Lucky and My Lovely

We met three years ago. She was a barrel racer and I was a roper. My parents were moving and I wanted to stay. So she offered for me to keep my horse at her place in return I would help out. Sounds like a match made in heaven right. That’s what I think but I don’t know how to tell her. I can only fall more and more in love with her she is my best friend, and I plan on leaving for college this summer, I want to be a vet. Although Jessie thinks I should stay at Millcreek valley and continue roping. I guess she sees something great in my roping but I can’t do that my whole life. I love her and don’t want to leave but that would be best for my future I wish she would come with me to college. In case you don’t know Jessie is defiantly the love of my life I have no clue how to tell her, and I also don’t think she feels the same way. I don’t know how anyone couldn’t fall in love with her. She is gorgeous. She has long blond hair and blue eyes. Jessie is also pretty tall, you know for a girl. But it isn’t her looks that I’m in love with the way she is so passionate and strong willed, but yet caring, is what really makes me love her. We are so close I have no clue how I’m going to go away to college and leave her behind. Now this horse is bringing us closer together but making me want to be a vet even more. That’s right the horse.

One day driving down highway 10, I saw a horrible sight and so did Jessie.

“Pull over!” Jessie yelled repeatedly. If you have ever driven a big truck you know you can’t just slam on the breaks. While we were still moving that crazy girl jumped out of the truck and started running toward the mangled horse.

“Comeback,” I yelled.

“We have to save him,” she hollered back.

So of course always doing anything for Jessie I turned around and went to get the trailer, and my .22. I didn’t want to kill the horse but putting him out of his misery looked like the only choice. Although once I got to the ranch no one was there so it was going to be just me and Jessie loading this horse on the trailer. We don’t even know if the thing can walk. Once I hooked up to the trailer and rushed back I saw how bad the horse really was.

I am not one to get sick to the stomach over a cut or scrape but this made me want to vomit. How could someone do this to an animal? He had what appeared to be a bullet hole through his ribs, and he was partially scalped and he only had one ear. It also looked like someone attacked him with a butcher knife.

Normally I would have just put the horse down, but something about the way he looked at me I knew I couldn’t put him down. He just looked right through me although he was on the verge of death he had a certain fire in his eyes. That’s when I knew he was a survivor. Or it could have been Jessie that made me not put the horse down because I knew with her drive and compassion she would never put an animal down without trying to save it.

The next challenge was getting the horse on the trailer. I don’t know how we did it but we managed to make him stand up. Once he was on the trailer and ready to go Jessie looked at me with those deep blue needs you eyes. I knew exactly what she was planning on doing. And wouldn’t you know it not a minute later she said “I think ill ride back here with him.”

“Are you crazy? He seems fine for now but what if he starts freaking out? You could get killed. Come on ride up front. He’ll be fine I promise”

She didn’t even have to say anything else I knew I didn’t stand a chance at winning this argument, so she rode in the trailer with the horse. Come to think of it I don’t even think that’s legal, but there is no point arguing with her. As beautiful as she is with all that beauty, comes her bull headedness.

As soon as we got back to the barn Dr. Darby had a stall made and was ready to check out the horse. She helped us unload him. I could tell by the shock on her face that there was no way she thought this horse stood a chance in surviving. Before anyone could say anything Jessie said, “We are not putting him down without at least giving him a chance.”

“I don’t know if that’s the best idea,” I said. Knowing that without a doubt we were not going to put the horse down.

Dr. Darby said, “well then let’s get to work, I am not guaranteeing anything but let’s at least give it a shot.”

Fist she examined the horse a realized exactly how bad it was. The horse had for sure been shot, and tortured beyond belief. Once Dr. Darby realized the extent of the injury she got to work. It was not worth hauling the horse clear to the veterinary clinic so she got to work at Mill Creek. First she put the horse under. Then she extracted the bullet from the horse’s rib cage, and reattached the horse’s ear. She also used a skin graph from the horse’s hindquarters to try to close the large area the horse was scalped on. After the surgery the horse looked physically worse, but he seemed to be in better spirits. He also got this look of determination in his eyes and I know I’m not the only one who saw it.

