By: Donna Wells

Our 11 yr.old daughter, who is a novice rider, started riding lessons. Things were off to a great start. Mackenzie was walking and trotting and even backing the horse with no problem. The trainer then started switching her to other horses. These horses all just had a little quirk about them. They were not dangerous, but our daughter’s confidence level bit the dust. She was to the point of holding the horn, crying and walking in fear. At the end of every lesson I would tell her that she could quit and she always said NO I want to ride.

My husband and I were very frustrated, we knew we had to find her a horse that she would totally connect with and a new trainer! We had two horses at the time, but one was too green for her and the other horse flipped his head in a way that scared her.
[private]She was signed up for 4H and the 4H deadline soon was approaching for horse ownership. We had looked at a few horses, but knew that none would work out. Anxiously I called an ad in the local paper. It was for an 18 yr.old QH mare with a double registry with buckskin. She had been rode in 4H and had always been around kids.

Excitedly I thought,” Wow! This could be the one!!”
We went and looked at her. All my excitement, soon was shattered! I wanted to cry from the minute I saw her. She was in poor condition. She was around 200 lbs. under weight and had a huge gash in her leg and was standing in muck that was in her wound. Her leg was double the normal size! She was with 3 other horses on an acre lot!! Now this even included their home and garage and it was divided in 4 sections! She was at the bottom of the pecking order so it made it even worse. Her rear end was sore because they kept giving her shots of penicillin in the same spot for her leg wound.

Their gelding, who thought he was a stallion, was also jumping on her! They had no shelter for that winter. Her hooves were in awful shape. They said she wouldn’t take a bit, so they rode her in a hackamore. They were very rough with her. She had these beautiful eyes that cried out to me to get her out of that situation! She had the most sweetest face! How could I not just load her up???!!
Being a new horse owner, I wasn’t for sure how long it would take to get her in better condition, if I could even get her in good condition at all. I called our 4H leader and she went with us to go look at her again.

Marilyn, our 4H leader was a little concerned with her being in sad shape, but when she was standing by the horse and she automatically set up for halter, even in all her pain, she knew we had to give her a shot. She knew that it would take time to fix her up, but that she could be fixed. We left and did a pro/con talk and I knew that even if this horse didn’t work out I had to get her out of that place!!!! I have a big heart for animals, especially ones in bad situations.
We bought Fancy and took her over to Marilyn’s barn for a few weeks so she could help us to get her wound healing. We took her to the vet and updated her shots right away and had her teeth floated etc.

The poor horse LUNGED towards the feed barrel when it was opened! It took two of us pulling her out of the feed container. Fancy hadn’t seen grain for along time and was so hungry. Slowly but surely we were able to put weight back on her.
My daughter and Fancy connected from the get go. We were over at Marilyn’s barn daily to take care of Fancy. The horse knew that Mackenzie was doing everything to make her better. She was so careful to flush her wound out with water and spray the ointment on it to heal. They built such a great trust in one another.

Every time we came to the barn Fancy would whinny for my daughter. They were both so excited to see each other and hated it when it was time for us to leave.
Once she was well enough, Mackenzie started working with her on showmanship class and then they started riding. Fancy was so smart and helped Mackenzie gain her confidence back. We had no trouble getting a bit in her mouth. We were very gentle and she knew that we would not hurt her.
We had a new trainer, Erica start coming to our barn. Things really turned around for both horse and our daughter.

By the time the 4H show came around in July the two of them were beautiful together. Our only goal for our daughter’s 4H was to enjoy herself and to show her mare in halter class and showmanship PERIOD. We had NO goals for placings, just to have fun and to show on the ground.
Mackenzie ended up riding Fancy and even WINNING their Western Pleasure Class. She was the newest rider in the class! They also came in 2nd place for showmanship class in Western and they WON the showmanship class in English. They also won their class for halter in Western and English.

Fancy even WON overall mare in English!!!! They went way beyond any set goals. They even WON their class in the area show, which gave them the opportunity to go to state fair!
A real nice treat was that the lady that had her foaled at her barn just happened to be at our show watching her nephew’s child show. She just knew that this was her baby Fancy!!! It was neat to meet her and for her to see how well her horse was performing after not seeing her all these years. Later that month she even had Fancy’s name plate sent over to us from when she was a baby at her stable.

Fancy is still having her poor hooves worked on. They are almost back to normal. She is looking very good now and I think she is very happy. She gets an attitude every now and then but our 4H leader just says that is the mare in her We love her very much and I am so glad we were able to give her a new lease on life. It was even the icing on the cake for her to help my daughter blossom in her riding.
We are so proud of our daughter for overcoming her fears and challenging herself. I am glad that she didn’t give up. We gave her every opportunity to do this. We didn’t want to be “THOSE” horse parents who “MAKE” their kids ride.

I always dreamed of owning horses and I am glad that we can make this dream come true for our kids. I grew up in town and my dad always told me on April Fool’s Day that there was a horse in our backyard. Every year I went and looked. Well daddy…..guess what!!!! There are horses in my backyard now NO more April Fool’s for this gal I hope I can always share my backyard with those jewel horses like Fancy.
A special thank you to Marilyn Kerr for your leadership in 4H and friendship and love for kids and their horses. Also to Erica Knox for all those LONG training hours of finally getting Mackenzie up to a canter!

You two ladies truly are a big blessing to our family. Also a big thanks to all the kids and parents of the Bits and Spurs Clinton Co. 4H Club that encouraged Mackenzie to keep on keeping on!
I hope that my family’s special story will be one that you can use. If not, it will just be our towns special story. The local paper did run her story. If I can be of anymore help, here is my name and phone number and email address. You can also IM me at that email, since I see you are aol members. Sorry I am not the best writer just a mom that is so happy for her kid [/private]