MISSILE MAN

Special in many ways: tall, athletic, quick and agile. After racing for several years and winning the National Hunt in 2015, Vali’s stats began to drop and he was retired in 2017. In 2018 I was looking for another Thoroughbred ex-racer to re-school after Fizz was retired through recurrent lameness. With such a great height, I thought Vali could work well eventing and show jumping, or even become a happy hacker. I fell in love with his kind eyes and saw his potential, but it took time for him to adjust. Vali needed consistent feed times and reassurance or he would become anxious and self-harm. Many times I arrived to find him with cuts on his legs, side, face and chest. once he even managed to sever a facial nerve and his nose drooped so much that I thought he’d had a stroke! From that point onwards I nicknamed him ‘Mr Wonky’ and created a first-person (or horse) blog of the trials and tribulations of the rehabilitation and retraining of an ex-racer.

Vali is a cheeky chap, clever, knowing, artful, sarcastic and ever so condescending. He has a loving attitude, but also a strong will which can be awkward at times. He used to enjoy rearing on the main road and running backwards waving his legs in the air – all I could do was laugh, sit tight and kick him on. He never meant any harm and I loved every minute on board.

I’d begun schooling Vali to jump and he was absolutely loving it, but following a hind hock fracture, a big operation and 18 months of rest and recuperation, unfortunately he was still unable to take a rider’s weight. My hopes for an eventing future were shattered at only 10 years old, it felt that his life was over. Many people advised me to have him put to sleep as he could live another 10+ years, but I promised him a home for life the day I met him and that’s exactly what he has. He spends his days in the field annoying the other ex-racers while providing endless entertainment with his slips, trips, slides, tumbles and general clumsiness. I wouldn’t have him any other way.