EXCLUSIVEWhy I'm finally downsizing from my dream home: They were a Hollywood golden couple, but a １０年間 after Susan George's husband died in her 武器, she 明らかにする／漏らすs she's waving goodbye to her Somerset farmhouse idyll
From the large picture windows in my 製図／抽選 room is a 見解（をとる） of my beautiful secret garden. There, once-tiny shrubs filled an empty space when Simon and I bought this farmhouse some 24 years ago.
And the one that 事柄s most to me now is as lush and wide as it is tall; a pine tree that stands some 25 feet high. It’s hard to believe that in 2009 it was covered with baubles and twinkling lights, a Christmas tree with 現在のs stacked underneath and in this very room.
It was the most amazing Christmas that year but unbeknownst to my darling husband and I, it was to be our last together. And the memories like those above, they make my 決定／判定勝ち（する） so hard to 耐える.
Hopefully, I can find a smaller home to 心にいだく as much as I have this one when I move from the West Country. There will be the saddest moments leaving behind the 慰安, familiarity and beauty of this '港／避難所-on-earth' place, but I also know the time is 権利 for change.
Susan George on her idyllic 50 acres, where she has a stud farm and keeps Arabian horses. Picture by BRIAN ARIS
Susan George and late husband?Simon MacCorkindale pictured in 1999, some 11 years before his death
Thankfully this move is not out of need, but, as with so many other friends, it’s a 願望（する） to 調査する and create new beginnings どこかよそで, while I still have my health, strength, spirit and the energy to make that choice.
For all the gorgeous countryside that I am lucky enough to be surrounded by, the farmhouse is やめる sizeable for one person, with five bedrooms, and it sits in 50 acres of a remote part of the Exmoor 国家の Park.
I love light, and it’s south 直面するing, so when the sun 向こうずねs it 向こうずねs in almost every room. The dining （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する seats ten but at Christmas 延長するs to 20, which may be a squeeze but still 作品. We light floating candles in a glass chandelier and the room has such a romantic feel.
It was a dream to own a stud farm and 産む／飼育する Arabian horses. And was everything Simon and I once 手配中の，お尋ね者. This was our 平和的な place and 聖域 where from our bedroom window we could see nothing but the みごたえのある 見解（をとる） of green fields and rolling hills. We were surrounded by dogs, horses and wild animals and just us for company. Life at home could not have been more perfect.
That was until 2010, when we received 破滅的な news. After weeks of 探検 Simon was 診断するd with bowel 癌. We lived, laughed and got on with life in hope, searched for answers that never （機の）カム, and when he died in my 武器 in October 2010, I felt as if a part of me had died with him.
For years afterwards, I just got on with everything. I continued to make 改良s on the farm, realising our dreams as I knew he’d want me to. I spent a lot of time at home where I felt 安全な and I suppose in others’ 注目する，もくろむs, had become a bit reclusive.
So in 2017, when I was 招待するd to 参加する The Real Marigold Hotel, a BBC reality show on which I’d travel to India with nine other 井戸／弁護士席-known 直面するs, I surprised myself by 受託するing.
A 見解（をとる） from Susan's '港／避難所' of a farmhouse, which is south-直面するing with beautiful French doors?
Susan 令状s: The dining （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する seats ten but at Christmas 延長するs to 20, which may be a squeeze but still 作品. We light floating candles in a glass chandelier and the room has such a romantic feel
It was 井戸／弁護士席 out of my 慰安 zone, but a lifetime experience that I’ll never forget, and months after my return I slowly realised a change in me.
My spirit was 支援する. When I smiled - I felt it! And I had a 新たにするd かわき for adventure.
Our farmhouse has always been a 広大な／多数の／重要な home for entertaining. We threw parties over the years, with music at thei r heart. We shipped my baby grand piano from California to England and for as many famous musician friends in LA who played those 重要なs, so too did they in the West Country.
If only the 塀で囲むs could speak.
We bought the farm after five or six viewings - and always in the rain. Each time, we were 招待するd for a cuppa in a homely kitchen, 80s-style wallpaper in many of the rooms with green swirly carpets and avocado 控訴 bathrooms.
It was a happy home, though, to a sheep and cattle 農業者 and his young family, and the ambience (for us the most important thing in any house) was warm and 招待するing.
The house and stables needed a lot of work but Simon had 広大な／多数の／重要な 見通し and knew he would make it perfect in time. It was, after all, to be our forever home. And on the day we moved in there was brilliant 日光.
The first step に向かって our 投機・賭ける was to clean up the barns and 任命する／導入する 12 stables for our then 12 horses before we arrived. After that, a slow build year after year to create more stables and to turn it into the fabulous farmhouse and equestrian 施設 it is today.
