A widow has helped to fulfil her late husband’s wish to see his daughter follow her passion for competitive show jumping.
The Wroughton-based Allen family’s world was irreversibly changed forever when Mike Allen, a devoted husband, father, and grandfather, died after coming off his bike on the A419 in July.
For his wife of 21 years, Rachel Mary Allen, life has been a struggle since that moment, and she is often overcome with grief, so she has decided to do something to try and raise spirits.
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One of Mike’s wishes was to see her 15-year-old daughter Isabelle, a show jumping prodigy, continue her career in the equestrian sport and Rachel helped fulfil that wish by surprising her with a new horse to compete on in his honour, named Ben.
After driving several hours to collect him at the end of October, Rachel surprised her daughter Izzy with the gift from her father in spirit, who she said reacted by screaming and crying with joy.
Izzy began training on Ben at the start of November, but already she’s experienced some show-jumping success after earning tickets to compete at the Trailblazers 2023 championships.
“Since the loss of Mike, our whole worlds have been completely shattered into a million pieces,” Rachel said.
“Izzy & her dad used to go on motorbike meets on a Wednesday night - that was their daddy & daughter time together. Izzy has always been a Daddy’s girl; she is a female version of him.”
Rachel and Mike used to travel around a lot with Izzy for her shows and they would stay in their horse box, which Mike used to joke he hated but Rachel and Izzy knew that he secretly loved it.
The widow said that these moments were sorely missed since Mike’s death, which is why she decided to get Ben, but because of her own grief, it required a lot of effort to pull it off.
“I struggle to make plans because most days I don’t leave the house, but the lady selling Ben knew our situation and was happy to accommodate us. As soon as I saw Ben, I just knew he was the pony for our daughter."
Rachel put a deposit down for him there and then, but he still had to pass the vetting process, which he did with flying colours.
“I wanted to bring him home straight away. We all had tears of happiness, even the vets cried too. I knew then that Mike had sent him to us.
“When we told Izzy she couldn’t believe it there were so many happy tears & sadness all at once, she had a card from her Daddy with a photo of Ben saying I hope you love what we have brought you.
“When she rode him, they just clicked, and I saw our daughter smiling for the first time in ages.”
Izzy’s little brother Joseph, 10, has also taken a big shine to Ben according to his mother.
“While I was driving the lorry he put his little arm around me saying I will help you and my sister at the shows like Daddy did,” she said.
While the addition of Ben to the family has been a welcome one that has brought some joy, the family has also received heavy support from those around them.
"The biker family have raised money for a bench for the kids to sit on at the church by their dad.
"We would like to thank our close friends and my mum Madeline Thomas for being the best grandmother and my sister Alicia for their help."
But she added that despite this support, the true weight of losing Mike was still there.
“Our lives won’t ever be the same ever again and we just want to make Mike proud.”
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