HACK 1000 MILES
Every month our #Hack1000Miles challengers are in line to win some fantastic prizes. As a result, Sharon Dykes and Ann Smith win a hi-vis neck strap from Equisafety; Sadie Earle Seymour is the lucky recipient of stirrup straps from Wintec Saddles; while Becky Clare will receive a girth from the same company.
April’s top story
‘We helped each other through the grief’
Three months into hacking enthusiast Sadie Earle Seymour owning Kite, the gelding got peritonitis from impaction colic which resulted in complications of colitis and prolapse.
“The vets didn’t think he’d survive, but he did. It took a lot of work,” says Sadie.
Once he had recovered Sadie decided to re-start the #Hack1000Miles challenge, this time with Tessa Lewis, who had just moved her horse, Peaches, to the same livery yard.
“We really went for it and spent lots of hours riding together. We became really good friends,” says Sadie.
Tessa completed the 1,000 miles first, with Sadie finishing it the following month. They had decided to band together and give it another go when Tessa found out that her cancer, which had been in remission, had come back. She was given the prognosis that she had just a year to live.
“There was nothing anyone could do. She’d asked me before if I’d have Peaches if she left him to me in her will, and I said yes. She passed away last August.”
The livery yard banded together to support Sadie with both Kite and Peaches. Three months later, on New Year’s Eve, though, Kite came down with colic again.
“The vets had told me that he wouldn’t pull through it because of the scarring, so I had to have him put down.
“It was like we switched. Tessa has Kite and I have Peaches now.”
It wasn’t plain sailing, but the pair helped each other through their grief, and in April when the #Hack1000Miles challenge was re-launched, Sadie signed up again.
“The universe knew that Tessa was going to go and Kite would go and put me and Peaches together. I was so grateful to have Peaches, and I’m sure that Tessa is grateful to me for taking him on rather than her family having to put him up for sale.”
April’s best photo
Beautiful Ben Nevis
Sharon Dykes snapped this gorgeous shot overlooking Ben Nevis from the back of her 14-year-old Anglo Arab mare, Wishes. This is a local ride for the duo who lives in Fort William.
“I’m incredibly lucky to have such beautiful countryside to ride in with the mountains and lochs,” says Sharon, 45. “Wishes loves it too. She’s never in too much o
