I remember maybe not my earliest memory but one of my childhood memories…

It was summer and I must have been 2 or 3. I could have been younger but not by much as I was walking and I remember my parents being around and my parents haven’t been around me for a long time.

We were spending the summer holidays in a campsite somewhere in the countryside. My dad used to work on construction sites with my grand dad and my uncles all over Europe.

It must have been the last summer my parents were together, before my little sister was born, my parents divorced and me and my sister had moved with my grandparents.

As long as I can remember I have always loved animals and near the campsite we were all staying, there was a field full of horses.

As my parents and grandparents were long term users of the site, we pretty spend the whole summer there and I became friendly with one of the other kids whose dad must have been working on the same construction site as my dad. Part of me wonders how come I was left to wander around at that age but then again, back then people didn’t worry about paedophiles or children snatching.

The memory itself is quite hazy and I am not entirely sure if it is my own recollection or if I have recreated the memory from having heard that story a few times.

I think I went to look at the horses often and one day, the other kid challenged me to get closer. When you are 2 or 3 years old, you are not aware of the danger and I don’t even think I questioned the action. I have no idea where my parents, grandparents and other members of my family were at that moment but probably not very far.

Me and my little friend snuck under the barb wire that acted as a fence and got closer to the horses. Of course at that age, creeping is not something you do very well so we probably stumbled very loudly around those poor horses, freaking them out.

I remember thinking those animals were huge as I was looking one up from very close. And then, whether through my own lack of coordination or because I got pushed, I fell right under one of the horses.

In my memory, the horse is huge and grey but I have no idea on how accurate that is. I was right under its hind legs as it freak and literally stomped on me.

I don’t remember the pain but I do remember people screaming. I was probably one of them. I think the horse was so freaked that it bolted away from me quickly so I didn’t get the full weight on me.

I know that I got hit in the stomach, yet miraculously I was uninjured, just really scared and upset. I don’t think I went to hospital and certainly didn’t get any delayed injury and strangely, it didn’t put me off horses. I still love them and although I am not a regular rider, I do enjoy a good horse ride.

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