I remember it well, my first manager Ian and I were racing up the M3 Motorway just outside London from the quaint little village of Damerham down near Dorset in SW England.
I spent alot of time there before my first record came out, I think it was Ian’s way of reigning me in and keeping a watchful eye on me! I wrote a lot of songs down there, most of which appear on the first album Smile it confuses people.
But lets go back a few years now to when I was much younger.
I’ve always been a lover of horses and come from a large family of woman who have always ridden horses and kept them at home. My mum is one of 8 girls, she has 7 sisters, most of which had a horse at one point or another. Two of my aunties in particular kept a whole lot of horses and I used to go down there regularly as a child, stay with them and ride their horses. I remember one in particular by the name of Dougall, a very sturdy thick set beautiful grey highland pony.
I also had a horse of my own called Tigger, he was a Welsh cob cross section C with flaxen mane and tail and a face to die for! I found him at the RDA association which is where disabled children ride horses so let’s just say he was very well natured. I scrimped and saved every penny, worked at the farm, as well as playing 2/3 gigs a week to buy him…..I was only 14. Eventually with a little help from Mum and Dad I mustered up the £750 that he cost and marched on over there to get him!
That horse spoke more to me than any human being ever did, he understood every single thing I said and was one of the best friends I ever had. I cant describe the bond between a person and a horse, its really something very special. The day I had to deliver him to his new home was the most heart wrenching experience I think I’ve ever underwent. I had to sell him at the age of 18 to move to Liverpool to start my course at Performing Arts school as a singer. So I had to give up my passion for horses to follow my dream as a musician. Wow. I have a lump in my throat just telling you this story. I often wonder where he is now, if he’s still alive, he was 17 when I sold him but horses can live until their 40! I’d like to think he’s grazing somewhere in a quiet meadow.
So, to get right back to the point of the song! Any time I see a horse running in a field I am moved by it, I think they are the most majestic wonderful creatures on this earth. In the New Forest down in SW England there are wild horses, New forest ponies as they are called. They roam free across the roads and through the fields and any car that drives through their territory must be respectful of them and drive very slowly. The contrast between machine and animal becomes very clear when you drive across their land. Its pretty breathtaking actually.
That day, we drove through the new forest and past all of the beautiful ponies making sure not to disturb them, I saw a couple of them running free and I can tell you there is no sight that compares to that of a herd of wild horses running freely across the lands! It puts everything in perspective.
Now, as you may or may not know London is a bummer for driving in! I spent 5 years of my life driving around the Big Smoke, probably raising my blood pressure through the roof becoming irate and angry at other drivers at just the sheer amount of traffic on the roads!!
I remember that day as we left the lovely quaint quite surroundings of the new forest where wild horses roam free to arrive in the posh end of London where it was highly congested with cars and everyone was bumper to bumper!! My manager and I were having a right old giggle checking out at all the Austin Martin’s, Porsches, Ferrari’s and jaguars of the top business man with masses of engine horsepower but who couldn’t get anywhere because the place was rammed!
It sparked a conversation between him and I, we talked about the journey we had made that day and we said it was almost as if those horses this morning were galloping across the fields laughing in our faces and later that night I sat down back in the quaint and quiet surroundings of the New Forest and wrote the song ‘When Horsepower Meant What It Said’ inspired by my journey that day.
Big Love
ST xx
