Dear Diary
I had so much to tell you about my week…
I’d been out fun hacking with mum and my main man Billy, which was amazing; I’d done more jumping with Aunty T, which was fab; and even uploaded videos of me doing a minor amount of poncing onto my facebook pages.
I was going to moan about the fact mum let Aunt T give me a haircut and then PLAIT me like I’m some sort of girlie Barbie horse, which has left me having to walk about with a bucket on my head to hide the shame.
But I can’t.
Because it wouldn’t be right, not after the other events of this week. After we were given a poignant reminder of how precious life is and how suddenly it can be taken away. As I even type this I am still in shock, but tragically I have to tell you all we have lost my wingman Hot Stepper this week. He laid down for a summer snooze and fell asleep for eternity.
He was only a few years older than me, more talented than I can dream of being in a million lifetimes, and had gone some way to mending the hole Fit Mare had left in his mum’s heart.
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There aren’t words for how shocked we all are, but it does seem that life can be very cruel sometimes.
As I stand here in the field looking for a friend who will no longer come, I can smile as I think he’s probably with Sid, Bertie, Fit Mare, Arnie, Timmy and all the other horses we’ve loved and lost, teaching them all how to river dance in heaven.
So as I always do, I have written him a poem — my attempt to say goodnight to my wonderful high stepping friend:
“Sleep tight my friend, in peace now beYou’ve left us all behind, so suddenlyWe were robbed of the chance to say goodbyeBut you knew we were friends, you and IYou were my wing man, partner and friendAnd we’ll meet again at my journeys endFor now you’re at my shoulder running freeWherever I am, you’ll prance with meSo rest easy my friend, I’ll comfort them hereYour friends and your mum, who held you so dearLike all of us horses, you were only on loanAnd your time had come, god wanted you homeSo when I tell your mum to listen, to open her earSoftly whicker beside her, to tell her you’re hereSo when I tell her to look up high in the skyBring your spirit closer as you canter byYou’re now over the bridge, on the other sideWith all our beloved friends who’ve ever diedSo I won’t cry you friend, you’ll be back somedayWhen my time has come, you’ll show me the way”
In loving memory of Dino “Aka Hot Stepper”.
Hovis
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Hovis shared his weekly diary each Friday on the Horse & Hound website between 2008 and February 2025. Initially located on the popular H&H forum, he moved to the main website in February 2013. He published nine books, each to raise funds for his local equine welfare charity Bransby Horses. You can read all his diary entries below. H&H also published a final tribute to our much-loved equine contributor.
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