Almost unreal, yet, it's too soon to feel yet.
Close to my soul, and yet so far away.
I'm going to go back there someday.
Sun rises, night falls, sometimes the sky calls.
Is that a song there, and do I belong there?
I've never been there, but I know the way.
I'm going to go back there someday.
Come and go with me, it's more fun to share,
We'll both be completely at home in midair.
We're flyin', not walkin', on featherless wings.
We can hold onto love like invisible strings.
There's not a word yet for old friends who've just met.
Part heaven, part space, or have I found my place?
You can just visit, but I plan to stay.
I'm going to go back there someday.
I'm going to go back there someday.
Whenever I sell a horse, in addition to the brand inspection required in Colorado, I always write up a bill of sale. In that contract it states that the horse will always have a home at Bit of Honey if it needs a place to go. I don't purchase horses back, but the horse will always have a home here if it needs a place to go. Over the years I've had a few come back, usually because life has gotten in the way and the owner can no longer care for the horse due to human health issues, divorce, financial difficulties, etc.
This is why I'm very particular about the horses I take into the sale program here, because I know that someday that horse may come back. I guarantee a home even if the horse goes lame, has health problems, for any reason or no reason at all I'll take them back. I also request that the sale contract goes with the horse if it is sold again, so any new owner also understands that horse has the Bit of Honey safety net.
Today I got a phone call from a new owner of a horse I sold six years ago. Thankfully when she was sold again, my contact information went with her. Happily, I'm now also in contact with the new owner and able to help her as she and the mare get to know one another.
A few weeks ago I received an email from a woman who bought a gelding I'd sold a few years ago. His owner had passed away, and the trainer sold the horse to this woman, who then found me by searching for the horse's name and training. I was able to get her copies of the bill of sale, his registration papers, and send her a link to all the horse's blog posts from his time here. Thankfully it sounds like a wonderful home, and she was grateful to get that information from me.
I've also had a couple that I call boomerang horses. They are usually the steady dependable ones, who I've sold and then they come back through no fault of their own. One I sold three or four times, and she happily came back after a few years in each place when the humans had problems and couldn't keep her. Another went to California, and when her owner became truly ill she shipped her back to me once she could no longer care for the horse. Another that comes to mind had a couple owners, but came back each time when the humans had issues.
The horses I have kept here over the years are not just horses, they are my friends and my family. I live with them, care for them, feed them, exercise them, and spend my entire days with them. It means so much to me when a horse I've watched grow up from a weanling or yearling, returns ten or sixteen years later. When that sales contract is honored and it goes with the horse as he moves through his career it gives the horse a safety net, a way to put a bumper in place in case the horse ever needs a home. Hopefully it prevents him going "down the road" or ending up at auction or in a bad situation.
Sometimes it's for training, riding lessons with the new owner, or a new owner just reaching out for information on what the horse learned while he was here. I love to hear how my horses are doing, whether it's been a few months, years, or decades.
And just in case he ever needs a soft place to land, it's always a joyful reunion that means the world to me to have my old friends come back.
No comments:
Post a Comment