Daily Oats: food for the horse lovers soul
Everyone has dreams about how great their horse is including me. Mine was to take the WSCA Pleasure driving championship. So for two summers my family and I worked our tails off getting our stallion ready.
By 6:am, we were in the barn feeding our herd and getting Sunny groomed and ready to start the days training. We started in the round pen to make sure I had his attention in his head, and not in other places. Next was a morning ride, finished off with some pleasure driving work in the arena. If I had time in the day, we would take to the back country roads for a nice, long drive to work on the road gate and really stretch his legs. We also hauled him to be able to take driving lessons from a AQHA world Pleasure driving champion that was 150 miles away.
By the end of the second year, he was ready. Sunny got to the point he never missed a beat. Because I am such a dreamer, I had the highest hopes of the Blue ribbon. The two of us, placed first in every show we entered that second year and quickly qualified to go to the championship show.
Our big day came. We left the night before for the 200 mile drive. Morning came and my son saddled Sunny up and headed for the indoor arena at the St. Paul, MN fairgrounds.
Within minutes, he came back and said “Mom, I just can not get him to go.”
So we harness him up and drove him a little, but it was 6:30 am and it was time for our class. In the ring, I found myself getting after him harder and harder to push him into more forward motion and into a proper road gate. However, it quickly brought me to tears. I just could not push him so hard. To me, he was too good of a horse to keep pushing him in excess, so I pulled into the rail as fair as I could and let others pass.
Once in the line up, my name was called for 10th place.
When we went to take the harness off, he had blotted so bad from colicing
that we thought we were going to have to cut the harness off of him. The next six hours were hell on earth.
When Sunny could no longer take the pain the Vet said it was time to call it quits. My husband sat in the back of the horse trailer holding me in his arms as we made the finale decision to put him down. Sunny was just in too much pain. As he tried to walk, every few feet he would have to stop and his entire body would tremble and severely shake from the intense pain. It was the most devastating thing I ever had to watch.
Next, I had to tell my son that our beloved stallion and freind was about to be put down.
He said ” Mom, why did God do this to me?’
I replied, “Have you asked God to save your horse? When was the last time you asked him for anything? You can not expect him to help, when you never talk to him? ”
“Have you prayed for your horse?” I asked. Rob looked at me in complete silence.
I watched the look on his face change as he sat down on a bench, took his Cowboy hat off and bowed his head.
Within seconds, Sunny took just a two more steps and one turd fell, just one small fresh turd. Terry, our trainer, walked him in a circle one more time, only this time Sunny dropped his head to smell the turd, walked over it and took a huge dump.
We all stood up and looked on in complete shock, even the Vet. The vet was positive he was not going to make it just seconds before. I was sure that that there was nothing left that could be done, not even surgery. He had been sure it the only solution to the intense pain, was to end his life. You should of seen us dancing, crying and jumping all at the same time. We were quite the spectacle
It only took a young man’s simple prayer, one simple Cowboy prayer.
We loaded Sunny up and ecstatically happily headed for home. After all, Sunny was alive and I did have a blue ribbon, just not the right shade. I have to remember to make sure next time, I be more specific in my request to the universe which color blue.
Just for today, remember the reason for the season. For me, every time I have any doubts about my life, I remember a young Cowboy’, my son’s simple prayer that saved his beloved horse’s life.
From all of us here at Knot-A-Tail, Merry Christmas everyone.
May you have all your dreams come true, Just make sure that it is not just a simple prayer, that is stopping you from getting everything in this life that you have ever dreamed.
Remember to always be the whinny:
Greeting the world like your horse greets you.
Daily Oats: Food for the Horse lover’s soul
Love Roberta
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What a wonderful story. Thanks for sharing. I’m so glad your Sunny made it.
Faith……one thing we should never take for granted. Thank you for sharing this story.
What a beautiful story. I wish more of us would remember to thank god for these precious animals. They give and give. and we take and take. I for one am so grateful for my horse that I can’t even think of not having one. I say that, because I have been blessed with several and each one is special in his or her own way. To see the world is wonderful. To share the world with my horse is a miracle. Merry Christmas to all.
What a wonderful story! It reminded me of last winter, when our OTTB suffered a puncture wound over his R hock. He developed a severe staph infection that went into the sheath. Cappy was in so much pain he couldn’t walk nor did he want me or anyone else messing with him. The vet was telling my husband that if he didn’t show signs of improvement after almost 2 weeks, it was time to talk about ending his suffering. I’ve never prayed for anything so hard, every night for almost 3 weeks. I told my husband that I didn’t care what the vets said, Cappy would get better. I simply refused to accept the alternative. Finally after getting enough fluid to perform a culture, they were able to identify the strain (similar to MRSA) and put him on the right anti-biotic. As he improved, the vet kept telling us there was a possibility he would never be sound again – at that point I didn’t care, as long as he wasn’t in pain. But Cappy is a true fighter. By the end of May he was back 100%. The vets were nothing short of amazed by his valiant comeback. To me it only proved what faith can do, coupled with good vets and lots of loving care by an owner. I made the 60-mile round trip almost daily to visit him. Then I’d hold his face, stroke his cheeks, his neck, his ears and tell him how proud I was of him and how much I loved him. Today our bond is stronger than ever.
Roberta that is an absolutely amazing story. It is amazing what prayer can do. We do have to be ready though because the answer to our prayers is not always the answer we want. God bless you and all this Christmas and for the upcoming year.
It is a wonderful Universe where a prayer is answered with the release of a fresh turd and then a huge dump!Maybe only a horse lover can appreciate the blessedness of such a usually dare I say unholy process. But the routines of life are funny, meaningful, uplifting, scary, heartfelt and always best enjoyed with a measure of humility and gratitude which your story here demonstrates perfectly. Merry Christmas Rhonda – I love your posts.
Oops – I meant Roberta. Sorry.
Thank you, Roberta, for sharing your story about Sonny. It was heartrending and then heartwarming. I can well imagine all the emotions. When you can, read my story about Be Calm (Saddlebred) who got seriously hurt in a trailer incident. It’s on my website or you can find it on SearchWarp.com or my blog on Blogger. I love the fact that your prayer effectively resulted in what can be explained as a horsy miracle, right? Thank goodness! How powerful!