Camargues are small, rugged little ponies, between the heights of 13hh and 14.2hh. They are always grey and come from triangular island in south France known as the Camargue....
When I first heard this story I had not even began riding. My mum (who had been horse crazy since the age of 10) had had to do a project at school on an area of France, so naturally she chose The Camargue.
I began riding at the age of 9 and loved it ever since, so when, on Christmas morning 1998, my parents said that I could have a horse, I was ecstatic. I looked through lots of magazines and rang up lots of people. But 2 months later we were no closer to finding a horse than we had been at Christmas.
Then we saw an advertisement for a dealer in a magazine. People had often warned me not to go to a dealer because they had an extremely bad reputation but we went anyway... We had been looking for something about 8 years old and about 15-15.3hh.
"Oh look at this lovely pony" mum said as she pointed at a Camargue pony in a magazine. This pony also belonged to the dealer we were on our way to see.
"Its a pity that its not a little bigger...." When we arrived at the stable the showed me a horse called Prince but he was a little too strong for me. Then I tried a mare called Kate. When I cantered on her she took off with me around the school bucking. It took me about 8 laps of the school to stop her.
"Maybe you should try something a little smaller. We don't really have anything apart from E.T."
They brought out this 14.2hh grey pony and I immediately recognised her as the pony from the magazine. I tried her and immediately knew that she was the pony for me.
Within a week she was home. The first time I rode her once she was home, I fell off. That did not matter. Now she is always paced in showing and she is a super little jumper. It s just the thing about Camargues....
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