From sleeping rough to training as a jump jockey at one of the UK’S leading racing stables
It was as dawn broke one morning that Timo Condie, who was sleeping rough in the woods, woke up feeling at his lowest ebb since dropping out of military training. But he also knew he had to make one final, determined effort to survive.
Twenty-one-year old Timo, originally from Inverkeithing in Fife, signed up aged 17, and headed to Catterick Barracks in Yorkshire but things did not work out as planned.
Timo’s experience highlights the risks that can face ‘early service leavers’ - those who are discharged either compulsory or at their own request after completing less than four years of service.
This group has been identified as one of the groups at increased risk of suicide,.
“Joining the army had always been my end-goal.
“I went down to Catterick and things were going fine but then I broke my ribs on an exercise. I got a lot of sick leave but something seemed to happen to me and I didn’t have the same drive or motivation .
“I got on the train home and stayed with my gran for a couple of weeks, started drinking heavily and taking drugs to feel a bit of happiness again, which led to me getting into trouble quite a lot.
“At times life was very hard. I still had the military mentality ‘shut up and soldier on’. That’s the attitude drilled into you. It makes you feel there’s a stigma in asking for help, even if you’re desperate.
Timo took a job playing an
0 Timo gives a racehorse a run up the gallops
enemy role for army training courses.
“It was good money but it didn’t last - I just snapped. Like a water balloon filling up in my head which got a bit too full and something popped.
“I began sleeping here, there and everywhere, in the woods, up closes, I didn’t trust anyone.”
Eventually he moved into Whitefoord House, the Scottish Veterans Residences’ accommodation in Edinburgh, before moving to SVR’S Rosendael unit in Dundee.
“Everything had been so hectic since leaving the army. Rosendael was so peaceful and quiet. The peacefulness gave me a bit of time to think.”
One day he joined other veterans on a visit to Saddle Up Ranch, near Forfar, which uses rescue horses as therapy for vulnerable people.
When he rode a horse for the first time in his life, staff noticed Timo’s natural affinity and talent with horses.
“Some of the horses had
been badly treated and you were trying to get them to trust you. Maybe there was an affinity there because I couldn’t trust people either and they weren’t expecting kindness.
“An hour later I was applying to the British Racing School. From there I worked at a yard in Newmarket and then got a job with Michael Scudamore one of the UK’S leading racing stables.”
Timo said Walking with the Wounded paid for all his riding gear and equipment. “I can’t thank them enough.” “I’ve led the horses onto the track and it’s a privilege. Then if they win and you walk them into the winners’ enclosure and everyone’s cheering. “You’re standing with the boss and you know the morale of the yard is going to go up. I can’t even begin to describe it.
“You know it’s your work that’s done it. If that’s how it feels to lead them out, then I can’t imagine what it’s like to actually ride in a race. That’s what I’m aiming for now.”