Poor John Twomey has had a bad week, and we are sure you will join us to wish him a speedy recovery. John was based in New Zealand for many years and has a large number of friends here.
To start the week, from his base in Australia, John sadly announced that his lovely eventer, Highly Recommended, had to be put to sleep. Highly Recommended (HR) was rising 18, and had been a wonderful horse who obviously meant a lot to John. “To me HR was so much more than a horse. My friend, partner and confident. The relationship I had with HR was unmatched by any other. I suspect the deep mutual feelings of love, respect and trust we had for each other will be unrivalled in this lifetime.”
HR was by Brilliant Invader out of Diversity (by Distelfink) and was bred by Sarah Milne here in Cambridge. John describes him as being “quite the fire-breathing dragon who was convinced that dressage was Latin for ‘bullshit’ and half halt was French for ‘you must be joking’!!!” But his remarkable ability to jump anything meant John persevered. “I spent the first years of our partnership constantly playing catch-up and trying not to look like an ungainly passenger who boarded the roller coaster and couldn’t get his seatbelt fastened before the ride started…And what a ride it was to be.”
Then, just days after the loss of HR, John had a bad fall from a young horse and ended up in hospital. According to him, he had gear failure and was double-barreled on the way down. He has some small fractures in his back, some deep bruising and reckons he will be back on a horse in about three weeks.
RIP, Highly Recommended – and get well soon, John.
