My Sweet Will

Sweet Will

Sweet will came to me through and e-mail. I corresponded with him owner,  a woman in her 50's who had just remarried and took up the art of cross country riding with her new husband. We talked of your sadness through the mail. I think she continued to write to me over a three month period. Maybe 6 to 8 emails were passed before she finally made the choice to bring her beloved Bill, just Bill to our center for his own safety.

Bill has a serious case of moon blindness, the owner she has extensive surgery performed on him thinking it was cataracts, but no it was much more severe and now Bill could not anything except in the most brightest of days a small shadow would cross his eyes. Bill has extensive training, and was a very expensive horse and worse he was just a 5 year old.  I explained that if he was my horse I would not give him up. I was capable of riding him if he had no eyes at all to see, he would and could learn to rely on just my hands, body movements and the sound of my voice to guide him, but cross country is another matter if you are not that well versed in riding. The woman explained that she could not afford to keep him and buy another horses and her capabilities were only that of a beginner and she was terrified that she would cause an accident and more than hurting herself she might hurt him.

I explained to her how we operate our facility and that we guarantee the homes we find for our horses and that he will have a long and extensive life and would require the right person to come along and adopt him. Each email the owner seem a little more settled into the fact that she was going to make the right decision on where to bring him. She has found us on the web searching for Michigan Horse Rescue Centers. Her concern was that he did not end up at a slaughter house or in the hands of someone that could abuse him.

I was not there when she along with her new husband brought Bill to our home, but my grandmother tells me the owner could not quit hugging Bill and the tears would not stop. Grand said she literally had to remove the woman's hands from the horse finally and guide the horse into the barn. When she returned to sit and talk with the owner and have final papers signed, Grand said it was so heart wrenching to watch the poor lady give up and let him go. Grand assured her that even though we have a policy that we do not let the owners know where Bill would be going we could keep her updated with his well being. No, the woman stated, if she had to let him go she had to make a clean break of it. Signing the intake papers, she left with tears streaming down her face.

My first encounter with Bill, was DANG, he is a big boy. Standing about 17.2 he towered my little Arabians. He was a gentle giant but blind as a bat. A blind horse you just do not let go of in a pasture with other horses, to chase them about. Or leave out to be picked on no matter how big they are they will be the bottom of the pecking order when it comes to the new guys. I guided Bill into the stall that he would call home for the next three years. Actually it was not quite big enough for him we ended up having to take down a middle wall and give the boy some room to move without hitting the feeders and water buckets.  Bill was not a dumb horse he learn quickly where to drop his head for cool water that first hot summer, and the smell of grain he found that with no trouble. I would sit back at times and wonder about him and his blindness. I would take him out everyday and put him in a field that was all pasture, nothing to hinder his movements, and a place where he could find his way around without running into anything. I even gave him some old pony that came in shortly after he did.  The old pony and that is all we called her was a small black Shetland about 35 years old, but she took to Bill and through her neighs and her squeals he managed to stay away from fence lines and live pretty good.

When anyone came to adopt right away they spotted the big blond horse in the pasture on the main road, but learning more and watching him they would shy away, and Bills chances of adoption when from slim to null. His little bitty baby steps he would take to make sure he was not going to bump into anything made him look even more foolish. So there he sat, or stood, or what ever he wanted to do for the summer and the fall. Bill came in the barn at night, and throughout the winter I took an interest in him. I thought to myself, if I can sit there and tell people what a great rider I am and would be or could be with their horse why not prove it, if only to myself. Christmas Eve that winter the sun came out and the snow looked so inviting and you knew it was just one of those days that beckoned a trail ride.  I was willing but who would I take that would not give me a hard time and spook in the snow or bolt on the path. Bill, you old dog I said you get to be my honey today. A good brushing, blanket and a saddle was all I needed to get on my way. I put my foot up to mount him, hmmm! I put my foot up again, hummm, at 5.7" I was no where near the stirrup. I would have to stick my foot over my head to get that high, so I tried what I do with my horses and no saddle, I ride Indian style by jumping on the back and going. I threw my left leg up and hit the side of the saddle, I tired again a couple of times, thinking I could use his hair too pull myself up. Gosh I am out of shape I said to myself or you are one big dang horse, not to mention he was fat as a horses, hehe.

Ok, I cheated I dragged him to the rail of the fence now and climbed up. We were off and heading for the woods behind the barns. Little bitty steps is not going to cut it, this will take us all day, so I took up the reigns and clicked my heals into his sides, and said to him in a stern voice, move on Bill you can do this easy for god sake you are a cross country trail horse. He must have listened, for his strides stretched and we were moving quite rapidly across the fields toward the woods. I had to pick up and post on him for he was moving quite fast for a western ride. We hit the woods and the trails were fresh and soft and only a hint of deer feet here and there. That high up on his back gave me the feeling of flying. I enjoyed our ride so much I kept him out over 2 hours. Putting him back in the stall I noticed a difference in him attitude, Oh, you liked the ride to didn't you big boy. I froze to death out there, I never noticed it until I was in the house and my thighs were thawing out. Oh, Ohhh, Ohhh! I cried to my grand.

