I didn't know whether I should be happy or sad. For the last week, he was meant to be dead. What if we get there and it is not him? That will just make me burst out in tears, but if it is him, I will be so happy that I will cry anyway. That horse and I have been through so much. We started off together competing in CC1*, and now, well the day we last saw him, we were competing in one of the qualifiers to move up to CC4*. I love him.
I heard a low hum as the car rumbled to a stop in front of some vetinary clinic. "This way, Jez," my mother called. I call back to her to tell her I am coming and then I skipped up to her. This horse will be him. We were meant to be together. Not even death can keep us apart.
A beautiful chestnut horse stands in front of me. "Cloudy..." I ran up to him and wrapped him in a giant bear hug.
"Hang on Jezzibell, how do you know it is him? It could be just any plain horse," my mother fretter.
"I just know, mum. I can feel it." My fingers ran down the silky length of his front right tendon and clicked, telling him to 'lift up'. "See mum? He has even got the same white coronet marking as Cloudy. It just HAS to be him." I have missed you cloudy. No-one else will ever understand the bond we have.