Special Bond with Buddy

Our family continued to spend massive amounts of time volunteering with RVR Horse Rescue and spending time with Buddy and Sunny. We are blessed to live in the general vicinity of where RVR is located which has afforded us the opportunity to spend our free time volunteering and spending time with Buddy and Sunny. During this time, we were paying close attention to the needs and financial commitment required when you have horses. We felt comfortable with the financial commitment to proceed with the sponsor to adopt program with RVR for Buddy. We understood that there was a significant financial requirement and we wanted to make sure we did not get in over our heads to quick so that we could make sure we could handle the requirements for the horses before having the complete responsibility and time requirements.
  Buddy and I have become very close at this point. Many days I would just go to the barn to just see how he was doing. Often times I would be frustrated because I am not a person who allows people to get close to me on the inside and I am often cautious with allowing people get too close due to the things I have dealt with in my life. Isolating myself in this environment has taken over a part of me where in many cases I feel like I had no where to turn or anyone to talk to. On Veteran's Day (typically a day of reflection for me) I was feeling many mixed emotions and decided that I would feel better if I just went to the barn and saw "The boys". My wife Amanda and I went to the barn and when we arrived, Sunny was doing his own thing and Buddy was at the hay box eating hay. Amanda went off and saw Sunny while I climbed into the hay box and talked with Buddy. It was truly amazing to sit and vent all of my emotional feelings to Buddy. Buddy looked at me with this compassion as if I thought I was completely defenseless to his ability to see right into my soul. After a period of just talking and his complete attention to me (between bending to get a mouth full of hay) I realized at that point I had a friend that no matter the circumstances was there to listen. There was a point however, where I think even he had enough. At that point I started catching hay being blown all over me and his playfulness starting to come out. This was the point where I do believe that he was totally working to make me cheer up and have a great day. This has become a regular occurrence now. I find days where there are things on my mind and experiences that I have had that often people just don't understand but I know that Buddy is right there waiting and never gets tired of my company.

  Many times, people who have not had the experience of a relationship with a horse tend to think of them as live stock or another type of animal with minimal purpose. Spend enough time with a horse to establish a mutual trust with a horse and I will show you a relationship that will be priceless and you will cherish for the rest of both your lives. Horses are complete relational creatures that merely look for structure and an environment where they can experience compassion, love, and trust. Horses are flight animals because they are often prey. Establish a close relationship that I have just described and that horse will go to the ends of the earth for you. Establishing just the slightest understanding for the relationship Buddy and I have will change your life. If this is something you feel appealing and you live in the area of RVR Horse Rescue, opportunities for you to be a "Barn Buddy" is available for horses that need a friend just like Buddy. You can contact RVR Horse Rescue for further information.

Recovery Begins

   During the ensuing days of Buddy & Sunny's arrival at RVR Horse Rescue, you could see the confusion and the hurt in their eyes. When Buddy arrived he walked across the scale weighing in at a mere 920 LBS. Sunny walked his way across the scale to 848 LBS. To put what this means in perspective, Buddy is a 5 year old Thoroughbred that stands 16.1 hands. Typically a thoroughbred can weigh anywhere from 1,200-1,400 LBS (with some variables involved). Sunny is a 6 year old American Appendix that stepped across the scale at 848 LBS. With a slight shorter height than Buddy but a broader build Sunny's ideal weight is pretty close to the same of that of Buddy. So in this case they are estimated 400LBS under weight upon arrival. Things started out well for the first couple of days before we were on a short family vacation in Orlando and I received a text message that one of our babies was sick.

Sunny Experiencing Colic (picture sent to me in text message)

      Sitting in Orlando and seeing this picture made it feel like as if it were one of our loving children that were sick. After speaking with Shawn we knew that Sunny was in great hands with the volunteers of RVR Horse Rescue and we needed to enjoy our time as a family. What you don't see is that every horse that comes into RVR gets the same tender loving care as seen in this picture. Few days after Sunny's colic incident we started to notice that there were some very dangerous habits that Buddy and Sunny had established during their times of not receiving the proper care. Sunny would crib (filing his teeth on the fence) which led to a choking incident and Buddy would eat his poop before it would even hit the ground (not literally but in some cases it did not sit on the ground long before he ate it). There were many days that it was hard to understand how they were able to survive in this state. This was the beginning of a long road to recovery for Buddy & Sunny. 

