Saturday 5 May 2012

...the winner of the Rockley Scholarship 2012 is...

First of all, I must say that it has been incredibly difficult choosing the scholarship horse and quite heartbreaking to have to email the applicants who weren't successful - apologies to all of you, whose horses are no less deserving than the winner.

Every application which arrived was detailed, an incredibly committed owner telling the story of the horse they love. Each horse had a unique appeal and each one tugged at our heartstrings and could have been a worthy winner.

The applications had been carefully written and were supported in most cases by superb references - in one instance it was the vet who had suggested that the owner apply, which was really encouraging.

At the end of the day, though, we had the unenviable job of picking a single winner.  It took a lot of discussion but our choice was eventually unanimous.  The winner is...
...M, an 8 year old ex-racehorse who has had a long history of lameness, poor feet and remedial farriery that did not, in the end, help him.  He will be arriving at Rockley shortly and of course there will be lots more about him in due course.
Please keep everything crossed for him, and send lots of good wishes out also to the horses whom we couldn't accept this time.

ETA: I've had a really kind email from one of the applicants who wasn't successful, sending M and his owner good wishes:

"Like everything with horses its way to easy to take things personally and everyone applying probably wanted it as much or even more than me. So logically we all need to support each other and our horses (we're all horse lovers after all lol)".

There are some lovely people out there...

10 comments:

M's mum said...

I am so excited, and still in a daze and disbelief, that M has won the scholarship place! I genuinely did not think we had any chance at all of winning. I am sending all the best wishes in the world to the owners of the other horses who applied - I truly know how hard it is when you love a horse with all your heart and only want to do the absolute best for them.

A big thank you to the person who emailed a reply to Nic that is in the blog post - Nic is 100% right, there truly are some lovely people out there. x

amandap said...

Wow great news for you and M M's mum. I'm so looking forward to seeing how M progresses and lovely to see another TB. x

I can't imagine the disappointment of all you others who applied. I wish your horses the best. x

Di said...

Good luck M !!!

cptrayes said...

Well that's one in the eye for all the horse and hound online sceptics who said you would only pick an easy one!

A TB

An ex racer TB who will have been shod too early and worked too hard too young.

And ex racer TB who has been lame for a long time and failed by remedial shoeing.

Well done you! I still can't quite get my head around your altruism in taking on this horse, you hardly need to do it as an advert, you have a waiting list.

I'm thrilled for his owner and have my fingers well crossed.

C

cptrayes said...

ps don't you KNOW that TB's are genetically unsuited to barefoot!!!

C :-)

Jassy Mackenzie said...

He looks like a beautiful horse and has amazing presence. Hope he joins the ranks of happy sound barefoot TBs soon!!!

M's mum said...

Thanks everyone, he is stunner isn't he! cptrayes, you've pretty much got it in a nutshell, there is nothing easy about this horse's case and I too am stunned at the generosity of Nic and her colleagues, as well as the amount of goodwill that's coming in our direction the last few days.

Nic Barker said...

LOL C - don't jinx us before he's even got here ;-) I love TBs, and I think they are actually as tough as old boots to be able to do half what most do, given that that so many have bad feet, ulcers, sore backs.

The fact that he was raced at 3 does, as you know, give us a serious challenge as his hooves will have been in "arrested development" but we will have to see how much he can improve them... Thanks for all the lovely good wishes - much appreciated by all of us :-)

Unknown said...

Beautiful horse and fantastic to see the ex-race horse winning this scholarship :) I will be following his Rockley journey with great interest!

Lainey said...

WOW, he is beautiful, good luck and he is in the best place ever. He couldn't be in a better place and hopefully Rockley will work it's magic as it is truely a magical place. xxxxxxxx