The Horse Who Learnt to Hear

A young girl, called Poppy, was born with hearing loss. As she grew up she loved horses and dreamt of show jumping, winning rosettes and maybe even becoming a horse vet. But Poppy’s hearing got worse and by age nine, Poppy was pretty much deaf. She relied on sign language to communicate. Poppy lost lots of confidence and rarely smiled. She wore hearing aids and was very lucky as her parents and school worked together to help her to continue with sign language. Poppy tried so hard at school even when sometimes she felt lonely and sad.

From Poppy’s bedroom window, she could see the fields and stables, full with horses. One horse stood out, it was dark brown with a white patch on its nose. It always seemed to be on its own in the field looking gloomy and somehow different to the other horses. It often looked up at Poppy gazing into her bedroom window, they stared at each other for ages.

Poppy’s mum and dad begun visiting the stables connected to the field. Poppy went with them religiously standing on the fence throwing carrots into the field. All the horses seemed to know she was there and came to eat the carrots, all except the brown horse.

The owners of the horses came down and Poppy’s parents begun to let her spend more and more time at the stables. Poppy, who now didn’t let her disability stop her from growing in confidence, begun to ride, living part of her childhood dream. But really she wanted to ride the brown horse whose name she had found out was Paddy.

She couldn’t quite put her finger on it but Poppy could tell something was wrong with Paddy. She tried calling him but he didn’t look up. It was then she realised, he was deaf too! Building up his confidence and her own, and learning though vibrations, touch and sight, just like Poppy did, she taught Paddy to hear in a different way so he could succeed and be happy. Eventually Poppy had earned Paddy’s trust as he began to come over to her. Staying calm, she patted him, brushed him, spoke to him, he even took carrots from her hand! She had really made a strong connection with Paddy.

Over time Poppy grew close to him. Her determined character helped her not give up on Paddy. She gave him time and affection every day until eventually he let her ride him, it was more than amazing! Together they entered competitions as a deaf rider and deaf horse. The happy pair won first prize, it was Poppy and Paddy’s best ever day. So overjoyed, they were now inseparable, understanding each other’s difficulties but never letting it stop them achieve and be happy. They became an inspiration to many other hearing impaired children too.