WHY GERI WAS HOT TO TROT...

WHINNY-BE! HORSE IS CREDITED WITH SPICES’ REUNION

PICE GIRLS fans have a horse to thank for the band’s long-anticipated reunion last year.

Geri Halliwell, who bolted from the Spices in 1998, has been telling how she was inspired to climb back into the showbiz saddle by her noble steed Beauty.

The 38-year-old, who has admitted she felt ‘lonely’ after her dramatic departure, credits having a mare – in a good way – for her return to the group. ‘I gave my life

100 per cent to music,’ she said. ‘Then when I got to my

30s, I found it so difficult because the teenage bravado had run out and I wasn’t sure where I belong.’

Finding solace in horseriding, Geri explained:

‘When I found Beauty, I got my courage back. When I’m out there I’m no other identity other than just a woman on a horse feeling brave – that’s it.

And sometimes it just feels amazing to feel that.

‘Stepping out on stage with the Spice Girls again, I felt, “You know what? It’s all right”.

The feeling of wanting to connect, the feeling of freedom and joy was greater than the fear.

Beauty taught me that.’

Her comments come

Geri and Beauty, and with her fellow Spice Girls last year after reports recently claimed bandmate Baby Spice Emma Bunton earned £6million from the reunion concerts. Geri’s emotional delve into her past was part of her online show Rainbow Woman, for which she has scaled Mount Snowdon and dressed up as Elizabeth I. The star, who notched up four consecutive No.1s after she first went solo, has also found the confidence to drop her own tunes again. Debuting Travelling Light on her show, she said the song was inspired by her being a working mum to Bluebell, 14, and Monty, three. ‘It’s about changing, pushing through the darkness into the light,’ said Geri. ‘Ironically, I wasn’t travelling light when I wrote it. I was seven months pregnant, walking up four flights of stairs to get to the studio!’