My mum inherited a horse from one of her clients in 1996. His name was Power Game (Power, for short) and he was a show jumping horse, and the kindest horse you ever met. However, standing 1,80m at his back, he was also quite tall for 9- and 6-year-old girls. Although we rode him regularly, we decided in 1998 to buy an Icelandic Pony, called Lucky Boy, as ponies are not that tall. However, Lucky turned out to be a little devil (he constantly threw even Western Champions off...), so we decided to sell him and found Aaron instead, who at 1,65m was taller than Lucky (1,32m) and shorter than Power. Power Game died 24 years old in 2007 out on the pasture.

Aaron was only 4 when we first rode him and like Power a "Westfale". We agreed to take him for a two-week trial period, before we finalised the contract. That first night we had him, I rode him around the arena at night. Slowly walking him, long reigns, just so he could get used to the new surroundings. Then "Popeye", a stallion, played up next to the arena (the wall is only should-high, so you can see the boxes and horses on that side of the arena) and Aaron saw and heard it, and well, freaked. Off he went, and I tried to hang on. I'd lost the reigns when he bolted, and one of my feet had slipped through the stirrup. I'd lost the other. Somehow, I managed to get him to slow down again, got him to go on a circle and eventually was told by a fellow rider to just let him run into her horse, as her horse (coincidently a cousin of Power) was so old, he wouldn't be bothered. I did that and it worked, until Aaron turned around and cantered off in the other direction, the stallion still playing up. That threw me so much, that I lost balance and fell off, but because my foot was caught in the stirrup, I couldn't quite roll off. I landed halfway across Aaron's path and thought he'd run me over, but as soon as he felt my weight shift, he stopped. And when I was laying there in the sand, he touched my face with his nose and had a look in his eyes, as if he wanted to say "Oh no, did I cause that? Please don't be mad!!"

I believe all my back problems started that night, as I was taken to hospital, x-rayed three times and then told: "You've broken a vertebrae", "You've splintered a facet joint" and "You've just twisted your neck a bit" in that order, without ever getting it fixed properly. I don't blame Aaron for what happened. He was new, he freaked. I blame the stallion's owner, who slapped the stallion and caused him to play up and didn't stop or ever apologise when I fell off.

Don't get me wrong! I LOVE this horse!!! But in horseback riding, you should get back in the saddle as soon as you've fallen off. Maybe it's the fact that I wasn't able to, but I was always cautious riding him. Never letting the reigns get too long again. Every other horse I didn't know, I could take cross country, jump with it and be fine with everything, but although I did jump with Aaron, and rode him regularly when I was younger, and I trusted him, there was always this feeling of "if you fall off again, it'll really hurt!"

In a just-for-fun competition at our stable, I therefore opted to ride Power instead. I did fall off him a few times as well (especially when I tried to jump with him, and he stopped in front of the caveletti - and I fell off, cos I'd already shifted balance for the jump - and he looked at me as if to say "That's beneath my dignity!". After all, when he was a professional show jumping horse, he regularly entered the second hardest and hardest competition classes). But with Power, I could always get back on right away.

I stopped riding regularly, when I went to New Zealand. The fact, that the stable was a 30-minute drive to the end of town away from our house, buses only run there irregularly, and I focused on school, meant that over the last few years my sister and my mum took over looking after Aaron (my sister and I were co-owners of Aaron). Aaron and Power became really close friends, woud hesitate to go anywhere, where they couldn't see each other. When Power died, Aaron spent weeks looking and grieving for him.

Although there was only one horse to look after when Power died, the time and money factor became issues. My sister found other interests and I live in a different country, so most nights it was my mum and a girl from the stable who rode him or at least got him inside from the paddock. We love Aaron, but in the end we weren't doing him any favours. That, and the people who took over the stable concentrated on Western style riders, and ignored "us" English style (dressage, jumping) people.

However, the new owner doesn't live too far away! And according to my mother, who made the deal, we are allowed to visit and also ride him if we want to! It's a bit sad I never really got to say goodbye to Aaron, but I'm sure I will see him again!

So long, "Hörnchen"!