‘My horse saved my life’

After recently completing a sponsored charity trek, Janine Bower tells how a four-legged saviour helped her recover from the devastating effects of a stroke

As she scrolled through Facebook, Janine Bower’s attention was suddenly drawn to an image of a horse’s face.

Zooming in on Syd, a gipsy piebald cob, she felt a compelling urge to meet the gentle looking animal and immediately messaged his owner asking: “Can I come to see this horse?”

At the time Janine was in the early stages of recovering from a stroke that had affected her left side, leaving her unable to write, eat or grip properly afterwards. But what had been especially hard to shrug off was the overwhelming and uncharacteristic anxiety the stroke had triggered in her.

Janine says: “Doctors diagnosed the stroke as cryptogenic which meant there was no known cause for it. I didn’t have any mitigating factors - no high blood pressure or high cholesterol; I was a good weight, a keen member of the gym, walked a lot and loved horse riding.

“The flipside to that was that I felt powerless to stop it happening again because there was nothing I could change about my lifestyle and no medication I could take. The risk of having another stroke made me feel like there was an unknown assassin in my body that could strike at any time. It was awful and it left me anxious all the time – something I’d never suffered from before.”

When mum-of-two Janine (55) collapsed in June last year, she managed to crawl to the back door and alert her daughter’s attention who called for help. She was quickly taken to the accident and emergency department at York District Hospital. Returning home, the battle to recover mentally as well as physically began.

“After leading such an active life, I suddenly couldn’t stop crying and I developed post stroke fatigue. I’d sleep every afternoon for two to three hours. I was afraid of death and I felt as if I’d lost my life,” she recalls.

A life-long horsewoman, she was told by a senior doctor that she could no longer ride and reluctantly had to sell her horse Otis. Fear had made her unable to look after him. It was after fighting ‘like Boadicea’ to regain her lost physical abilities that doctors gave her the all clear to ride again and she spotted Syd on Facebook.

Janine says: “Seeing his picture it was instant attraction. I thought his face was adorable. He had blue eyes, which is unusual, and he just looked such a kind gentle soul. I knew I had to meet him.”

But first, she had to be patient as the owner wanted to keep him for three months. Undeterred, Janine bombarded her with weekly messages

‘After leading such an active life, I suddenly couldn’t stop crying and I developed post-stroke fatigue’

asking to see him. “I think I wore her down because after two months she said OK,” she laughs.

“I adored him right from the start. It was very scary getting on a horse again, but I just trusted him,” says Janine.

“Syd gave me a reason to get up in the mornings again, gave me hope and helped me to live for the day.

“I’d read a book about feeding fear and anxiety by overthinking and realised I was wasting my life worrying. I’d also done a mindfulness training course but it was Syd that helped me put that all into practice.

“There’s something very therapeutic about being with a horse I can trust. Riding with him, out in the countryside surrounded by nature is a sensory, here and now, experience. He even gives me ‘cuddles’ by putting his head over my shoulder and pulling my head to his chest! It’s the best relationship you could wish for and I owe him a huge amount.”

As Janine’s anxiety lessened and her confidence developed, she decided that it was time to put their relationship to the test with the longest ride she’s tackled since her stroke. In November, the two took part in the 14-mile sponsored trek with Ride Yorkshire, raising £500 for the Stroke Association and £200 for the York District Hospital ward where she was a patient. The 50plus riders together also raised £1,000 for the not-for-profit organisation aimed at getting people out into the Yorkshire countryside on horseback.

“It was incredibly difficult because it was so wet and muddy,” adds Janine, who now rides Syd five times a week.

“At points the mud was up to Syd’s knees but we kept going and completed the course. I even managed to jump a ditch for the first time in about 20 years!”

As a special treat Syd got a big net of his favourite food – carrots – but Janine admits he regularly gets spoilt.

“Syd has everything Syd wants. He gets the best of everything, from carrots and bananas to his favourite beetroot treats. “Given that life is not guaranteed, money holds no real meaning. If we gain meaning from anything in life, it’s usually from relationships. Syd gives me meaning. He saved my life.”

■ If you’d like to find out more about Ride Yorkshire, call 07583 451825 or visit www.rideyorkshire.org/about-us/