Carla Hainsworth

Darrowby Ajax qualified for the SEIB search for a star Ridden show cob in Carlisle. Darrowby Ajax, known as ‘Murphy’ at home is my 6yr dapple grey lightweight cob. It’s been a journey in the 3 yrs I’ve owned him! Murphy came from Ireland as a 3yr old in October 2021, after a number of weeks he went to a professional to be backed… after 8 weeks they told me he was to dangerous/ sharp and they couldn’t do it. Being a manger of a care company holding its responsibilities within my role it was a difficult time having my dream horse who I’ve saved up for and then be told he couldn’t be backed! My heart sunk…I was heart broken, what on earth was I going to do if he was so scared, worried and dangerous that they couldn’t ride him. I spoke to the fantastic lady who owns the yard where I am, she was 6 months pregnant at the time and reassured me to bring him home and we can go from there, she would help me. I remember getting up at 5am to clear my horsebox of junk that was full from the garage as it was being rebuilt .. ordering a new battery for it and fitting it just so I could collect him from the yard 5 minutes down the road ( everything seemed against us). Murphy now home the question was.. what on earth are we going to do ? I’m not a professional, how am I going to manage? I have no money to buy another horse…everyone will think I’m bonkers! He’s the sweetest horse and everything inside me was telling me to trust him and give him time… I have a horse that I’ve dreamed of all my life, however it can’t be ridden and apparently it’s dangerous so I was unable to sell him. The yard owner said let’s have some time with him. We handled him and sat me on him at 8.30/9pm at night when no one was at the yard. As you can imagine after a few weeks of working full time and doing this I was shattered not getting home until nearly 10pm just to try sit on him safely.. plus worrying as the yard owner was pregnant and I didn’t want her to get hurt. I then gave him a month off once I had managed to have a little walk and trot on him for a couple of weeks…. Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t plain sailing and he darted about scooting off! I then did ground work building our relationship and started getting back on. We got out hacking building his confidence as much as possible and started a couple in hand classes which was a success ( my arm not so much from trying to hang on to him when he would panic in the car parks!). As a 5 yr old last year he had his first season under saddle and did some novice classes he did okay but started to go completely the other way and would shut down and not move…. You couldn’t believe it was the same horse.Now just turned 6yrs old he’s finding his feet, he’s done a couple open classes gaining a 3rd in his first RI qualifier and he won his class at SEIB search for a star in his first attempt. He blows me away, he’s the most loving character with a huge personality. We have lots of fun doing dressage, pub rides, pleasure rides and our main interest being showing. Murphy is my one in a million and made my dreams come true qualifying for HOYS. Last year my mum and I had our 25yr old maxi cob put down just before we came down for our annual weekend at HOYS… we booked a holiday abroad as my mum hasn’t been away for over 20yrs due to having our old cob and funds being low. We said let’s go away and have a year off HOYS….I think our late maxi cob Jack is looking down on us when Murphy qualified for HOYS this year, a dream come true and now we will be travelling down just 3 days after we get back from our holiday we booked! My first time at HOYS, my dream horse and a dream come true.