A Life Like Charlie

In January 1997 I bought a foal.

I had attempted to breed a foal from my Pony Club mare, Bessie, by my friend's fabulous Crabbet Arabian stallion, but on the first attempt Bessie had come home empty.

I saw an ad in the paper 'Foals $99' with a phone number. Somehow I managed to borrow a float and convinced my stepfather to tow it for me. We traveled to a dusty property in what is now a suburban area to the north of Melbourne. I handed over $100 in cash to a rough-looking old bloke. He gave me a dollar change and the last foal he had left - a small bay colt with a black spot on his bottom and a small heart-shaped star high on his forehead who was about to be weaned as well as haltered for the first time.

His mother was a boxy-looking leopard-spotted mare roughly 12 hands in height. The foal did not look old enough to wean, but I reasoned with myself that if I didn't take him someone else soon would. A few rough-looking younger blokes manhandled the foal into the float and we set off for home.

Charley the day he came home, January 1997.

My foal-handling experience at that point was pretty much non-existent, but I was well-read on the topic and figured it couldn't be too hard. I had not long read a story about a pit pony named Charley, and I decided that would be a good name for my new pony.

Charley grew, was gelded, attended a couple of shows in-hand as a youngster, and when he was 3yo I started him under saddle. I long-reined him, backed him, taught him aids for walk, trot and canter, and he picked up every new task with ease, despite my relative inexperience.

Then one day he responded to my requests with 'what if I don't want to?'. Assuming I had missed something or taken the process too quickly, I simply took him back to basics and went through the whole process again.

From there everything went smoothly. We took up showing under saddle and despite his humble origins we had enough success to make it fun. After he turned 4yo we played around with a bit of showjumping. He was so honest and easy to take out. In my early 20s I was a quite a lightweight, despite being average height. But at only a little over 12.2hh and styled like a scaled-down sporthorse, Charley was always going to need a smaller rider than me to take him further.

Charley at Daylesford Show around 2001. Myself dressed in a non-safety velvet show hat, banana jodhpurs, home-made jacket and not a three-horse angle load float in sight.

I was fortunate to find him a lease home with a family I knew through the local Adult Riding Club. His young rider had loads of success with him, winning rider classes and competing up to Grade 3 dressage at Pony Club. She had regular lessons with good coaches and gave Charley a wonderful solid foundation and plenty of exposure. When his rider was ready to move on to a bigger horse, Charley came home. He was now 6yo.

I sold him through a friend shortly after this and assumed I would never see him again. I did stumble across an ad for him in Horse Deals a few years later, where he was named Charlie Brown and had a big price tag.

Then one day, just a couple of years ago, a friend put up a photo she had taken at her Pony Club in Tasmania. The photo was of her big Warmblood mare with her little friend, a pony named Charlie Brown.

I took one look at that little face with the high heart-shaped star and posted the comment 'is Charlie Brown an older fellow, around 13hh, with a black spot on his bottom?'.

He was indeed. After nearly 20 years, quite by accident, I had found my Charley.

As often happens with unregistered horses who change hands a few times, Charlie had lost a few years. His owners believed him to be 22yo, but by this time he was actually 26yo. He was still competing and winning. That year he was Champion Pony Club Mount at the Royal Hobart Show.

A couple of days ago I got a message from Hannah, Charlie's current care-giver, who is easing him into retirement. He will be 28yo this spring, and is still being ridden lightly. He has a wardrobe of cozy rugs, gets fed separately, given supplements for his ageing joints, has a best horsey friend named Storm and a human family who loves him dearly.

It was Hannah's comment 'I hope he (Storm) has a life like Charlie's' that inspired me to write this post.

Charlie is a backyard-bred pony with no pedigree who has worked his whole life. He has had several young riders since I first handed him over to the family who leased him. At some stage he took the big boat ride from Victoria to Tasmania.

I've always trained my ponies the same as my big horses, and despite being my first 'breaker', Charlie was no exception. But he was a quick learner from day one, and honestly if all horses were that easy to train for riding I'd have kept doing it. His inherent soundness made work easy for him, even starting out with an adult rider. His no-nonsense attitude made him a safe mount for a sensible child from a young age.

I'd like to take credit for his ability to make friends wherever he went in life, and I did my very best for him, but it really was all Charlie. All I did was give him the best start I could while I had him.

It is so heartening to find out that he has been and continues to be appreciated and cared for into his senior years. You really can't hope for much better than that for a pony you send off into the world.