Harry & Britta Francis

Hello
I thought i would share the story of my beloved 22 years young Tb who has become a therapy horse and a vital part of my life in dealing with a very debilitating and disabling illness as we have had much fun through the VHS and your shows and were 2nd in 2006 at the south west regionals which reduced me to tears because we had achieved this despite severe disability and he has become my legs and my whole life.....

Harry

In 2003, I did my dissertation and final year research project on the impact of equines on the level of communication used by autistic children. I based my research on a group of children with severe autism, recording their communication in the school environment and then at the riding centre. My research showed that the children used significantly more communication at the riding centre; one even used speech for the first time whilst riding!

I did this as part of my degree in speech and language therapy. I've ridden more or less all my life and knew horses could be very powerful and help emotionally, so I wanted to look into this further.

Unbeknown to me, my research was to take a whole new twist, for during my degree I became very unwell. I was eventually diagnosed with severe ME / CFS, and although I tried to continue with my degree, I collapsed during my final clinical placement, was rushed to hospital and ever since then I have been too unwell to continue. I have had to move home where my parents act as my carers as my symptoms have worsened. The muscle spasms and tremors and cognitive problems mean I am unable to look after myself any more. I struggle with the dyslexia and dyspraxia elements of the illness and have difficulty typing. I have had to give up my training and my career, my independence and all my hobbies and sport. Little did I know the most wonderful character and gentleman, a miracle on 4 hooves was to enter my life...

exactly 2 years ago a friend had an elderly horse she was about to bring back into work following a tendon injury. He was 20 years old. She suggested I have him on a free loan; she would pay all the bills and keep and I could just ride him. He couldn't do any more than 5 minutes' steady walk and I couldn't cope with any more, so we seemed well suited. So it was that Harry entered my life! He has proved to be such an incredible horse. I want to share how Harry is helping me with a very physical illness, and how much he helps me deal with it mentally and emotionally. There is always a dark side to these illnesses that nobody else sees. It is always Harry who gets me through them and out the other side. This is a true story about how Harry turned from a fast top level eventer and affiliated dressage horse into the most wonderful therapy horse and became the legs and the world of his now disabled rider.
It took time for Harry to get better. We started with 5 minutes' walk and gradually over 3 months built up to one and a half hours in walk before introducing 4-5 strides of trot. Then, building up painstakingly slowly, a month later we introduced canter again very slowly and gradually built up until he reached full fitness. He is very forward going and strong at times and to start with had to be ridden on acp [equine tranquilliser] to keep him in walk. By the second week of exercise, we had to change to his 3 ring bit for brakes to keep him in walk, but he totally changed and adapted into his new role as a therapy horse. He has learned to recognize when I am really unwell and goes so steadily. He will still put in a few very slow motion spooks because he knows they make me laugh, but it's so slow there is no way I can fall off; he just knows how to look after me.

If I was feeling a bit better he was more active and lively. He changed the way he went according to how he sensed I was feeling. It was as if he just knew by magic exactly what was needed. I don't know how he knew, but he just did and adapted to it. He had to learn to ignore my legs in spasm. He was trained to respond to the slightest aid, so initially when my legs went into spasm he went forwards faster! He quickly learned, however, that spasms were different to aids, and soon he learned to totally ignore my legs in spasm. Yet, if I asked with the lightest of aids, he did what I asked for instantly. It was as if he was telepathic and seemed to read my mind. Our relationship grew and grew as the trust deepened. You simply couldn't help falling in love with him.
I could no longer walk very far but now, on him, I could go to the places I used to love walking in, for he carried me there. He became the light in my life, my focus, my hope and most importantly my strength. There were times when the constant, severe pain and feeling so unwell did get a bit too much to handle. When I'd hit rock bottom a few times, Harry would always be there and always completely changed how I felt. I would go from crying my eyes out to smiling and laughing because he was there. He had a magical way of making me forget all the pain and illness, to totally escape and have the courage to be me again, for I had lost all my confidence.

I could no longer go out in the evenings as a lot of my friends left me when I became too ill and therefore too boring. Harry became my best friend and my soulmate: there was nothing he didn't know and I would often sit talking to him or cry into his mane or his strong, muscular shoulder. He gave me confidence- when I was on him I would talk to people I met. When I wasn't I'd be too shy and daren't even look at other people.

Everybody says what a change he has made in me. Every time I talked about him I'd be smiling. When I was hypnotized (a treatment for pain management), I'd picture him and apparently I would even smile while I was 'under'. When I had to have the painful injections I needed fortnightly, I'd be in too much pain to ride him, but just cuddling him made the pain easier. I would develop sudden, horrendous migraines while I was with him and he would sense it and stood patiently. When I got off he put his nose in my lap to look after me.

