Since moving to Almost Heaven Ranch, our daughter Mikkel’s very social Quarter Horse, Chili, was very lonesome. Our older horse, Pegasus, had died, and Teresa’s horse, Angel, is temporarily at the local barn where Teresa rides and trains. Chili constantly sought human contact, following us everywhere, and was restless and lethargic.
Teresa has been quietly but persistently looking for a horse for me. As I’m over 6 feet tall, I need a good size horse. We’ve looked for over a year, talking with local veterinarians, trainers, rescue groups, and looking online. No luck.
Then, out of the blue, Teresa’s trainer, Kelly, called and left a message with excitement in her voice. She’d found the perfect horse. A big, muscular, red Quarter Horse, called Red. Red’s humans were in their 90s, and despite being horse-loving and savvy for their whole lives, found their horse riding days in the past.
Red had a loving horse companion who suffered a fatal accident. Red’s family didn’t want to watch Red grieve the loss of his buddy and wanted to see him back on the trail rides he loved. This is where the story gets touching.
We weren’t able to get Red immediately and he was staying temporarily with Kelly at her stable. Short of stalls, Kelly tried Red with different horses, all of whom picked on Red despite the fact he was the Hulk compared to them. He wasn’t just chased off, but bitten, kicked, harassed.
Our 20-year-old Chevy pickup had the transmission go out, so we couldn’t use our horse trailer to go the stable to fetch Red and bring him to Almost Heaven Ranch. Kelly and her husband, Chris, came to the rescue and took time they didn’t have to haul Red to AHR.
Knowing 18-year-old Red had been picked on, we’d made provisions to separate him and Chili on either side of a fence with separate food and water. Everyone was on high alert as Red was unloaded and greeted Chili on his turf.
Guess what? Not only was there no biting, fighting, bullying, or confrontation, there was tender touching, mutual grooming, true affection, love!
Since that first day two weeks ago, Red, who’s name was changed by Teresa to Revee (short for Revelations from the Bible) has enjoyed a blessed closeness with Chili. It doesn’t matter if they’re grazing, sleeping, eating grain in their stalls, or outside eating hay in the feeders, they are inseparable.
God certainly blessed Almost Heaven Ranch. Welcome home, Revee!
