Our Story

Lunging Garfunkel

October 8, 2011 was the day my life changed for the better. It was a normal day at the horse rescue - typical routine of morning feed, cleaning stalls and riding. During feed, I noticed this gorgeous bay horse in one of the fields with this super fabulous floaty trot. He was so cute! I asked Kelsi who he was, and she told me his name was Garfunkel and that he was a three year old who had been at their other property. Later that afternoon, she asked me to get Garfunkel out of the field and take him down to the barn to clean his chin abscess. He had been at the horse rescues' other property until he had busted through the fence and gotten a bit scraped up. Brilliant horse, right? I guess we were meant to be! Anyhow, I took him down to the barn, and I don't think I will ever forget it. He put his head against my chest and was just the cutest thing ever. I clearly remember asking him, "Do you want to come home with me, pretty boy?" Both Kelsi and Tracy were talking about how cute we were and I even texted my mom a picture of him, telling her he was my new horse! Since he was down at the barn, I asked Kelsi if she could lunge him, so she did. He was cute, but clumsy! I walked him back up to his field, and couldn't stop obsessing over him. He was just the cutest thing ever. I had Tracy take a picture of us, and I think I will treasure this photo forever! I look back on it all the time, and it's just insane to see how far we've come since this day!

All smiles, convinced I had found my perfect horse!

For the next few weeks, the first thing I would do when I got to the barn was go out and say hi to Garfunkel. Eventually, a guy named Mike was hired on to do morning feed. The first morning I was doing feed with him, I pointed Garfunkel out to him and told him he was my horse, and wasn't he cute? Mike smiled politely, and told me that he was actually in the process of adopting Garfunkel. I was absolutely heartbroken. What? No way! I tried to put on my best face and offered to work with Garfunkel for him. He said yes, of course that would be great. I was relieved that at least I'd be able to train Garfunkel, and have some more time with him. At that same time, I had started being "trained" by Jeff, who was a new volunteer with a ton of knowledge. I had no clue what I was doing, but he taught me a ton. I first started off just round penning Garfunkel and even lunged him over a couple jumps. He is the cutest jumper! Jeff started working with him once or twice a week as well for me and in February, we saddled him up and started lunging him on the lunge line.

March 17, 2012 I sat on Garfunkel's back for the first time.

First ride on my boy!

First day home, showing off ground work to a friend!

Not going to lie - I was in tears, I was so happy! It is definitely one of the high lights of the time I've had with this horse. I didn't ride him again until April, and then I rode him twice. However, some stuff went on at the farm and new people started feeding. Gambler lost a lot of weight because they didn't feed him separately from the other horses. At this point, Mike was no longer able to adopt him, which made him open for adoption. The prospect of me almost losing him again scared me, so I was able to ask the farm owner to make him unavailable for adoption. At this point, I was thinking really hard if I could maybe adopt him. I talked to my parents, and we figured out a way for me to buy him and pay for the majority of his expenses. He continued to lose weight rapidly, so although my parents weren't totally on board, I was able to convince them that I really needed to buy him. May 12, 2012, I signed the adoption papers and bought him. I brought him up North to a farm near my house. He was hundreds of pounds underweight, so I couldn't do much with him in terms of training until he gained the weight. It was a scary time - the prospect of colicking, getting hurt, and anything else all of a sudden became very real when I realized I was responsible for him. I started working for my dad and doing feed and stalls whenever I could to work off board. I renamed him Gambler, and slowly but surely, he started to get healthier.

Second week under saddle

Towards the end of June, Gambler attained a suspensory injury. I had already been looking at different, cheaper barns because the stress of paying for everything was catching up to me. I was lucky enough to have a friend down about an hour South from me who worked at a farm that offered really affordable board, especially now that I was working a lot more because it was summer. Gambler stayed there for two months - the first month he was on stall rest, and after that we started to get him under saddle.

My barn owner riding Gambler in September

In September, I brought him back home to a new barn closer to my house. I continued his riding training by myself, and eventually started taking lessons with my barn owner. Unfortunately, that was too expensive so I stopped. However, he made so much progress and I am so thankful to have been able to have taken the few lessons I did. I now take lessons with a friend of mine once a week, and Gambler makes more and more progress every day. He makes me smile so big, and is seriously the biggest source of joy in my life. I'm beyond blessed! :) We have a ton of fun together, and hopefully we will have many years of adventures in the future!