My Year With A Horse

Hazel Southam

• 22 juli 2016
• 9780745968490

Samenvatting:

Hazel is terrified of horses - but one will help her survive the hardest year of her life.

Hazel Southam had been scared of horses since childhood, but a huge horse called Duke was about to change her life for the better. As a successful journalist, Hazel had been used to fear - reporting on areas recovering from war, famine, disease, and poverty. Then devastation struck closer to home. Her father's dementia grew worse and the strain of looking after him caused her mother to have a stroke. In the middle of settling her father into a care home, Hazel caught a fever in Africa and the resulting disease threatened not only her health, but also her livelihood. To get through the hardest year of her life, Hazel turned to a horse called Duke. Gradually, to her surprise, riding him through the Hampshire countryside became an unexpected source of comfort and solace. This is the heart-warming story of that year.

Hazel had been scared of horses all her life, and an earlier attempt to overcome her fear had ended in failure. She was still overcoming fear in other areas, travelling around the world with her job, reporting on areas recovering from war, famine, disease and catastrophe. And eventually she took up riding again - only to face bigger fears, when illness struck her. Even worse, her father's dementia grew so bad that her mother had a heart attack and Hazel had to put her father into a home. As poor health threatened to derail her career, and family tragedy looked likely to break her heart, she was loaned a big old horse called Duke. He stood far taller than her at every point, and she was afraid. Yet somehow, as she rode him through the Hampshire countryside, she found solace and healing. Gradually her fears began to subside.