Because of his wonderful nature, and with enormous help from my friends and family, we lived out our dream and competed in the summer in the Ridden Veteran Classes. We went to our first county show. Harry looked after me: we were 2nd and 3rd, and qualified for the Area and Regional championships, and the Shows' championships. That September, we were 2nd at the Regional Championships. I could never have achieved this on any other horse. I couldn't have ridden any other horse for that long or at that level (as it was I was left bedbound for nearly a week afterwards). Harry knew this and just did it all for me: I didn't have to use my legs on him at all. He knew what I wanted and performed incredibly, and as a result made every dream come true and has given me the happiest of memories.

Harry has made all my dreams come true and taken me further than I had dared dream. We hadn't had any training in Equine Assisted Therapy or riding for the disabled. All our work was based on what I have what I learned from my project, and from reading and learning about therapeutic riding, even though what I read was often on an unrelated illness and situation, and we were picking it up as we went along. Harry continued to get me through each day and each low patch and would always be there to bounce and spring with happiness for the highs.

Our relationship and trust deepened. Harry would greet me with a nicker whenever I arrived. He would follow me around if he wanted to be ridden and he sensed exactly how I was feeling. I started riding him bareback. Eventually as my balance improved, we would ride as often bareback as we would with a saddle. Harry gave me back my confidence and we started jumping again. He took me round the Hunt fun ride and he took me down the road to see HRH the Queen and HRH the Duke of Edinburgh when they visited the village for I wouldn't have been able to walk that far. He has taken me to my absolute favourite place in the world, up on the Mendip Hills where you can see for miles, a place I'd not been able to go to for years for my legs were too weak to walk there any more. Harry became my legs and carried me with great ease as we cantered up the hill and stood admiring the view of the land spread out all around us.

We went hunting over winter. I fell off the second time and, as I was walking him back up to the gate, I could barely stand as it was slippery and my legs were shaking. Somehow Harry knew and I was able to lean against his shoulder while he held me up and walked steadily beside me until we got to a bit where I could get on him again. The following May we were invited to do a display as part of the BHS Pageant of the Horse at the Royal Bath & West Show, where we appeared in the main ring every afternoon as they told our story as an example of the relationship between horse and human.

Hopefully mentioning how I was so ill with M.E. / CFS will have helped raise awareness of the illness and how disabling it can be. They spoke about how I had to give up my University degree and my career as a result of my illness. Harry proved a star and adored being clapped and cheered as we made our way round the main ring to the song 'Amazing Grace' while our story was told over the loudspeakers. It was magical. I'd always dreamed of riding in that main ring one day, right from the first time I ever went to the show. Little did I realise one day that dream would come true and I'd do it on the best horse that has ever entered my life.
As time went by, my health became more complicated. I became more disabled with problems with my spine, and it was Harry who helped me face how I was feeling. All the time I'd put on a brave face but one morning I went down to Harry, having had x-rays that showed I'd probably be facing spinal surgery, and I leaned against his shoulder and burst into tears and felt it was OK to let the tears flow. Everybody believed in the brave face I'd been putting on, everyone except Harry. He had known how I was really feeling and it was him who let me feel safe enough to admit how I really felt and let out the tears of worry and uncertainty. Once I'd wiped the last tears off I buried my face in his fluffy neck and kissed him and patted him and thanked him. Something about Harry that had made me feel it was OK to show my true feelings. Horses can see beneath the fronts we may put on. They know exactly how we are feeling even if we don't know exactly ourselves and Harry had helped me come to terms with it all.
Whenever I rode it was as if we magically merged into one. I would happily canter down the fields bareback on him and feel so free and at ease, as if somehow I had become part of him, moving with his every move, effortlessly. Harry became not only my horse of a lifetime but my lifeline. I didn't need a wheelchair because I had Harry. With Harry, I have lived out and realised my dreams of riding at county level, and gone one better than I'd dreamed and gone to regional level. He has taught me dressage, I've ridden in the moonlight, I've galloped up the bit of the common I always used to pretend to gallop along on my imaginary horses, and, finally, we have been hunting after years of me dreaming of being able to ride to hounds again.
More importantly, he has put a smile on my face every day. He has become my focus, my passion and my hope. He is my legs and takes me to places I can no longer manage to walk to. Harry has not only become my therapy but my whole life.

By Britta Francis