# Chicken Soup for the Horse Lover's Soul



## MemoryForStormy (Dec 11, 2007)

I was curious to see if anyone has read it or the second one. There are some wonderful stories in here and I have cried reading most of them.
 
I would love to hear any horse stories from people, especially miracles. And I will tell my own.

Ginger is my aunt's palmino Quarter Horse mare (or "filly" since she's never foaled) out of a Quarter Horse mare named Penny. Penny's grandfather happens to be Impressive, he show stallion.
Anyways, we bonded directly from the beginning. My aunt kept Penny in the foaling barn overnight to try and make her have the baby there, but since Penny wasn't brithing yet my aunt let her out. When my dad and I pulled up to the farm, I ran to the pasture to see if there was a new foal yet. I saw Penny lying there, heaving, giving birth. I ran in to tell my aunt the mare was having complications and giving birth and she told me I was a liar, that the mare wasn't ready. "She's not lying Pat," my Grandmother said. My aunt followed me out and thanks to my Grandmother we had a healthy filly. If she wouldn't have said those words, the mare, foal, or both would have died.
I was amazed to see this process, it was my first time really seeing an animal birth. I watched my aunt take the afterbirth with a pitchfork in fling it outside the pen in the yard so Penny wouldn't eat it. I ran constantly back and forth for medicines and rags to help the foal. I'll never forget the beauty of that baby...her legs coming out and the anticipation of wondering the color and what gender it was to be. My dad gave her a name, as she romped in her barn. "She looks like a Ginger Snap!" So we called her Penny's Ginger Snap. 
Even as a rowdy yearling, I would go with her in her stall and could be left alone to brush her. I fed and watered her every chance I could.
But one day she was sick...and the vet prescribed and overdose of Bute. She was in Tuskeegee and the university's vet center. They told us she had a 15% chance to make it through each night. I won't forget the night at my school dance when my parents called me and told me she was not expected to live, how hard I cried. I remember with a horrible pain as we drove maybe an hour up to the universitys, to have to stay so far back as she was in quarintine with tail braided, mane braided so that an IV could be hooked into her neck. How swollen her legs were.
Luckily, our baby made it and healed well after close to a year and medication. I will always be grateful for those vets and the whole school, they saved my sister.
After the incident, at first, Ginger was unfriendly and would rear on me as I walked into the field. Now, being with her gelding brother and mother as well, she is happy. 
Two weekends back I finally got the opportunity to play with her and hold her close. I wrapped my arms around her and for the first time since the incident about 3 years ago she let me hug her without moving. I rubbed her down and watered her. I gave her fresh grass and grain. 
Then I went out onto a hill a few yards away and layed on my back, eyes closed. It took her a few minutes and then she came close. To hide her curiosity, she acted as if she were talking to the stallion over the fence (he is kept well away, they are seperated by two strands of electric fencing).
Slowly she crept beside me with Penny and her brother, Teddy Bear, following. I sat up as they got near and they all jerked their heads in suprise. Ginger knew it as me after me sitting under her and at her feet so many times and approached with head down. I rubbed her and stood up, giving them all love. I finally got her back after so long.

The whole time, I recieved numerous prayers and I guess it taught me to believe that if you love someone and they love you back, nothing can keep you apart. She overcame riding on the edge of death and returned to the Sister Horse she once was for me. She is now 5 years old. 

Have faith in your horse, miracles can happen.


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## MemoryForStormy (Dec 11, 2007)

*Correction*

*In the beginning talking about letting the mare out of the stall, that should be BIRTHING not BRITHING


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## horseboundmom28 (Dec 10, 2007)

I enjoyed Chicken Soup for the Horseluvers Soul (1). The most amazing for me was the story by Pat Parelli. I was reading and really feeling the emotion and when I realized it was his son, I thought what a wonderful thing for him to contribute the soft side of his personal life. There were many wonderful stories there, parts of the book I liked better than others. Will discuss that more If you like, but it has been a while since I read it, so need to have it in my hand-HA Like your story. Keep writing. It is wonderful to share even the minor things we experience.


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## mlkarel2010 (Jan 27, 2008)

*your story*

That story is really touching. I'm glad that you can finally be with her again, she kinda owes you her life in a way. It's living proof that miracles can happen!!


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