I am living my childhood dream… sort of. I fell in love with ponies, and later horses, the moment I first met one when I was four and started riding. From then on I lived and breathed them (literally – I kept my riding gloves under my pillow so I could sniff them before going to sleep). My family wasn’t in a position for me to have my own pony, so when I was old enough I spent all my spare time at my local stables helping out and riding, and just hanging out with my equine buddies. There were even pony club camps where we didn’t wash for a week and came home indistinguishable from our pony partners.

And then I went to university and for some reason, just stopped. I didn’t seek out a stables, stopped riding altogether, horses just became something I loved and used to ride. I’d always be happy to say hello to them in fields, but it never occurred to me to start riding again.

Fast forward twenty years, I am living on an organic farm in Galway, plenty of space for a horse, but it still seemed like an impossible dream to own one. And then came a chance to take a horse on loan, and so Porter came into my life, and my ten year old self cheered and fell in love and a year later I was able to buy him.

But the reality of dreams is a lot messier, involves a lot more cold hosing, vet wrap, mud, and has a good dose of more heartbreak and frustration than I could ever have realised. In the eight years that I have had him in my life, he has been my friend, my teacher, and I have learned a LOT. I have relearned how to ride, learned how to take care of a horse, how to nurse them back to health, how to calm them down, and so much more. I am pretty sure that any person with experience of horses would never have bought Porter! He is an ex-racehorse and very accident prone. As I write this article he is on box rest having overreached in the field and cut his heel. He is 21, not in possession of all his teeth, needs a ton of feed to keep his condition up, lights up at even the hint of a monster, is hot to ride, has sore joints, loses his expensive bar shoes in the mud… the list goes on….

AND YET… I love him. He is my friend, and when he is going well we have the most amazing partnership and can read what each other is thinking. Every time I ride him it is a gift, I appreciate every little thing he offers me, I am grateful for my time with him. He is so gentle and mannerly and kind. And because of that I don’t mind the hours I have spent dressing wounds, hand walking, cold hosing in the freezing rain, bandaging and all the rest.

Let’s break that down from the horse’s perspective. When you close your leg the horse finds it uncomfortable. This discomfort motivates response. When the response is correct you release your leg and the horse is no longer uncomfortable and thus the response is trained! By practicing this response it becomes reliable. By the same token the horse is poor at associating a signal with a response when the timeframe is extended. Their associated memory is between 3-5 seconds. If a horse refuses a fence it is largely a waste of time to smack them as they turn away from the fence as the horse cannot associate this punishment with the fence. This sort of correction usually does more for the rider’s temper than for the horse’s training.

The other great love in my life is art, and over the years I have evolved into a textile and coloured pencil artist. I like to create quite realistic portraits of animals which allow their spirit to shine through and create a connection with us. When using textiles I create a fabric collage and use my sewing machine to build up the pictures and develop lovely textures and patterns. I have been predominantly making wildlife portraits of different native animals and birds, but my latest collection of art that I am currently working on is an equine collection.

My love for horses, and drawing horses has never left me and I feel like I have come home with these latest pieces. In fact, that is what I titled my first piece, my blue horse, ‘Coming Home’. Growing up I drew horses over and over again, and when I reignited my passion for art a few years ago, it was horses that I first drew. It has taken me quite a while to start making artworks of horses. I think I felt I wouldn’t do them justice, but really, it makes perfect sense; we make art about what we are passionate about, and for me a big part of that is horses.

This year, as well as working on my equine collection, I am also taking bookings for commissions. I can create your horse (or dog or cat) in textiles or coloured pencils. There are details on my website www.intothewoods.ie, or you can contact me jen@intothewoods.ie.

I am delighted to be able to write for the Grassroots Gazette, and I will be sharing the ups and downs of my life with Porter plus some glimpses into my arty world of textiles and coloured pencils in my monthly article. I’m looking forward to sharing my journey with you.