“I won a maiden on him at Warrnambool in 2014 and then he was retired due to a tendon injury. When I started breaking in, I took him on as a lead pony and he was probably the best horse I’ve had,” Cartwright said.
“When you reflect, that’s when I get emotional, when I reflect on all the good things the horse did for me and how kind he was,” Cartwright said.
“All those moments in time when the chips were down, I had a good horse like that, that’s what gets me upset. When it felt like I had the world against me, I had a great partner in him to help me.
“I was distant from people … It wasn’t a good time in my life obviously, but animals and horses were good because they didn’t ask questions.
“That was a moment in time where I probably needed support from another angle, horses were always there. Between him and my dog Toby, they were my right-and left-hand men.
“The one thing about horses is they don’t care how rich you are or what you’ve got in your life, they take you for who you are, they don’t care if it’s Brad Pitt in front of them or whoever, it’s how you make a horse feel that’s relevant.”
Cartwright has five rides at Werribee on Friday and will be one to keep an eye on in the coming weeks.
