A few years ago, I had to make the hard decision to put my 29 year old mare, Sugar, down due to a chronic illness. I had adopted Sugar through MHARF for a pasture mate for my Arab. When I called Drew to let her know, she suggested I take a look at a quarter horse named Charlie. She thought he would be perfect for me. Drew assured me that if it didn’t work out, I could bring him back. After a few months of working on ground manners, trailering, tying, and finding the right tack, I quickly found out what a perfect horse Charlie would be for me and my now retired Arab.

Charlie is gentle, funny, loves attention, and has a trot to die for. He is the clown of the pasture. He loves to chase my other horse with his jolly ball and irritate him with it. He brings me “presents” of sticks and branches up to the barn. He is the first one to greet me at the gate and is always easy to catch. If I’m working on the fence, he follows me around and keeps me company. We have been on many adventures riding down the road, at various state parks and even a bed and breakfast in Wisconsin.

This last year during Charlie’s spring exam, we noticed some suspicious spots on his eyelids. My vet suggested sending a biopsy to determine if there was an issue. Unfortunately the results came back positive for cancer. I called my husband in tears. Knowing how much Charlie means to me, my husband quickly responded by saying, “take him to the eye specialists, he’s a great horse and so young.” Charlie was amazing through his several treatments, wearing special eye masks and even letting me administer his eye ointment and medicine. We even received a letter from the eye specialist stating, “Charlie was an amazing patient”. I’m glad to report that at his spring exam, there was no indication of any cancer! Because of this cancer scare, Charlie wears a fly mask with UV protection year round. Even in the winter when the sun is so bright reflecting off the snow.

How or why anyone would have abandoned and walked away from this horse boggles my mind. Charlie has been the best riding partner that I could have ever wanted. He is my dream horse and I am truly blessed to have been able to adopt this incredible horse. Charlie is an important part of our family and will a part of our family forever. I cannot thank Drew and MHARF enough for letting me adopt this amazing horse. He has given me so much enjoyment and I cannot imagine not being greeted every morning by those beautiful blue eyes and whinny. Thank you, Drew and all the amazing people that foster all the MHARF equines, for giving all these special equines a second chance in life. You are all a wonderful asset to the equine community.

This is Gretzki and Chris (on the right). You may remember Gretzki from the 2012 Trainer’s Challenge.

He was trained by Chris and then adopted by this very talented young man!

We were lucky enough to have Chris back in the 2013 Challenge training Gretski’s mother, Ramona, who has also been adopted. Chris will again be participating in the Challenge for 2016!

Wanted to share my latest picture of Finnegan (formerly Pancho). I adopted him in February and we placed first or second in every dressage class we entered this summer. This picture was taken at the Festival Under the Stars where we performed as part of an 8 horse quadrille. Thank you for all you do!! -Nicole T.

Just thought you might like to know how Shallah is settling in after his first week! We both came home without incident, and while our “goon squad” raced and bucked around in the pasture, Shallah looked at his new digs and promptly got down to the business of grazing, ignoring the squealing, bucking and farting happening in the pen next door.

He was soon introduced to his new mate, Aslan, and that’s when the skies opened up and rained for something like 40 days and 40 nights. I’m sure Inshallah thought he had been taken someplace where the sun never shines! It took him less than 24 hours to associate my presence with his new feed bucket, and slightly longer to associate me with pimply-grip rubber curry massages.

He received a pony manicure, a few lessons in good manners, and an introduction to ground driving 101. He takes to everything like a pro – he’s a very smart boy – and he will soon be starring in his own video, “Inshallah the Dancing Dressage Arab”. Ha ha!

Seriously, though, he settled in remarkably smoothly and quickly, and is coming to understand that I am not going to ask him to do anything that will send him into a panic attack, but he is also learning that he must behave like a gentleman (no dancing in the barn aisles). He is learning to relax and trust me and I, in turn, am learning to relax and trust him. We’ve gone riding twice now in the arena and it has been very good!

Thank you all for everything!

Rachael