My special pantomime horse

I put Wolfie's rain sheet on the other night, I have been trying to leave him unrugged for as long as possible to allow his winter coat to come through, but the rain was icy cold. As I was hit on the head by Wolfie's rubber feed bucket, which he was throwing around the stable in an effort to alert me to the fact that it was indeed empty, I thought 'this is it', feeling slightly morose, 'it's dark, it's cold, it's winter again.' He hasn't worn this rug since last year, when it was too big. It only now just fits him, with all the straps extended. It got me to thinking to how much he has grown and developed in the last 18 months.

Wolfie is a born entertainer and performer and loves nothing better than an audience. I am so used to having his head and feet in everything that I do that I no longer really notice. It's only when people come up to me to retell tales of his antics that every day that I realise he makes at least one person smile a day. He greets anyone anyone coming up to the stables like his long lost friend, whether it is other liveries, the bin men, post man or the men fixing the road. Everyone thinks that Wolfie likes them more than anyone else, as he makes the effort all the time to go over and talk. What they don't realise is that Wolfie thinks that they have come especially to see him, not vice versa! He has such a lovely outlook on life.

During the summer I was down in the field pulling ragwort. Anyone who has ever undertaken this task knows that it is critical that it is done, but is like painting the Forth Road Bridge in that there is always another piece to be pulled. Wolfie was highly entertained that I was in the field with a wheelbarrow and plastic bags. He loves to chase the wheelbarrow as it is being pushed. I had been at it for a few hours and had piled up full bin bags of ragwort in the wheelbarrow which I had left sitting whilst I continued to pull. Thinking that he had been very quiet for a while, I turned to see him over at the wheelbarrow. He had knocked the wheelbarrow over, ripped the bags open and was now happily scattering the ragwort around with his feet! He's got a great sense of humour.

Looking at how much he has changed and grown fills me with pride. I read an article on schirrous chord the other day (the infection which Wolfie had to go to the Vet School for). It said that it is notoriously difficult to treat with antibiotics and even with surgical intervention, the prognosis is usually hopeless. Wolfie was in terrible condition anyway, skin and bone and he had a severe infection with two huge abscesses formed at his gut wall, yet he survived. I know now that although he obviously had expert medical treatment, he also wanted to live more than anything.