A little bit of background. How Magic and Jane came to be!

He was one of those horses that are classed as 'difficult' !!!.

I've known of him since he was bought by my employer as part of a job lot of weanlings (in 2000). They were wild and had presumably had never been handled, except to get herded into lorry. He didn't get touched until he was three when he had the snip and I backed him (which took a long time as we couldn't even get a headcollar on him at the time!)

He's the only horse I've ever backed that I couldn't get a leg-up on to... I couldn't even lie over him... He wouldn't allow two people that near him, or someone above him....I had to spend weeks alone with him with a portable step standing next to him and moving it when he moved! I finally got him backed and we turned him away.

I left the job and no-one else had the experience to do anything with him... last year my old boss sent him to her sister's to be re-backed and sold... and she said she couldn't risk her reputation selling him!! After a month of riding they were still having to lunge him first... and so they offered him to m (July 2004).... ah bless!

The offer was for me to take him on holiday to Exmoor and ride him 'hard' so he was tired. I couldn't lunge him when we got there as it is all on the side of the hill. I tacked him up, parked him directly behind Mum's horse's bum so he had nowhere to go, got OH to hold him while I gingerly clambered aboard and set off hanging onto neckstrap for dear life up a one in four hardcore track. He had his back right up but couldn't bronk as it was too steep and he was desperate to keep up with Molly. By the time we got to the top he was ok. We did that for a week and as they say the rest is history!

He was an ickle bugga to begin with but he soon decided life was safer with a friend than without (after a me going splat a few times during his antics and him deciding galloping loose round a 50acre field was FAR more frightening than anything I could do to him!!) and now I'd trust him to the ends of the earth and I think he would me too! He still has PLENTY of cheeky moments and he makes me laugh every single day!

As to his breeding they came from Wales, most of ours did. Two of the others had Welsh papers and one was a chunky coloured cob.... but Magic had no papers and no history. I do believe he's got Welsh in him but maybe that he is also part warmblood; he doesn't move at all like a welshie and he has a very square head and huge ears! We did get quite a few WB/Welsh crosses from our chap in Wales so it's not just a random thought!

He's never had shoes on, when I got him last july I still couldn't pick his feet up to even pick them out let alone trim! I got him used to farrier and he had 9 months of pasture trim, resulting in very flared feet and poor ability on stones. I started barefoot (PR) in the middle of march 05.

In July 2005 he fell off a tiny sleeper bridge whilst out hacking. He put his off hind off the side whilst deliberating if it was safe or not, started to fall off right of bridge, I came right out the back door.... and somehow he launched himself up and off the bridge and onto terra ferma) he managed to get us both out of serious trouble, but wrenched himself badly in the process. He had 2 months off with muscular injuries and was just coming back into work when he blew a mammoth abscess in his off hind(October 2005). He finally came back into work in November 2005.

Since then we've been having fun learning to gallop and how to be an eventer!