With in a few days the horse was started to look better all around. The puncture wound had started to heal, and the skin graph was doing its job, and now he was on his feet without any support. There for he could go outside for a little each day. Finally Jessie and I could spend a little bit of time away from the horse. We were constantly doctoring him and every night we slept in the stall with him just to keep him comforted. Although all this time spent with the horse brought me and Jessie even closer it was nice to be able to do day to day things again. I can’t believe this but cleaning stalls sounds pretty good right now.

Six months later Lucky has made almost a full recovery. That’s right Jessie and I had decided to name the horse Lucky, we weren’t going to name him until we knew he would recover. Anyways the horse that once had a very slim chance of even living was frolicking about in the pasture. He went from dull and dingy black to a beautiful shiny healthy looking horse. He shined like black velvet. His once half gone face was bright with joy, his white mark on his face shined like a star in the midnight sky. He went from looking like a thirty year old bag of bones to a beautiful, stocky young horse. Which we never even bothered to see how old the lucky was, because honestly that was the least of our worries. You can tell a horses age by looking at their teeth. So that is exactly what I did. He appeared to be no older than five. This means there is a pretty big chance that he was never broke to ride, so I was going to figure out. So I grabbed lucky from the pasture and moved him to the arena. Then I left him in the arena for not even two minutes to go get tack, and when I return Jessie is taking him out of the arena in disgust. I asked her what she was doing.

“What do you mean what am I doing? What are you doing?” she said.

“I am going to see if he is broke and if not I’m going to break him.”

“Umm, no you aren’t he was just abused terrible and you think you can just hop on him and go for a ride,” She replied.

“Not even close I just want to see what he knows, and he is fine to be ridden I even asked Dr. Darby. What’s the point of having a horse that you can’t do anything with?” I said.

“I know he is going to need to be broke eventually but I don’t think that he needs to be ridden already,” She said.

“Well, I don’t care what you think you always think your right and I’m going with my gut this time and riding the horse,” I said smartly.

So after she left I went about my business. I figured if lucky wasn’t broke that he would be simple to break. This is because I we shared a strong bond from everything that me a Jessie had done for him. I was correct, I’m pretty sure he had never been saddled before. I say that because of the way lucky looked at the saddle. Although he didn’t even flinch when I put the saddle on him, it’s hard to say if he had been saddled before of if he just trusts me. Once I had lucky saddled and bridled I decided to climb up into the saddle. I normally wouldn’t get right on a horse if I’m not sure that they were ridden before, but I just had a good feeling. Apparently so did lucky because as soon as I got on his back he took off, and started bucking and jumping around. I took this as a good sign because he must not have been in pain if he had the energy to bounce around. I must say he did take me for a pretty wild ride.

“You go cowboy!” Jessie giggled from the gate. “How about you give me a try?”

So once lucky stood still I got off and handed Jessie the reins. In a matter of seconds she had lucky loping circles around the arena, although she was not on his back you could tell she had complete control over him. I don’t know what it is about her that makes horses behave so well for her. Maybe it is her gently ways, or her baby blue eyes, bleach blond hair, and her confident ways that made a horse behave so well for her. Whatever it is amazing to watch. She was on Lucky’s back within the hour, and of course he was a perfect angle for her, although it was no surprise to me. Within the week we, well mostly Jessie had lucky doing anything we wanted.

Then the second hardest decision I’ve ever made came about. That was that I thought we should sell lucky. After all I was planning on going away to college, and Jessie already had her barrel horse that she had to focus on. To me it made all the sense in the world I mean don’t get me wrong I loved lucky and all but why feed any more horses than you need, plus Jessie and I could always use the extra money. Of course Jessie objected, and I guess I’m kind of glad about that because I don’t think I really could have parted with him.

You are probably wondering, what is the hardest decision you have ever made in your life if selling lucky was the second hardest. Well that would be the choice between college and Jessie. This was the hardest thing I ever had to decide between. I mean I loved Jessie but how would I have known if we were going to ever get together or just be friends forever, and I really always dreamed of being a vet. I mean I just love animals so much and want to do everything I can to save them, and a being a vet is a steady income. Roping on the other let’s just say you win some and lose some. It’s not really steady income. Well the answer to this was I decided to stay with Jessie and stick to roping. Lucky became my roping horse after all, and of course I got the girl!