INTERVIEW
meets
The Wiltshire- based charity rescues ex-racehorses and brings them together with challenged and disadvantaged young people, watching as inexplicable healing bonds are created. Julie Harding visits to witness the magic happening
MAHLERVOUS WAS ONCE the best looking horse in this place. He had a well honed, athletic body and a handsome face on which the bridge of his nose was flawlessly contoured and as f lat as a proverbial pancake. However, not long ago a fellow equine took a pot shot with a hind hoof and caught Mahlervous squarely on that bridge. Now he has a swelling below his eyes, and perfectly streamlined his face certainly isn’t. The thing is, though, that nobody here seems to mind. The children and adults who meet him don’t care. The staff who look after him don’t give a second thought to this accidental reconstruction (and, of course, he has been checked over by vets and given a clean bill of health). And Mahlervous himself isn’t remotely concerned either.
Imperfections mean nothing in this place — in fact, they are openly welcomed — for this is Greatwood, a charity that has been rehabilitating former racehorses with nowhere to go for 30 years, as well as bringing them into contact with children and young adults to whom fate has been far from kind. The latter suffer variously from the likes of paralysing anxiety and disorders such autism, as well as physical challenges — something, in fact, that in everyday life makes them stand out from the crowd, but here they very much feel a part of the crowd.
Tom (not his real name), a tall, shy, polite 14-year -old, is visiting today from Pewsey Vale School with a group of seven other boys. As part of the Developing Confidence course, they sat in the small classroom initially and learned about eggs, tasting two different plates of scrambled to see whether they could distinguish between those produced by the chickens and the turkeys who live at Greatwood. They then headed out to see the horses, who are currently standing quietly in their individual boxes in the large, cool, dark barn in which today’ s strong sun struggles to penetrate via the transparent corrugated roof panels, all of which lends an air of tranquillity that the horses sense too.
“Last time I was paired with Ouzbeck. He’ s my favourite, but I like Mahlervous too, ” Tom says in a quiet voice referring to these two former track stars. Mahlervous, a 10-year -old former hurdler and chaser, amassed winnings of £53,000 while in training with Warren Greatrex, while the Emma Lavelle-trained Ouzbeck’ s prize pot totalle
