A woman who lost seven stone to be able to ride the horse she describes as “her world” said she loved every minute of being on board.
Andrea Knight rode for the first time in eight years last week, and it was the first time she had ever been able to sit on Bobby, whom she bought for £400 as a two-year-old in 2018, and is her “heart horse”.
“I’d been telling everyone for ever that I was going to do it,” she said. “He was amazing, an absolute star.”
Andrea was working in Sittingbourne, Kent, when she first saw Bobby and he was grazing on wasteland outside.
“I’d been going down to see him, and ended up going there at weekends to see him; we bonded really quickly,” she said. “Then I bumped into the people who owned him and said ‘Can I buy him?’ I didn’t know how old he was; he turned out to be only two, ungelded and a bit of a pickle! But I’d just fallen in love with him.
“He’s got two blue eyes, one white ear and one black; he’s just really special. He still comes as soon as I turn up, we’ve got a really special bond. He’s my world.”
By the time Bobby, a 15.2hh cob, was old enough to be backed, Andrea’s weight had crept up and it was 22 stone at its highest.
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“I was desperate to ride him; that was my biggest thing to lose weight,” she said. “I almost had bariatric surgery, and I was turned away twice; the second time on the day of the op. After that, I lost my confidence. I’d been doing a liver-shrinking diet, which made me lose a good amount on my own, so I just had it in my heart that maybe I shouldn’t have the operation. It is major surgery, and I’m nearly 47, so I thought I didn’t want it any more.”
A different approach
So Andrea’s GP prescribed her Mounjaro injections, thanks to which she is now 14 stone.
“It’s really good stuff,” she said. “It takes away the ‘food noise’, so I can focus on other things, and I still eat what I like, just less of it, and I’m not eating unless I’m hungry. At Christmas, I could still have Christmas dinner, whereas if I’d have had the bariatric surgery, I’d have had to have had dinner through a straw for goodness knows how long. I’d waited and waited, then found this amazing drug that’s really helped me out.”
Andrea waited until she had lost more than enough to be an appropriate size for Bobby.
“I’ve got a really good loaner, Scarlett, who’s got him going really well,” she said. “It’s been horrible watching other people ride him, and I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to get on and off him, because I’ve got arthritis in my knees, but it was really good.
“I don’t want to jump or go fast; I’m happy to be a happy hacker. I just wanted to be able to ride him and I did, and it was so good. He must have realised what was going on; ‘Mum’s on board now’, and he was with me all the way. I’m very lucky.”
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Eleanor is an experienced journalist who spent over eight years working for local and national newspapers before joining H&H as news editor in March 2016. Passionate about equine welfare and exposing the truth, Eleanor has reported on all aspects of the industry, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage rules to mules. Her sport of choice is showjumping, in which she competes her own horses, and she also enjoys reporting at local jumping shows through to international championships.
