Happy Anniversary, Gatsby!

Gatsby at his former home, the day I met him and decided to buy him!

Hello Old Sports, 

Wowie! Time sure does fly! It’s my anniversary with Spode today, can you believe it? I’m too busy eating all the food I could ask for, so Spode volunteered to write a guest post today. So I’m gonna keep snacking. Here’s what Spode has to say:

9 years ago ago today, I signed the papers and brought Gatsby home. Time with Gatsby has absolutely flown by, but when I stop and think about all we have done together, I really can’t believe we’ve fit all that into only 9 years! 

I can still remember the day I called up a farmer whose son had responded to my Kijiji ad looking for an untrained yearling draft cross. I was at CPHS, in fact, calling him in between volunteering in classes. He told me he might have a good horse for me, but he didn’t know how to email photos and gave me practically no information. He just told me I should come out and see him the next day. I had had a lot of responses to my ad searching for a grade untrained horse and had driven hours to see one just the weekend before, only to be disappointed. I wasn’t expecting much. 

When I pulled into the driveway of the farm in Richmond with my mum, it was obvious to her that I was in love at first sight. He was pushy, nosily looking for food, and came right up to the fence to greet us as we got out of the car. He didn’t really want to be touched though, was a little head shy, and tried to bite you if you touched his legs. We drove home and stopped at my old barn on the way to ask if I could board Gatsby, then called Prince, there. Then we scheduled his arrival and I booked a vet check…but I’m pretty sure Evangeline could have said anything and I still would have kept him! I was in too deep by that point! (Don’t ever come to me for horse purchasing advice-I’m too emotional!)

June 26th 2013, just after signing the bill of sale! 

So awkward looking back then!

Gatsby was a real learning curve, as my previous horse Zoodles whom I sadly lost earlier that year came to me as a seasoned, well trained former dressage school horse. Gatsby was a handful in comparison to say the least. He couldn’t be led when he first arrived, and he reared up and came down on my arm leaving me injured within the first week. There were several injuries in that first year, and my grandmother still talks about the time she came to watch me foolishly try to hitch him to a cart way too early in his training, and he came within centimetres of stepping on my head after he knocked me down flat. 

Nothing like a near death experience to tell you what an idiot you've been. And no, I never tried to hitch him to a cart again. 

Like I said, there have been a lot of injuries over 9 years! 

From teaching him to lead to getting on him for the first tie, to going to his first off property events: Gatsby and I have done a lot, and he has taught me a lot! As we get back into dressage after slowly recovering from lung issues, he’s still teaching me every day. 

First ever ride for Gatsby! It was so exciting!

He, of course, thought it was no big deal (I learned my lesson from the cart experience and took things slow!)

First canter!

First show!

This of course brings me to his many medical stories. He got his first bout of uveitis less than a year after I bought him, and then we had our adventures in ophthalmology and his life changing surgery that saved his eyesight. Little did I know it would just be the first of his many health issues, and many hospital and specialist visits around the world. 

That moment when the doctor who flew to Toronto from Florida tells you your horse is a good candidate for surgery! 

Gatsby's first time back in the paddock after recovering from eye surgery. He was feeling quite exuberant! 

Fast forward to 2016 and my little backyard, cattle farm horse was travelling first class on a flight to the U.K. for what I thought would be a permanent move. This horse has now been to more countries than I have as he hopped from European country to country when he flew there and back again in 2019. He’s even been on the Eurotunnel and the ferry from Dover. Gatsby the world traveller! It was never a question that he would be moving with me. I was all ready to move to the U.K., had a job lined up and everything planned out for living there, but my final step was calling up my vet Evangeline to ask if she thought it was safe for Gatsby to fly and it wouldn’t stress him out and cause uveitis. If she had said no, I never would have moved. 

He definitely enjoyed his three year holiday/adventure in the U.K!

In short, I have so many memories with this guy, both happy and heartbreaking, but through it all he has really remained the same horse I fell in love with when I pulled in the driveway 9 years ago and met my Prince. He’s pushy, he’s nosy, he’s opinionated and had never grown out of his equine ADHD, and he’s definitely still in your face 24/7, as all the barn staff who have ever met him can attest to. I wouldn’t have him any other way! 

Here’s to 9 years together, Gatsby, and may there be many, many more to come, Old Sport!