I don't remember much in the spring of '99, I passed from school to the yard to bed and repeated it everyday, with just the yard on weekends.

It sounds callous, but it took losing Oliver for me to look at Frankie seriously, which now, shows how unimpressed I was by potential or breeding - like I knew a thing! - or things like that. Frankie is a 14.3hh Welsh section D, by the stallion Mabnesscliffe Survivor, who set the all time stallion sale record in 1988. He's bay. Frankie's dam was bay. Frankie is black. He bleaches ginger in the summer. He has 4 white socks, a wall eye, heaps of mane, tail, muscle and oozes curiosity. He became mine when he was 5 and he was 7 when he became my only pony.

In retrospect, my not having any expectations for him probably was for the best. He spent time with my mum hacking him out, with me building his topline and introducing him to cross country and the fun of galloping and flat schooling. He was a dream to train, after our intial scuffles and bucking arguments. He has a stunning extended trot that he likes to roll out whenever he can. Despite a long back, he will collect nicely. I never had to introduce the concept of being 'on the bit' or 'on the bridle', he did it naturally. It was like I put in years of toil with Ollie, for wonderful rewards, and Frankie, with his lack of baggage and mistreatment was just...a gift. Cheesy, huh?

I remember taking him for flat schooling with Ian and we'd get through so much work as we rarely needed to repeat a movement. I was learning things I'd only seen in books like pirouettes, travers and renvers then going onto shoulder in and half pass, extension and collection. It was incredible. I sound like I'm gushing, but my nostalgia here is not misplaced. He was a dream to jump as well. We never had a stop across country or show jumping, but then I never pushed him to the bigger tracks in these. With his inbetween height and my young age, I never wanted to get into eventing (too chicken), showjumping (too many other people doing it), dressage (fun at home, but not varied enough for me to specialise in). So, showing it was. I still did the other disciplines on the side, but I started to get serious when I realised Frankie was better than good.