   Buddy and Sunny's habits of eating his poop and eating off the ground (prior to RVR) had caught up with him resulting in significant amounts of sand building up in his stomach. This resulted in Buddy starting to colic daily for most of a month or so. Looking into their eyes often appeared as though there is something they are trying to tell you and they just don't understand what they did to be put in this situation. I spent many days going to work to rush home and go to see them when they were in this stage. You see, when you come to the parking area at RVR Horse Rescue, a horse that stand 16.1 hands can see to the parking area and you know there is a big horse in the round pen. I would arrive at RVR and I would be able to tell what kind of day Buddy was having. If it were a good day then you would see his head sticking up just enough to where you can see him when you pull in. On a bad day, my 6 year old son stood taller than him. Working closely with Shawn and Dr. Richard Gold, we went step for step with Buddy & Sunny through all of this. I think this is where I really felt this feeling of dependency from these two horses that I had to be there for them. I would personally make sure that if Dr. Gold was going to be at the property, I wanted to talk to him so that I knew what was needed. This paid off because he said that there was a supplement called U7 that is supposed to be good helping with Colic. I instantly asked where I can get that and he said it would be available at any store where horse supplements were sold. That night I went to the store and purchased U7 and that helped turn their path in the positive direction. At that point, colic became less and less of an occurrence where we shifted our focus to get the sand out of their system. With endless amounts of hay, being fed consistently for a period of time and treatment from Dr. Gold, things started to get better. After about 4 weeks or so, we began to see a significant difference in the personalities of Buddy & Sunny and indications of their ability to consume food and hay. At this point we started to see results of weight gain and less of the bad habits that initially created fear for their lives. We started feeding hay on a regular basis and the tables have made the turn in their favor. At this point, I started to see in their eyes the fight often seen at RVR but new to me and my family. We knew that there was no way in our power that these boys would not have anything they need if we had the capability. 

William Walking Buddy to get him exercise

Buddy & Sunny on a hot day

Buddy & Sunny @ Feeding Time

Buddy being loved by Will on a bad day

Me rubbing Buddy's stomach during his time dealing with colic

Buddy looking frail 

Arrival of Buddy & Sunny

This blog is attempt to share the life changing experience that adopting Buddy and Sunny have had a significant effect on the outlook I have on life and the horse. After talking with many people about my experience over the past year, many close friends recommended that I provide a place where people can come and read about these life changing experiences for not only my family and me but for Buddy and Sunny. Additionally, I hope that this will help raise awareness for very dire situations that horses are put into more than the common person understands or conditions that can be fathomed.
   I spent 13 years as a United States Marine where I experienced and witnessed things that will be memories for a lifetime that I wish for no person to experience or see. Veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom / Operation Enduring Freedom has left a lasting effect on our veterans that are brought back to society where they try to make sense of what did they just go through. Did they do something wrong? Did I make mistakes? I have to accept doing things because of a life or death situation… How do they cope with that. It is easy for people without the experiences we face to say just pick up and move on. But where do you find the sense of peace and security that helps you move on to the next day. After receiving an honorable discharge from the Marine Corps in 2011, my family and I moved to Riverview, Florida where I began to work as a contractor for the US military. I spent the first two years being a husband to my amazing wife Amanda, and our three children, Reagan (11), Rylee (9), William (7), (and one TBD in September of 2015). It is very busy times and we did the typical family things that often took us in different ways during the day just to wear us down to where we would get home to just rush to bed to do it all over again. Friends of ours often talked about their horses and how they have at the most life enriching experiences with them. I grew up around horses and understood what they were saying but never really got that attached to them. After inquiring with our friends about their horses, they directed us to a place known as RVR Horse Rescue. RVR Horse Rescue is a non-profit organization who intervene for mistreated horses. They Will rescue, rehabilitate and provide a safe place for neglected, abused, and abandoned horses. Many of which have been passed from owner to owner, never knowing love or consistency (from RVR Horse Rescue Mission Statement). This volunteer ran non-profit organization had policies in place at the time minimizing the accepted volunteers and we often stopped by just in hopes of brief interaction with the horses here and there. A short period later, Reagan and I attended the RVR Horse Rescue Volunteer orientation where we had our first glimpse of what a horse sanctuary really was. After hearing of the more than 40 horses on the property all with a unique near death story, to now running in the best of health across the ranch of more than 40 acres. This was definitely a place where we could spend time for a worth cause. We spent much of the summer of 2014 volunteering as a family at RVR Horse rescue. Reagan, who also plays travel softball, has always had a soft loving heart for horses and has developed a desire to help horses by using softball to pay for her education to become an equine vet. With this in mind, and minimal interaction that volunteers had with the horses at the time we started looking to sponsor to adopt.              
  We spent weeks trying to establish a relationship with horses that were in need of a sponsor and a future loving home. We had interests in a few horses that either required a handler with more experience or they already had a sponsor making them unavailable. This is where I started working closer with Shawn Jayrow (founder and owner of RVR Horse Rescue) to identify a horse that would be a good fit for Reagan to gain experience and an understanding for horses. After days of waiting Shawn provided me contact information for owners of two horses that were looking to surrender their horses to because they had to move and could not take them to their new home. I coordinated with the owners to visit the two horses at their property and visited them in Plant City, FL. Initial descriptions provided by the owners were that they were in great shape. Upon arrival, I was introduced to Buddy & Sunny and immediately identified this as a situation that was right what RVR Horse Rescue specialized in. My heart was in such pain to see such peaceful beings in such a sad state. Sunny had been chewing on the side of a mobile home and Buddy had been seeking food on the ground and eating his own poop. Understanding the agony they must feel the volunteers at the rescue immediately kicked it into gear and Buddy & Sunny were headed to RVR Horse Rescue which I like to call Horse Heaven. This is where our lives with Buddy and Sunny took off. It was at this point we knew there was something special about these two boys. 

Sunny on Arrival @RVR  848 lbs

Buddy on Arrival @ RVR  920 lbs

Sunny in Plant City, July 2014

Buddy in Plant City,  July 2014