One year ago, I lost my best friend and greatest teacher.

The trees around your arena are just as bare as they were on that day, Jacky, but I’ll be looking for the blossoms in a few days.

They say time heals all wounds, but this one is still painfully raw. To have known a soul like yours and to have you know mine is a privilege, just as it is to make your legacy my life’s work, but I would give anything to see you dance just one more time.

Jack has already made quite a mark on the world. To use my dear friend Tamar’s words, the stunningly beautiful intricacy of a plan years in the making falling into place is bittersweet.

When I uncovered his deepest secret, one I too had known deep down, I drove home in tears of awe. Because this story had just become so much bigger than the love between a cheeky brown horse and his human.

Jack had a congenitally malformed C6 and C7, with associated malformations of the ribs. And thanks to our years of history, coupled with my carefully documented findings, he ended up featuring in the research published earlier this year and in my ongoing thesis project.

But Jack’s work as a professor has only just begun. Yesterday, I made a special pilgrimage… I brought him home.

It was the first time I had seen the rest of his bones since that weekend last August. I was apprehensive, but it was kind of surreal. My incredible friend Lynette, who picked the beautiful bouquet of wildflowers that we laid on Jack during his dissection and provided so much help over that weekend, had already laid out his bones with care, checking to see if anything was missing.

 

Jack anniversary

 

I can’t believe a year has passed so quickly. It hasn’t been an easy one. But if you find yourself with a drink in your hand today, raise your glass to Jack; the little brown horse who decided that changing my world wasn’t enough…he had to change it for all of the horses that shared his problems, too.

I’m exhausted after an emotional week, but I’ll leave you with the perfect words Jack inspired in another great friend, Jodie Halton.
Here’s to you, Jacky…

 

“DEAR JACK”

Dear Jack – what a legacy
you have revealed,
Just under the surface,
nicely concealed.

As you strived to do your best
with the body you had,
No-one would have blamed you
for feeling quite mad.

As the small team worked on,
and looked down in awe
A trail of compensations…
and then, there was more.

A bony pathology,
you were mixed up before birth,
had you struggling to navigate
undulating turf.

In utero, an anomaly caused
a frenzied repair,
Attempting to rectify what
should have been there…

A thesis will follow,
in grand retrospection,
And hopefully cause others
to pause in reflection.

If a horse says “I can’t”,
there is probably a reason
If you peel back the layers,
the horse is imprisoned

By a body that simply
cannot do what’s asked
It’s all under the surface,
carefully masked.

Thank goodness your owner knew
something was not right
She searched for the answers
with all of her might.

And, know in your heart, Jack,
that she’ll do her best,
To spread this knowledge worldwide;

Now, Jacky,
…just rest.