Dear Jennifer:
I am in receipt of your recent email. It was great to read about the horses you have helped and it has prompted me to update you on one of those lives you have touched. It’s been six years since I adopted that Lena Don’t Skip Quarter Horse Filly from Animali and I still have her. Her barn name is Lena for her mama and it fits her. Lena grew to just a hair under 15 hands and more importantly grew into a beautiful, kind and gentle mare. She is very much a part of my family and extremely loved.
My father, a horse dealer, struck down by Parkinson’s disease, was healthier then, and was able to help me learn many things as she was my very first green horse and the very first horse, at 40, I actually owned myself (versus riding from his stock that was sold). As my father’s health declined, Lena allowed us time together to share those special moments only a horsey girl and her professional horseman father could know. He gently halter started her, taught her and me how to lead, we saddled her in a stall on the eve of New Years when she was 2. She never bucked. she was frighted but trusting but she always gave her heart and she gave me the best of my father. She has progressed into a riding horse.
It’s been a slow journey because she was a 40th birthday present to me when I had just had a miscarriage and thought I couldn’t have another baby and a couple of weeks after she was delivered, I found out I was pregnant. One of the pictures attached has John hugging Lena in her stall. In 2006 I had a filly and a baby boy! My oldest, David loves Lena to pet as a bigger dog and John loves Lena and she is “his horse”. He loves to rider her (lead line style).
She was a frightened little thing who traveled about 2000 miles to get to me in Newtown, Connecticut from Canada. When she arrived she was a little black puff and now she is sleek and beautiful girl. Now that my baby is in kindergarten and my little boy is a teen, I will find the time to show her at the Quarter Horse level as I originally intended. Lena is as smart as a whip and I’m hoping to try my hand at a trail class.
Karen