That started a friendship with Bill and I , we traveled the roads almost daily from then on out and I would strike up a conversation hoping he would understand how nice the day was, or what the sights were as we went on our way. We even tested so jumps together a log here or there, I cued him over, but the most exciting jump was when we flew over a 4 foot wide side of the road ditch. Now you would say 4 feet is not that much, but when you looked down into it and it went maybe 12 to 14 feet deep and you were sitting on a blind horse, you knew you had no room for mistakes. Bill didn't think twice I moved out and took the reigns at a nice steady pace and when I lifted him he soared over the ditch without a thought. My heart was pounding a mile a minute, I stopped to steady my nerves bending over Bill I patted his neck and whispered, You are my Sweet Will, my royal jumper, not the ordinary Bill any more.

For the next two years, my 15th and 16th year, Sweet Will and I would enter many competitions and we did not always win (in fact we never won) but we always placed. I was not going for the thrill of the win I was going for the thrill of giving back to my Sweet Will what he loved to do most, Cross Country Eventing. Along with my rescuing of horses, I was also a high school student and on the Equestrian Team. Being the Captain has some pull with the other members of the team, practice was held on my farm where my horses were, and in most cases I supplied over two thirds of the horses to the rest of the team members.  While we were out practicing, my team members and myself we noticed that a couple of our High School Football Players showed up to perform community service. Oh this was going to be good, the girls and I had them boys picking up all our crap, our crap and the horses. Come on Alex; give us a break No breaks here you need to work off your hostility a bit more, wash my horse, and Crickets horse to.

I thought those boys were too busy to pay us much attention but you know girls, we do like to show off a bit, and football players have no ideal how to ride horses. Well the boys took notice and when they went back to school and we were all back on speaking terms, they decided both boys that if there was so many girls on a team and no guys this is the kind of team they wanted to be on. To make a long story short, one of the boys was well over 6.3, what kind of horse can we give him and one that will not hurt him or kill him while we teach him to ride. Sweet Will to the rescue! Ohhhh, no he cried, I am not getting on that horse. Yes you are I teased but I was dead serious. He was up on him which I had to give him credit for. He looked like he was going to pass out but he walked around on Sweet Will and managed to smile once in a while. I tried to tell him what to do to get the horse going, but all I got was you to dang bossy girl, hehehe I guess I was.

My grand overseeing the situation decided to step in and give us a hand. We had 6 weeks to get these two boys ready for competition with 20 other schools. I don't know how she did it but within the first two weeks, she had Sweet Will walking and trotting and cantering with Jeremy on his back. We laughed at times, from the cries that came from Jeremy, I have pain in places you would not believe he would complain. Come on your a football player this is nothing we would get together and laugh back at him. Girls love Cowboys, come on Jeremy you can do it. Six weeks later and out of 256 riders Jeremy rode against 20 schools as only one of two male riders. Guess what, he placed 8th in his class, the most remarkable thing was his class was a speed class. A racing class where he had to take a huge blind horse and race him around three barrels and do it in the fastest time possible. He laid up on Sweet Will and ran for the gold. We, me, my grand and all the girls stood there screaming our lungs out with such proud happiness as they both made it. He jumped off that horse like it was nothing and walked him out of the ring.

That was great I threw my arms around Jeremy, that was so cool and we knew by the time he would be in the placing. Did I mention that we paint our horses for the speed classes. Jeremy painted flames of red and orange on Sweet Wills butt and hind quarters. People were coming up to us to praise the big blond horse. Saying what a magnificent animal he was, little did they know he was blind as a bat. :) The good news was that a lady with three young girls met Sweet Will that weekend, she followed him to our other two competition meets and observed him wonderful personality.

The day I delivered Sweet Will to his new home I cried like a baby. He was going and he should have been mine, but our policy is that we can not keep the horses that come into the rescue center, if they can be adopted out they have to go to make a place for another one to come along. I have visited Sweet Will many times, and I am thankful that his owners have chosen me to teach them to ride him. I have since graduated from High School and am no longer on the Equestrian Team, but I have taken on the privilege of being one of the first coaches in the State of Michigan to coach a Junior Division for a pilot program where 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students form their own Equestrian League.

I have my students and junior member ride rescue horses for their competition. When I sent out a feeler in our community to see if there was an interest in having a Junior League we got an overwhelming response. I think we have like 60 students sign up that first time. You mention horses to a girl in her preteens and she will jump through hoops to get there. When things died down we realized we only had 9 riders and the rest never rode a horse before let along own one. Comes the rescue again, we offered and were accepted. My junior team had a great time presenting themselves to the Michigan Board in competition and we are looking forward to our second season.

Sweet Will are what dreams are made of, he allows his little 7 year old owner and her little 4 year old sister to slide up on his back and he moves down the road so slow for them they are tickled pink. Give him lots and lots of room when you turn him around I warn them and we all laugh as he moseys around the field. Nichole his new owner can not be more happier, he will be here until he dies she promises, Sweet Will isn't going any place but right there in our back yard. Update: Nichole adopted an older mare we had in here, she rides the mare while the girls ride Will, and Maggie serves as the eyes for Will when everyone is tucked away elsewhere.

Thank You My Sweet Will for giving me a memory to keep and to share with others.

by Alexandra - February 2005

www.fowlervilleonline.com/2003 -- My final year in High School and with the Equestrian Team that Sweet Will was on. (I have some nice pictures there with him in them. You can't miss him he was the only blond horse with a male rider there.

www.hugs2horses.com   My rescue center that I started with my grand when I was 13 years old.

www.fowlervilleonline.com/mmsl/ -- The first ever Middle School League  - which I helped to organize and sponsor to get the program off and going.

Gosh, I do like to share don't I . I am not giving any more I promise.