How it Began

An old boy who passed away in his 34th year left some very sad but very privileged people behind, me being one, and always loathe to use the phrase 'he was a nice person' about animals, he was one of the nicest people I ever met. I'm not suggesting that he didn't have a wicked sense of humour or that he didn't know how to wind you up, he did, but he also had an uncanny sense of knowing when things were not well and just took your mind off it with a push of his nose or a look or a whinny or sometimes simply tolerating what you wanted to do even though you could tell he thought you were mad.

He seemed to have almost a sixth sense when it came to people with real problems and, strange as it may seem, they seemed to seek his company and gain comfort from him. Who was he, Pedro a Connemara Pony, what was he, the co-founder of a children's charity called Hampshire Riding Therapy Centre. The other half of the , partnership was his friend for 20 years, Kerie Coutts, a diabetic from childhood who with Pedro has opened the stable doors for many children allowing them to achieve what they never thought possible.

Originally the Centre was for diabetic children and literally scores have passed through its gates since opening in 1994, many of the original children still here today acting as 'Buddies' for new arrivals, Pedro taught them that too. The whole philosophy of the Centre and its teaching techniques are based on what was learned from watching him and applying it. When Kerie first had Peds she was, on her own admission, not the rider she is today and because of being a diabetic some sports were thought too dangerous or too difficult to control her sugar levels but she had always wanted to ride so the minute she could, she bought a horse. She found this Connemara Pony going for a song because it just hadn't lived up to its potential and had not succeeded in the show ring. She bought Pedro. A few months later she went to her first show totally unprepared and entered a jumping competition, strangely enough one of the competitors was Pedro's old owner, the responsibility to perform was Pedro's, Kerie openly admits it was one of the most terrifying things she has ever done, they won. The levels are different but Steve Redgrave must have shared similar experiences when he started rowing. The first part of an ethos is born, if you want it enough you can do it.

Kerie's thought was if I can others can, but how? A trip to America and a diabetic clinic provided many answers. Many of the staff were diabetics, including doctors, and they had not only achieved themselves but were helping others, allaying fears and building confidence simply because they could view the condition from the perspective of having it as well as being able to treat it. One of their simplest doctrines was, more or less, reach for the stars and at worst you'll make the tops of the trees. All that Kerie had to do was work out how to give children the chance to reach.

Time to think about Pedro again and children with special needs. Lots of things fell into place by accident. Children visiting Kerie's first yard and handling Pedro showed the confidence it can give a child to know they have the ability to move and handle something so large and strong compared to them. She also learned it is important to have horses and ponies that have the patience to cope with clumsy hands or slow or awkward movements. Children learn about rewards and more importantly to reward, they find strategies for coping. Horses are good listeners, children like to talk to them, problems are shared and halved, sometimes problems are solved, One young man came to the Centre having been diagnosed diabetic at 6 years old, when he arrived he was 13 and had not spoken a word since diagnosis. There were other complications that I shall not go into, after several visits he stayed for a whole week. On one particular day the words 'Good boy' were heard from the stall where he was grooming, now he never shuts up. There are many other similarities between horses and a variety of conditions, for example diet applies to many illnesses, as we all know horses diets are controlled and relate to the work they do and their type and condition, children more readily accept their diets if they actually learn about and feed the horses learning about the beneficial effects of the appropriate diet. Mind you Pedro never was too keen on the children trying his feed nor the word diet, perhaps he should have been named Oliver.

This is not the place to expand on the work of the charity but suffice to say we are full to the rafters not only with diabetics but children with a variety of conditions and if you ever happen to pop in on a Sunday it's hard to work out whether we are a school, a playground, a leisure centre, a car park or maybe, just maybe, a riding therapy centre. What do we really offer, Pedro's own invention and our trading name 'Horsepitality'.

It has to be said that after Pedro's death there was definitely something missing at the Centre and although the work continued and there are nearly 30 horses and ponies here now the children were looking for something. Kerie decided that the place was founded on a Connemara Pony and that was the missing ingredient. You have to remember that in Pedro's final years at the Centre he was a member of staff therefore he roamed at will, choose his own fields to graze, met visitors and would always spend time with the children, particularly if he spied one looking lonely. The odd Polo seemed to help lengthen counselling visits but they always appeared to work wonders. Many people thought Kerie might be misguided and she almost gave up looking for there was no Pedro to be found.

Eventually she heard about a pony that had been successful in a variety of competitions but more importantly had looked after Pia Fitzgerald, a young lady that had a serious illness. We met her mother, Roseanne Fitzgerald, who took time to learn about the Centre and eventually she introduced Kerie to Kingsmill Bailey. What can one say, it was love at first sight and unbelievably Pedro was standing right in front of her once again. People still mistake him for Pedro to this day and there were genuine tears of happiness from so many children when Roseanne kindly allowed him to become a therapist at the yard. Of course he's not Pedro but he is a genuinely nice person in his own right and he has brought a totally new set of values and aspirations to children who attend. He is a very special competition pony at the height of his prowess and I would suspect some of you reading this might have heard his name. Kerie, last season, for the first time in some time took to the competition circuit with 'Bee Bee', some of the children find Kingsmill Bailey a bit of a mouthful, and won at several County Shows. He has taken on his own form of therapy, he's the stars to reach for, every single child here has aspirations now to ride him, they might not make it but they'll hit the tree tops.

You'd think we'd solved the problem, we thought we had but there was more to come. Prior to meeting 'Bee Bee' Kerie had seen at shows a Connemara called Rosenaharley Rymar and always felt even though he did not look like Pedro there was something about him that drew her to him. Out of the blue his owner rang Kerie one day and offered him to her. Cutting a long story short, he's here and so is Pedro's way of dealing with people. He has time for everybody and people make time for him. It's wonderful to see a child sidle up to him, watch him cock his head to one side, sit back and listen. Even the remuneration is the same, one Polo per counselling session. He, like Kingsmill Bailey, has also given the children aspirations and Rachel, a diabetic since a toddler and with us for the past six years, had her own stars, to ride at Alresford County Show in Hampshire. She not only rode at the Show on 'Rymee' she won, for her just a bit above the treetops. Perhaps the last thing to say about the charity is if you're ever in the area pop in and say hello to find out more.

I'll finish where I started, with Pedro. There are two stories left to tell, one is true and the other is fiction but we like it. The true story stunned everybody and probably gave rise to the second. Pedro passed quietly away at the Centre and is buried here but at the moment he was laid to rest, remembering it had been a wet miserable day, the most brilliant rainbow appeared in the sky seeming to bridge his final resting place. Pedro had a whorl right in the middle of his forehead and the children always said he was a unicorn visiting earth and that was where his horn should be, we occasionally see shooting stars here and the children are convinced it's Pedro just checking we're still doing things his way. Who's to say they're not right.