‘We were as one’: heartbroken owner’s final farewell to 30-year-old horse, who represented her country

The owner of a horse who represented her country, won a World Cup qualifier and succeeded at able-bodied as well as para dressage has paid tribute to the 22-year bond they shared.

Lara Dennis’s Barforth Sea Lady had enjoyed years of happy retirement, and was looking well and happy until she succumbed to colic last week (12 January), aged 30.

“She was a superstar, and she had an amazing retirement,” Lara told H&H. “I retired her at the age of 22 and we bought this house for her, and renamed it after her.

“To start with, she was learning to hack, as she’d never hacked, and she used to spend time on the lawn with us, drinking from the koi pond. Lots of children, from the age of three, learned to look after and groom her; she was a real pet for a lot of people. She used to come up to the back door – we had bifoldings – and watch racing on TV. She went from being a dressage horse who wouldn’t let you sit on her and read a test to being an absolute softy in retirement.”

Barforth Sea Lady, known as Polly, or PP for posh paws as she had an aversion to walking in puddles, started her career with Vicki Brown, then was competed by Lesley Perry.

“That was the time [Lesley’s daughter] Anne-Marie’s career was taking off as a young rider so Lesley didn’t really have much time; Polly hadn’t done anything for a year,” Lara said.

“They tried to sell her, and she kept coming back because she was a bit of a monkey. I was on the World Class para squad, and I knew her brother, who used to be stabled on the yard. I went to meet her but couldn’t ride one side of her with my disability. Lesley said ‘Why don’t you come up for a long weekend and ride her?’ So I went back up, they were happy and I took her on a trial.

“The story began from there, then my grade changed from grade three to grade four, so I lost my World Class funding and and they told me to get rid of her, that she wouldn’t be good enough. I thought ‘No, she will be’ and I stuck at it.”

Lara was proved right; she and Polly represented Britain in international para dressage at home and abroad, and won and were placed up to advanced medium level, including at championships and Area Festivals, in British Dressage competition.

“She actually retired twice,” Lara said. “She injured tendons, then I had to have a total hip replacement and she did her extensor tendon, so we started back together after my hip replacement. I went straight from my dad’s funeral to the winter championships with her, didn’t even do an arena walk, and she just took me round, and we got a sixth place.

“That’s when our relationship changed; she’d always been a bugger at championships but she just held my hand, and from that day forward, we trusted each other, we became a different partnership.

“My highlight was winning the advanced medium regionals, because three days before, I had to retire in the test because she was waving at the judge in her walk pirouettes! I went to the regionals on my own, warmed up, and rode the first test cautiously. Laura Fry said to me, ‘Why are you not putting your foot on the pedal?’ I said I was worried she was going to wave again, and she warmed me up and said ‘Just go in there and ride it’. And I did. I went in and rode it, it was blowing a gale – and I won by 30 marks. It was unbelievable; that’s my happiest memory and my biggest achievement.”

Barforth Sea Lady was “still a diva” in retirement, Lara said, escaping from the field to eat apples from the trees, and “stalk” her owner if she saw lights going on in the house.

“I’ve had to announce it on my Facebook, and I’ve had an unbelievable amount of flowers and messages from people, it’s been unreal,” she said. “It’s very hard as my view was always looking out of the window and seeing her. She enjoyed life to the maximum.

“I’ve never had a horse who I’ve been on the same page like her; I’ve probably got 50 videos of us sitting on the floor having night-time cuddles or in the field, but she wouldn’t let anyone else sit with her. From the difficult horse she was – I couldn’t even catch her in the stable when I first got her – she changed into a horse who had to have that one to one.

“We knew each other inside out, she knew when I was struggling, with pain down my left side or it wasn’t working very well, and she’d say ‘It’s my turn to help you out today’. We were as one – the heart partnership.”

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