Elemental Hoofbeats: Molly Mules and Appaloosa Angels

Where in this world can man find nobility without pride, Friendship without envy, Or beauty without vanity? Here where grace is served with muscle and strength by gentleness confined. He serves without servility; he has fought without enmity. There is nothing so powerful, nothing less violent. There is nothing so quick, nothing more patient. ~Ronald Duncan, "The Horse" 1954

This world we live in is strange. Things happen that we can't explain. We lose those we love and then find love again in other places. It's a never ending cycle. It's quite amazing that humans are so capable of opening up their grieving hearts to new possibilities even though they may have been broken countless times before. When you lose someone you love beyond measure it's not uncommon to look for that soul in others, and when you make a similar connection it's quite amazing.

When I was 16 I got my very first horse. A beautiful red Appaloosa named Phoenix. He was old, and creaky, and stubborn and absolutely perfect. Phoenix was truly my first soulmate in life, I trusted him without doubt, I told him everything. That horse knew me better then anyone else in my life ever had up to that point. I had never experienced a bond before like the one I had with Phoenix. We would show, and jump, and go for long summer bareback rides. It never occurred to me to be nervous when riding him, he was my best friend, and the last horse I would ever be 100% confident on for a very very long time. 7 or 8 years after Phoenix came into my life I had to make a choice, he was getting older, I needed a younger horse, and it was time for Phoenix to go somewhere that he could help someone else as much as he'd helped me. I gave him to a good friend of mine who was in need of a confidence builder. The day they picked him up I broke down. I cried for days, I just wanted him back, I thought I had made a horrible mistake. But I was the owner of a brand new 4 year old percheron cross mare, and Phoenix was with someone I trusted completely and in the end it all worked out.

3 years ago, at the age of 30, Phoenix was laid to rest. It was his time, but there is not a day goes by that I don't think about that horse, he was my first heart horse, and I truly believed that I would never love a horse that much again, a piece of my heart died with Phoenix that day and I never imagined that I would gain it back.

Then in October of 2015 I was on facebook looking at the horses that were available in a kill pen in Pennsylvania. These animals only had 48 hours to be bailed out or they would ship off to slaughter. While scrolling though the many sad, neglected equines, one really caught my eye. She was a big molly (female) mule. She looked under nourished, very sore, and had the saddest eyes I had ever seen in my life. While I had been looking for a mule, an unknown rescue from a kill pen wasn't exactly what I had been looking for, but I couldn't stop going back to her pictures. The expression in her eyes made me want to cry, she needed me. One call to the auction house and $700 later she was mine. I couldn't help but wondering what I had gotten myself in to..

On November 8th 2015, 2 years to the day that Phoenix was laid to rest, my new mule (now named Sabrina) arrived. She was completely indifferent to me. She was a sore, scared, and angry animal. She would sooner run me over then let me do anything with her. I questioned my decision to buy her so many times in those first couple of month that I had her. But eventually something changed, somewhere along the line she began to trust me, and once a mule trusts a person there is nothing that animal won't do for you.

Today... today I didn't something that I never thought I would do again. Something I have only done on Phoenix. I got on Sabrina with no saddle, with no bridle, and with no fear. This is crazy world. And I have absolutely no doubt in my heart or in my mind that Sabrina was sent to me by Phoenix. He knew that I needed her and that she needed me, and somehow he sent her into my life and into my heart.