This beautiful photo shows the incredible new bond between a ‘horse whisperer’ and her once-jittery foal that she has tamed – in just six months.
Ella Wright Lewis, 20, took on unbroken Jinger in February when the stud yard near her home decided to clear their stock.
It usually takes riders years to break in a new horse and the two-year-old filly used to canter off as soon as she was approached.
But in just six months, Ella can now cuddle up with the horse thanks to her amazing natural bond.
Now the horse neighs and gallops five acres across a field if Ella calls her name, and “is more like a dog” than a horse.
Jinger is a descendant of Jalisco, ridden to victory by Olympic Gold Medal Winner Nick Skelton at the 2000 Great Windsor Horse Show.
Ella, from Malmesbury, Wiltshire, who now lives in Brittany, France, said: “When I first got her she would let me get near to her when she was asleep but would soon get up if I got too close.
“After lots of cuddles and time spent together she now trusts me completely and I can climb all over her!
“Jinger has always been a calm horse but she has become very docile and trusting towards me these last few months.
“She is not dominant and loves humans, so by spending lots of time with her she has become more like a dog than a horse with me.
“She is calm with everyone but lets me do a lot more with her than she will let other people do.
“She can be at the bottom of our 5 acre field if I call her she will neigh and comes galloping to me.
“She is already 17 hands high at two, so very very big and strong for her age.
“At the moment we go on lots of walks, I can take Jinger out on my own just in a head-collar, she doesn’t pull or scare, she is very good.”
Ella’s family moved to Brittany a number of years ago to do up some old houses.
She adopted Jinger – affectionately known as JJ – in February and she, lives with another horse, belonging to Ella’s boyfriend Guillaume, and three highland ponies.
