From France To Australia
Equestrians from around the world....
By Camillie Boon
I'm Camillie Boon i am a French lady who immigrated to Australia on the 28th of January 2010. I was born in Nîmes in the South of France. My parents were into horses long before I was born. My dad was a driver in the race horses (behind the trotter on a sulky), and my mum was the trainer of racehorses canter flat.
I started riding on my mum’s OTTB when i was 3 years old and he was 15 year old and had been off the track for a year.
When my mum bought stables, she was 'un ride-able' horses and was giving them to me. I started retraining and reconditioning ponies and then horses when I was 7 years old.
My Shetland, Cachou, was given to me when I was 7 years old, he was my first project, and had shown how good I was. He was a barely handled unbroken Shetland stallion. He was a bit of a trouble maker, when my mum saw me be very good with him she gave me an other one, and I gotten him to be as gentle as a lamb, then i was given another and another.
Then one day she gave me a mare that was given to her ,this mare came from Spain, in a truck full of horses,ponies,donkeys there were 30 of them, more than it could fit it was going to the French doggers. After 38 hours of travel half of them was dying or already dead. She was the last one due to be killed, then when her turn arrived the gun jammed. So they put her on stand-by over night. The next morning the doggers were surprised to see that overnight she had had a foal! They decided to keep them both. They sold the foal later on
but the mare was to mentally traumatize by what she had been through so they gave her to my mum who then gave her to me. When i approached her the first time, she was so scared that she urinated and fainted. I didn't know horses could faint. After a lot of patience and work I could ride her bareback, halter and bridle-less. She was adorable and loved me so much. But my mum decided to sell her.
After high school like a lot of French I went to the university. It was expensive for my parents, so I told my mum that I wanted to work and stop university but she insisted that I continue it. After a while she was reproaching me that it was to expensive, but aside from that was forcing me to do it. So one day I snapped and left. Because I couldn't find a job (France is a very poor country, you can’t even found a job in fast food!)I ended up on the street.
Even if I was in the street, and I was going in the bin behind the supermarket for food, I could still manage to go see and ride my horses, a couple of time a week, my Shetland cachou now 32 years old I had him for 15 years, Totsy was 27 years old, a welsh mountain pony I had him for 13 years and Emir who was 19 years old and a welsh X arab I had him for 10 years who were all about 20km away from the town where I was. One day I went to see them but Emir and Totsy weren't in the paddock, I went to see my mum at her job the next day and asked her where they were (I knew she would know, and I didn't have a phone to txt from). She had sold them.
20 Love Thy horse Magazine