‘I thought I was going to die’: mare bought for £1 as unrideable becomes horse of a lifetime and excels at Royal Windsor
The owner of a mare who was sold for £1 as “unrideable” but was placed twice at Royal Windsor this year has paid tribute to the relationship she shares with her horse of a lifetime.
Amanda Stewart and Irania II came second in a PRE ridden class and third in the PRE parade class, achieving Amanda’s long-term goal of competing at Windsor – and outdoing it by doing so well.
“I’m still on a high,” Amanda told H&H. “I’m 60 now, she’s 17 and it was this year, now or never, so I put my all into it.”
Amanda bought Irania, also known as Mrs Spain, just after Covid. She explained that she had had to give up riding, as she had to bring up her children solo and work, but still volunteered in the horse world in her spare time. Then she saw Irania in a field.
“I spoke to the owner and she said she was thinking of getting rid of her and I could try her so I found my old saddle and bridle – luckily they both fitted,” Amanda said. “I asked the owner what she was going to do and she said ‘I don’t want her, can’t ride her, don’t like her’. She said ‘Just have her’. So I said we had to make it formal, so she said ‘Well, a pound’. So I said ‘Ok, let’s do it’.”
Amanda said Irania was the most thrilling horse she had ever ridden.
“I think that’s the only way I can explain it,” she said. “She was so fast but very unpredictable; she’d plant, paw the ground, whip round. I said to the lady who had the yard ‘I’m 55, how on earth am I going to be able to ride this horse when I’m 60?’ She said ‘She’ll calm down’. But I’m 60 now, and that still hasn’t happened!”
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Amanda said she took Irania on despite her issues as a project; she liked the mare and her speed.
“She was an enigma,” she said. “I thought ‘Can I unravel this?’ I was curious as to what had gone on; she’s covered in scars on the side, from I’d say Spanish stirrups or spurs, and marks all across her nose. I thought ‘This horse has had such a bad time, I’m going to see what I can do with you’.”
Irania was sour in the school and did not want to go forward, Amanda said, so she thought they could hack out happily together.
“I did scare some people once, when she was going sideways down a road; this older couple out for their Covid walk and they grabbed each other and went into a bush as I was clattering down the road sideways thinking ‘Maybe you’ve taken on a bit much here, Amanda’!” she said.
“But I thought I was going to persevere. So I went to the first sponsored ride after Covid, organised by the Berks and Bucks Draghounds, thinking it would be nice and easy. There were about 500 horses there and I thought I was going to die.
“I thought ‘This is where I meet my maker’, because she was planting, spinning round, she couldn’t cope. I was as white as a sheet, the people I was with were saying ‘What do we do? Do we go back?’ But we couldn’t even go back because she was just rooted to the spot.
Over-horsed?
“I just thought ‘You really have over-horsed yourself’. I consider myself not a bad horsewoman but not only was I potentially endangering myself but other riders, because she was just so unreliable, and unrideable.”
Somehow, Amanda, her friends and the horses made it home via the short route, but Amanda was determined to find the key to Irania. She took her on hound exercise with the Berks and Bucks, which was something of a turning point as Irania learned to go forward and enjoy herself. They took part in some local shows – and Amanda decided to aim for Windsor.
“Royal Windsor Horse Show, to me, has been better than Horse of the Year Show or anything,” she said. “It’s almost my local show and it’s just so prestigious in my eyes, I really, really wanted to aim for it.
“So I went last year, and it was absolutely dreadful! The carriages came out of the corner, from behind us, and we and two other horses shot across the arena. We were asked to leave; we had to do the walk of shame, and I thought ‘Well, that was my two minutes and 10 seconds out of the window’.
“But then I was sitting by the lorry, feeling very sorry for myself, and a lady came over and said ‘I hope you don’t give up’. I said ‘Why do you say that?’ and she said ‘You’ve got a cracking horse, you mustn’t give up’. That lady knows who she is, and she inspired me to keep going.”
Amanda investigated Irania’s history; she found her breeder, and a man called Jesus who had trained her in Spain, although there are three years of her life that are still unaccounted for.
She also carried out extensive research into riding Spanish horses, and took advice from experts including Suzanne Kalderen, to learn the “Spanish buttons to press”.
“There were times I didn’t understand what she was doing,” she said. “There were a couple of times when I first got her, we’d be doing passage up the road around the housing estate, and I wasn’t entirely sure what we were doing. I just knew that there was something very talented about her and I had to tap into it, and that’s what I did.”
Amanda had other challenges to contend with too; she broke three ribs and her back in three places, and punctured a lung, in a fall from Irania when her girth came loose as she was practising her gallop.
“So we couldn’t do Windsor 2023 as I was in too much pain but it wasn’t her fault,” she said. “She’s just so fast; I don’t know if she has been in a bullring but she can turn on a sixpence and whip round so fast, I assume maybe she was taught to do that at some point.”
But after all the challenges, and having said initially she would not give Windsor another go, Amanda then put her all into it this year; riding and training every day around working and all the DIY livery duties.
A dream come true
“It’s thankless, but it was so worth it, to be able to go to Royal Windsor Horse Show and be up there with the professionals was a dream come true,” she said. “And I think she was the only horse to be placed in both classes.
“The first class is essentially a sort of hunter class and we came second, then the second was the parade class, where you dress up and parade, which is ideal for me. You do Spanish walk, it has to involve passage, shoulder-in, and I rode alta escuela, or high school, so you do all these elaborate movements – and I was in my element.
“I just thought to be there, I’d ticked that off the bucket list. And the two stallions above me were just amazing; doing one-time changes, then there was me, a little amateur on my £1 horse, with another professional behind me.”
Amanda said she would be delighted if anyone were to read her story and realise that they could do the same.
“If I can do this, anyone can,” she said. “I was in a car crash when I was 17, and my best friend was killed. I wasn’t driving but if I learnt anything at that age, it’s that we never know how much time we’ve got left; if you can do it, do it. And if anybody can learn from, or take any confidence from me, be my guest.”
And Amanda paid tribute to the horse she bought as a project, to hack, for a pound.
“We’ve just got a really amazing partnership,” she said. “I promised her I’d never sell her; I’ve had offers of a lot of money to buy her but I’ll never sell her. She owes me nothing, and she’s my horse of a lifetime.”
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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.