FEBRUARY 2006 • VOLUME 6 • HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine

The shed row at the racetrack. Horses nickering over their stall doors, flicking their ears, asking for attention, and there she stood. Six years old and already her legs could not take the pounding of the track. She had run her last race, pulling her sulky, legs flying across the soft worked-up loam, her blinkers focusing her sight on the finish line ahead. She was sound, but her one knee was starting to give her problems. Her owner/trainer, caring just a little too much, wasn’t willing to keep racing her and have her totally break down in the future. She cared about this mare. Funny in a way if you think about it. Working with so many different horses. or maybe not funny. Kim Jay just loved people. And when someone loves you that much, it is hard not to love them back. So making up her mind with her heart and not out of her pocket book, the trainer decided to sell Kim Jay to us for $200.00. It wasn’t the money that counted. It was the thought that Kim Jay would lead a long and productive life, cared for and loved by the children that she would help. And having children to love. Because that was Kim Jay. The horse that loved people.

Halter and lead rope went on, and we led her to the barn a short distance away.

The next day we wanted to give her a chance to meet her new stable mates. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any real turn out. So we daily turned the horses out in the indoor arena to run and play together, while we cleaned stalls. So we turned one of the geldings into the arena and then led Kim Jay in. I never saw anything like it before or since. Like a cobra striking with his venom. That is what she looked like. She literally looked like a snake as she lunged at the gelding. I’ve seen horses with their ears back before, but not that they disappeared into the sides of their head! Yes, the horse that loved people, but horses?? That was another thing all together. Hmm. They never mentioned that!!

Now Kim Jay had been raced in a sulky, she knew how to drive. But she had never been ridden or had a person on her back in her life. It was time to introduce her to riding.

It took all of 25 minutes. 5 days. But only 25 minutes.

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