Our house has always been a sunny one, active, with very little silence. The light, 有望な kitchen is an endless pathway to people coming and going as endless cups of tea are 存在 made. The day to day running of a stud farm is no mean feat and a lot of our friends never understood why I chose to walk away from the glamour and glitz of my former life.
Raising young horses, schooling and working with stallions, rewarding as it is, can be 肉体的に 需要・要求するing 特に in winter. I’ve 配達するd more than 117 foals, and in a month’s time we will welcome the arrival of another, and every time it is as thrilling as the first. I have loved every 選び出す／独身 minute of this life.
Every year we showcased our horses for audiences who （機の）カム in their droves from all over the 郡; the excitement of watching our Arabians prance and dance at liberty, as only they know how, is 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の and captivating.
There were also touching moments. One, the sight of our 損なう Luzhana in authentic red and gold 衣装 主要な her foal at foot with seven other homebred 損なうs around the 円形競技場, as over the （衆議院の）議長s Lady In Red played. We 招待するd riding groups and I remember vividly the little girl from the 無能にするd riding school who fell in love with every horse and the indescribable smile on her 直面する when she thanked us for the day and 現在のd me with a bouquet of spring flowers.
Show days were fun if わずかに stressful behind the scenes. Our housekeeper 準備するing culinary delights for our guests. All 手渡すs on deck as Simon and I, 加える a 広大な／多数の／重要な team led by our stud 経営者／支配人, ran ragged with last-minute 絵, moving flowerpots and 追加するing finishing touches to （米）棚上げする／（英）提議するs.
I was the presenter and Simon our DJ, sensitively choosing personalised songs for each of our horses as they entered the 円形競技場 with a fabulous Welsh show trainer and another from フラン - these were such evocative, happy times.
In 2009, our famous stallion Artist turned 30 and I remember the pride Simon and I had carrying out his cake as we all sang Happy Birthday. That same year I made a tearful speech to our gathered friends about our stud farm, Georgian Arabians, the realisation of a dream and how one man’s love a nd support had made everything possible.
Susan hopes that?a younger couple will buy the farm and embrace the dream she and Simon 株d for so many years
In the 回廊（地帯） of the house, there’s a 塀で囲む-to-塀で囲む gallery of film photographs and personal memories of my life with Simon. Friends say it must be painful to see these pictures every day, but they 代表する my life and a 抱擁する part 株d with one incredible man. A favourite is a collage of Simon’s 50th birthday, and what a night that was!
He was filming the BBC TV series 死傷者 in Bristol and I had arranged a surprise party at the farm. Usually home by eight o’clock, our 40 guests arrived 早期に, hid cars and were inside waiting for the big 明らかにする／漏らす. But that night Simon’s work ran over and he called to say he’d be an hour late. So now I had a party of guests who hadn’t even been 申し込む／申し出d refreshments. In hindsight, misguidedly, I gave the 仕事 of 注ぐing シャンペン酒 to one of our closest friends Jeremy Beadle, which he did admirably.
By the time Simon’s car pulled up, a fair 量 had been co nsumed and guests were giggling as they crouched on the 製図／抽選 room 床に打ち倒す to hide from the windows. Just as Jeremy began some raucous joke, Simon entered the room and the surprise was pretty much lost for the noise. A shame, perhaps, but Simon was thrilled that everyone had travelled so far to be with us to celebrate.
Since then, I’ve had a wonderful array of 申し込む／申し出s to go 支援する on 審査する but while some might be possible, others I can’t 受託する because of the distance from Exmoor to work places, 特に London. I’d like to be closer to friends I’ve not 株d time with in years, to enjoy more of a social life, to go for dinner, to 会合，会う up on a whim. I’ve 行方不明になるd going to the theatre and that’s something I really look 今後 to.
I’ve always been someone who enjoys the 予期しない. At times it’s all a scary thought but there’s a real element of excitement for what might be, travel - new horizons.
My friends 示唆する areas they’d like me to live; there are myriad 選択s to 調査する and I’ve begun the search for a new home in a different place, to 工場／植物 memories and make new ones, both inside and out. I’ve looked at houses in the Cotswolds and one was perfect in so many ways but it made me realise that I don’t want anything やめる as big. What I’d like to find is a smaller - everything-I-have-now.
Our stud farm, Georgian Arabians, is known throughout the world for 住宅 some of the finest Arabian pure-bred horses and we’ve competed at the highest level.
But those days are over for me - just fantastic memories and my horse family, and those I brought into the world I 簡単に treasure.
Depending on where I move to, some horses might be 利用できる for sale, but I would never sell any unless I feel the home they are going to is as good as the one I have given them.
A 私的な wish may be that a younger couple would buy the farm and embrace the dream Simon and I 株d for so many years.
The truly painful part will be leaving all our memories behind. But wherever I 計画（する） to 始める，決める 負かす／撃墜する my roots again - so will Simon.
