My Dollar Goes a Long Way | A Nice Horse Story

By: Crystal Dawn

My parents always told my sister and I how much trouble and workhorses would be, but I loved horses way too much to listen . On a warm sunny day in June, we returned home from a weeklong visit with grandma and granddad to find our parents had been busily renovating the landscape around our home.

Where there were once huge trees going up our winding driveway, now there were pastures, fences, and growing grass. It all seemed strange, why would they go to so much trouble and expense to redo the entrance and driveway? I understood completely when I laid eyes on an amazing 1,000 pound, sorrel gelding in my front yard. He was beautiful. I never thought I would see the day that I would have a horse, but he was mine.

[private]Every horse crazy little girl falls madly in love with her first horse and I was no exception. Dollar became the most important part of my life. Every moment I got I spent with my horse. Once school started again, I hurried home every day, got my home work done, and ran down the hill as fast as I could with a bucket of brushes in one hand and a lead rope in the other.

It didn’t take long before just brushing Dollar wasn’t good enough, I wanted to ride him. Dollar had been a roping horse for his first owner and had been left, un-ridden in a field by his second. My parents were understandably concerned that he was more than I could handle, but after relentless pleading on my part, they finally gave in.

After sitting me down and explaining that this was a very big animal and I could get hurt very badly, we agreed that my dad was to ride Dollar first to see how he was going to behave. I wasn’t the least bit worried, I just wanted to ride.

As I said, Dollar started out as a roping horse so he was used to being saddled. Everything went smoothly as we led him out to the pasture where my Dad got on. The second Dad’s butt hit the saddle seat Dollar took off full speed, ran a few yards and abruptly stopped. To his credit, my Dad hung in there like a real cowboy, but it was clear Dollar had no idea what a walk, trot or lope was.

All he knew was what he was taught to do as a roping horse which was to run fast, catch the cow and then stop quickly so the cowboy can jump off and tie the cow up. We had a lot of work to do.
Soon I was walking, talking, listening, and working horses. I had horses on the brain. I dreamed of Dollar and I winning championships and ribbons in Western Pleasure classes. I had decided that was what I wanted to do with my life – show horses. No, show Dollar!

It wasn’t a passing phase. Dollar and I worked very hard to be the best. By the time I entered high school, the trails around our house got old so my family and I joined a horse 4-H group in Liberty, NC. At our first show, Dollar was more interested in checking out the other horses than going through our routine.

Although his playfulness upset me, I couldn’t blame him for being distracted. The sites and sounds were exciting. We had worked hard to get here and I knew we’d be good, Dollar just needed to focus.
I took him out in a field and we had a little heart to heart talk.

I really don’t think he was listening, but I still talked. Having said my piece, we worked for a good 30 to 45 minutes until he started to tire. The plan worked. Once we were back in the show ring, he stood proudly, surely the best horse in the arena and we came out of the class with a second place ribbon. We’d made it through our first show and now we were officially a team. I joined the Piedmont Horseman’s Association and showed Dollar every other Saturday throughout the spring and summer. We won 26 ribbons in all that show season.

Our success made me more committed and I spent almost all my time riding. The usual teenage girl’s hobbies like cars, parties, boys, the telephone, didn’t interest me. Dollar was more important than going out with my friends, which I’m sure kept my Mom and Dad’s mind at ease.

As the show season came to an end, the PHA youth group planned a trip to a mountain retreat called Leatherwood. I was excited about going. Riding the beautiful trails over the long weekend would be the perfect way to celebrate our first successful season of showing. A couple days before we were scheduled to leave, we borrowed a horse trailer with a sleeper in the front . We had never slant loaded our two horses before and they were used to our four horse stock trailer so we wanted to see how they were going to react to the new accommodations.

When I backed Dollar off the trailer he came down really hard on his left front foot. I walked him out and he seemed alright, but the next morning I discovered him limping on that leg. I walked him around and saw that his ankle was bothering him. I was looking forward to our trip to Leatherwood, but it was clear we weren’t going to be able to go. After all the work to get the trailer loaded, it was now time to unload everything.

I doctored on that ankle for about a week and it wasn’t getting any better when Mom decided it was time to call Dr. Boyer. The diagnosis was a pulled ligament in the leg with pasture rest recommended as treatment.

Dollar stayed in the pasture for close to 8 weeks and his ankle seemed to be getting better but as soon as I rode him, the limp returned. It looked like stall rest was going to be necessary. It broke my heart to shut him in and Dollar wasn’t very happy with the new arrangement or me. He stayed in his stall all day, everyday for about a month. I brushed him each day after school and walked him on a lead rope, not wanting to take the chance of him running and bucking, and re-injuring his ankle.

Finally it was clear Dollar wasn’t doing any better and we decided to try a nerve block. After the injection, Dollar seemed to be his old self until the drugs wore off and he was back to hurting and limping again. More visits from Dr. Boyer and a few x-rays later, we had a diagnosis and a suggested course of treatment.

That evening, the whole family sat down and Mom broke the news that Dollar would never be able to be ridden again. My heart was crushed into a million pieces. I could feel my whole world just crash and explode. I was mad at myself because I felt I should have done more to help him. It had been a long time since I’d cried about anything, but that night I cried all night long.

For the rest of the week I felt numb. Nothing really mattered anymore. I had worked my butt off for 7 years to make Dollar the perfect horse and now it felt like God was punishing me for something. What did I do wrong?

Eventually after I thought about things for a while I realized how lucky I had been to have a horse like Dollar. I remembered seeing him in my front yard that day for the first time and all the good times we’d shared since. Even though he couldn’t be ridden again, he was still a great horse and deserved to be cared for and loved.

At the PHA end of year banquet they were calling out names for trophies and all of a sudden they called out Dollar’s name. Dollar had won a huge trophy and awarded some money for all the points he had accumulated from showing. He won Grand Champion in Novice Western Horse go-as-you-please, and I was named Grand Champion in Novice Western Rider go-as-you-please.

I grew up with and learned a lot from Dollar. Things don’t come easy and won’t always go the way you plan, but it goes to show you that God makes everything happen for a reason.[/private]