Wednesday, July 11, 2012

A new job for an old horse

This is Freida...  she is a 31 year old Quarter Horse mare with a new mission.    She is making lives better and living the good life in her (semi-) retirement home.


I bought Freida 11 years ago when I started riding horse.  She was my mid-life crisis.  (that exploded, but that is another story...)  She was a safe, older horse that was perfect as I learned to ride and gained confidence around horses.  Prior to being my horse, she had belonged to a teenage girl and I was never able to track down her earlier history.  As I got comfortable, I added to my herd of horses and soon Freida was being leased to young riders that didn't have a horse of their own for the summers.

This past year I changed barns and Freida was boarded at a farm that sounded like a promising place for her to spend her retirement years.  Unfortunately, it wasn't all it seemed and I needed to find a new home for her.  After all her years of service, I will make sure she is safe and comfortable for the rest of her days.   


At the same time I was looking for a new home for Freida to be boarded, I learned of a new organization in town that was being developed to provide nontraditional therapy services to children with disabilities and struggles in life.   And Freida was a stimulus for the development of Stable Days Youth Ranch!   One of the families that had leased Frieda did so for a child with difficulties and that was the start of big improvements.   The picture on their website is Freida.   It is a good story and worth going to the site if you like feel good stories.   Freida just recently moved to Stable Days and quickly settled in.



I think she especially appreciates that she is able to be on pasture with trees, a river, and even some hills.  She has a new pal who looks a lot like her and he is 35 years old!


Chilling on a warm summer afternoon, and napping in the sun.   Not sure what her pal was doing with his tongue out...  lol


So rather than retiring completely, Freida is moving into the next chapter of her life and continuing to enrich lives.  Love my horses, and love the gifts that horses bring into lives.

4 comments:

  1. Love quarterhorses. Best kind in the world. My Rusty was 35 when he passed on, but such a gentle horse.

    ReplyDelete
  2. this is a sweet story....gosh how old do horses normally get?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The average life span for a Quarter Horse is 30 years old. 35 is very old and the rare horse will live to reach 40 plus. Freida is very much an elderly horse but doing well.

      Delete
  3. I loved reading this post, and your photographs are beautiful. Freida sounds like a lovely lady . . .I'll bet she is enjoying the children and her new semi-retired life. Thank you for sharing. Connie :)

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for letting me know what you think! I so appreciate each and every one of you that take the time to comment! Have a wonderful day!