#14 A Whole Lotta History
#14 A Whole Lotta History
A few months back, I wrote a post about how the initial suggestion I try Flora came about. If you read that post, you’ll know that I was promised a very lovely, very quiet, ‘Nana’ of a horse, who would be lots of fun and give me no issues at all. I have to say, ‘Nana’ horses are not my style. Nor are complete tornadoes of death, but given the fact I’d had 11 years off, I thought a ‘Nana’ Thoroughbred would give me the ideal compromise.
At the time, Flora was 13 years old. Not a youngster; but not an actual ‘Nana’ either. She’s actually the same age as Valegro. A few weeks after meeting her and her owner for the first time, being the complete geekazoid that I am, I wanted the full details of her background and history. Using her Weatherbys passport, which names her only as ‘Bay Filly’ (*sniff*), I set to work Googling the f*ck out of her.
I don’t know what I was imagining finding. Pictures of her as a foal maybe. Blowing out the candles on her first birthday cake. Alas, this level of detail was not to be found. I was, however, able to piece together a few interesting facts.
Flora is the daughter of super-stallion Alflora, whose grandsire was no less than Lester Piggott’s King George VI, St Leger and Epsom Derby-winning horse, Nijinsky. When you study pictures of both Flora and Nijinsky, the likeness is uncanny. Sold as a 9 month old foal at the Tattersalls yearling sales in Ireland for €10,000, Flora was bought by Mary Reveley’s champion National Hunt racing yard and her training as a racehorse began. (Incidentally, if you’re thinking of stealing her, she’s definitely, definitely not worth this now, plus she currently has a hole in her foot, so you’ll never get her off the yard).
Whether it was her speed or an injury that brought her racing career to an end, we aren’t sure, but we do know that Flora, having not made the track, headed off for retraining and life as a happy hacker in Seamer, N Yorks, before she went to live as a 10/11 year old with Alice and her coloured sports horse, Beau.
After a while, Alice decided she’d like some help with Flora, which was when our mutual friend, Jenny, told me all about her that Christmas-time two years ago. It was Jenny, backed up by Alice, who informed me that Flora was a total Nana of a horse. Oh, what mugs Flora was about to make of them. And of me…
A few months back, I wrote a post about how the initial suggestion I try Flora came about. If you read that post, you’ll know that I was promised a very lovely, very quiet, ‘Nana’ of a horse, who would be lots of fun and give me no issues at all. I have to say, ‘Nana’ horses are not my style. Nor are complete tornadoes of death, but given the fact I’d had 11 years off, I thought a ‘Nana’ Thoroughbred would give me the ideal compromise.
At the time, Flora was 13 years old. Not a youngster; but not an actual ‘Nana’ either. She’s actually the same age as Valegro. A few weeks after meeting her and her owner for the first time, being the complete geekazoid that I am, I wanted the full details of her background and history. Using her Weatherbys passport, which names her only as ‘Bay Filly’ (*sniff*), I set to work Googling the f*ck out of her.
I don’t know what I was imagining finding. Pictures of her as a foal maybe. Blowing out the candles on her first birthday cake. Alas, this level of detail was not to be found. I was, however, able to piece together a few interesting facts.
Flora is the daughter of super-stallion Alflora, whose grandsire was no less than Lester Piggott’s King George VI, St Leger and Epsom Derby-winning horse, Nijinsky. When you study pictures of both Flora and Nijinsky, the likeness is uncanny. Sold as a 9 month old foal at the Tattersalls yearling sales in Ireland for €10,000, Flora was bought by Mary Reveley’s champion National Hunt racing yard and her training as a racehorse began. (Incidentally, if you’re thinking of stealing her, she’s definitely, definitely not worth this now, plus she currently has a hole in her foot, so you’ll never get her off the yard).
Whether it was her speed or an injury that brought her racing career to an end, we aren’t sure, but we do know that Flora, having not made the track, headed off for retraining and life as a happy hacker in Seamer, N Yorks, before she went to live as a 10/11 year old with Alice and her coloured sports horse, Beau.
After a while, Alice decided she’d like some help with Flora, which was when our mutual friend, Jenny, told me all about her that Christmas-time two years ago. It was Jenny, backed up by Alice, who informed me that Flora was a total Nana of a horse. Oh, what mugs Flora was about to make of them. And of me…
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