Mine and Grayson's Success Story

One of the regional coordinators for the United States Equine Rescue League asked me to write a success story about me and Grayson. It's probably pretty dorky coming from some one else's perspective but eh, what the heck. See my story below...

I joined the Bethany College Equestrian Team my sophomore year of college; I had never taken a formal riding lesson. I quickly realized the power of horses when it comes to therapy and my sanity. I often attribute my 3.9 GPA to the horses. For several years I rode other people’s horses. While I’m grateful for their generosity, I knew there was nothing like owning a horse. I wanted that.

Every day I took time to browse through horse ads on Craigslist, Petfinder and really any site with horses for sale. I was really picky but I knew I would know when I found the one. I was right. I spotted the little gray horse on the USERL website. He had three white stockings and a white blaze; his personality just jumped out and grabbed my attention.

On a whim I e-mailed the USERL; I didn’t even know where I would keep him. I received a response and made an appointment to visit. Meeting him in person just sealed the deal for me. The first thing I noticed was his gentle eyes. I got all my ducks in a row and was approved for adoption on a Friday morning. That same afternoon I took my car to the shop for some routine maintenance. It turns out my old car needed $800 just to be road safe and I had a hole in my frame. I needed a new car.

I cried over a horse I had met one time. Everyone told me there would be other horses but it didn’t make me feel any better. I moped around and resented my new car until I got sick of feeling bad for myself. I dove into my finances, determined to find the money for my dream horse. I did and e-mailed to see if he was still available; he was but someone else was looking at him and had first dibs. My heart sank. I’d lost my little horse again. To my surprise, the other person decided she didn’t want him and he was mine.  To this day, I still wonder why anyone would turn him down.

Before Grayson, I had very little experience with young horses. But I figured let’s take it one day at a time, after all we have the next 20 some years to spend together. I teach him to be a gentleman and he teaches me patience. Who knows what the future holds for the two of us and to be honest, I don’t care as long as he greets me with his deep whiney after a long day at the office.