted and talented and I am lucky to own him.