Here is the video from our freestyle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ0veZzQ7wI
And here is a link to The Fence Post article:
http://www.thefencepost.com/news/21195179-113/equine-comeback-challenge-offers-second-chance-for-rescue
Equine Comeback Challenge offers second chance for rescue horses in Colorado at Rocky Mountain Horse Expo
For ten horses and trainers, the Equine Comeback Challenge March 13 at the National Western Complex was a competition.
For Kim Leonard and four-year-old thoroughbred Dewey, it was like coming home.
So
Leonard dressed as Dorothy from “The Wizard of Oz” — complete with
sparkly red shoes. Her border collie wore a sign around his neck
labeling him “Toto.” She slung a furry gold scarf around Dewey’s thick
brown neck. He was the cowardly lion.
For a rescue horse that found his forever home because of the challenge, there’s no place like the arena.
Leonard
and Dewey may not have been competing this year, but they still got to
ride in the freestyle portion of the challenge as an exhibition
performance to show just how far a rescue horse can come with a little
TLC.
Last
year, Leonard trained Dewey and brought him to the Rocky Mountain Horse
Expo to compete. They didn’t bring home the big prize in the way of
dollar signs and accolades, but instead, Dewey got a gift of his own. A
few months after the challenge, through the work of his trainer, he
found an owner.
This year, Leonard,
owner of Bit of Honey Training LLC, trained a horse for the challenge,
but right before the weekend of the competition, another horse kicked
him. Though the horse, Touch A Prince, is doing fine, the injury left
him benched for competition.
Luckily, she had an old friend chomping at the bit to come play again.
“Being
able to take these rescue horses who, they’ve done nothing wrong, they
just end up in rescues because they’ve had cruel humans, is sort of my
way to give back to the industry and draw attention to the need for
training for these unwanted horses to make them wanted,” Leonard said.
Dewey
was born to be a racehorse. From birth he trained for it, but he never
saw a track. His sweet disposition didn’t make for a race-winner,
Leonard said, so he ended up in a rescue.
All
the horses in the Equine Comeback Challenge have a story. Some, like
the Arabian trained by Brittnee Woodward, Lost Legend, were found
running loose.
Others, like Siesta,
the horse trained by Justin Dunn of Dunn’s Horse & Mule Company,
were neglected. Siesta was 160 pounds underweight and was very shy and
wary of people. Even so, Dunn said she was one of the easiest horses
he’s ever trained. Dunn and Siesta’s freestyle routine was done to the
tune of “Let it Go,” from Disney’s blockbuster “Frozen.”
Dunn
adopted Siesta after training her, something Joleen Goyins, a friend of
Dunn’s, said is characteristic of his personality.
“He’s a softie,” she said.
Ben
Grogan, a trainer from Golden, Colo., adopted his horse, Tivoli, as
well, so he could continue to work with her. He said she wasn’t ready to
go out and ride with anyone else yet, so he wouldn’t dream of selling
her and putting anyone in that situation.
Plus, through getting ready for the Equine Comeback Challenge, the horse and trainer formed a bond.
As
Grogan and Tivoli galloped around the arena, the crowd cheered. The
Quarter Horse slid into quick stops and followed Grogan’s every tug of
the reins, the trust between the two evident. She’d come a long way from
the scared, neglected mare he started working with at the beginning of
the challenge.
“It’s been a lot of
fun,” Grogan said. “I think she’s got a bright career ahead of her
because she’s so athletic and talented.” ❖
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