Sawyer
Sawyer is my first horse, of many to come.
In the beginning I was wishing to rescue a more ..... mature.... horse and reached out to a variety of horse rescues. Through many emails and months of phone tag, it was deemed that at the young age of 21, I was too young to adopt a horse. This caused much heartbreak and frustration. My 21 y/o self was insulted and saddened, although my logical brain knew this was for the horses best interest and safety and that many 21 year old kids weren't really prepared for a horse in need of intensive attention. Maybe I wasn't prepared either. Who knows.
So, this minor set back really made me reanalyze everything. I took it as a sign of my lack of preparation. I knew the costs of a horse and what it would all entail as well as knowing I would be able to afford a horse. But I never wrote down step by step the costs of a horse and didn't have a saving account for unexpected expenses, emergencies etc ... I like to be prepared....
Anyway, over the course of a few months a few of my friends had been sending me pictures of horses from auctions and from kijiji, since rescues were out of the picture for the time being.
In Oct, 2013 one friend, Lucy, sent me this adorable kijiji picture of this colt. Having never really been in close contact with a foal, I set a date with the foal owner to visit her and the cute little baby. Lucy (a horse owner herself) and I were going to go together to test out what kind of questions to ask etc. Unfortunately, Lucy was unable to make it the day I had arranged with the foal owner. Soooo, I brought my mother, my biggest skeptic about this owning a horse business.
We went at noon to meet the colt named Yagger, this six month old Frisian/ Hafflinger spit fire. I even tried to lead him up and down the paddock, as he hopped and bopped, reared and whinnied. Once I let him off lead I watched him run to mom (Frisian) and proceed to nip her rear as she grazed. She was then saved by the rule enforcer... the families goat. She hooked this foals halter with her horns and lead him away from mom and they played halter tag together in a further section of the paddock. My mom and I left the paddock to chit chat with the owner about his past six months, shots etc. We thanked the owner and her daughters for their time and we would be sure to get back to them once we have gotten home and have had time to think over all that we have just learned.
Once I got home, I had this feeling, different from the feelings I had had from being around other horses. Maybe because I've never been around foals before this one. I followed my heart and called the barn which I had planned to one day board a horse and asked them the soonest they would be able to make arrangements for one more horse and trailering. In fact they were free that day at 6 PM. I called the foal owner and informed them that I would like to purchase the foal and would like to have him trailered out that day, hopefully around 6 PM. They were shocked and I hope pleased and signed a bill of sale, next the trailer showed up and we loaded him up. That was probably the most traumatizing moment of my life, I can’t even imagine what it was like for that little baby.
But Oct 18 2013 that baby foal became my baby. Cheesy I know, but so true.
We unloaded him at his new home on the Six Nations Reserve, more like flew out of the trailer into their round pen, covered head to toe in sweat and we introduced him to his new home. He proceeded to call frantically for mom, calls that still send chills down my spine.
With two days of hell, I managed to have a vet come out and geld him.
I visited daily, made sure he knew who I was. Sometimes I made a point of grooming and basic training and handling, and others days I just sat in the paddock and allowed him to become comfortable and used to my presence.
Now, years later, my little man, named Sawyer, is a healthy happy gelding who continues to test my patience and teach me beautiful lessons every day.
I couldn't imagine life without him and simply don’t want to.
That look in his eyes when he makes eye contact with me makes life worth living, never mind the beauty we share emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually.
​