Sometimes I feel as though horses (and dogs) are better to hang around with than most humans.
As an adopter of a beautiful gelding, I was told to stay away from the woman who was his first adopter by the "head of the rescue". She told me that his first adopter was "unstable" and not to trust her so not knowing anything about the woman or her relationship with our newly acquired horse, I heeded her advice. When the first adopter e-mailed me and requested to visit the horse I put her off and I managed to keep her away for nearly two years....
As we celebrated two years with our beloved horse, we discovered some not so positive things about our rescue. To make a very long story short, I contacted our horse's first adopter and invited her and her family to visit our horse.
Happily, they came to our barn and reunited with their old friend. Our horse walked calmly up to his first adopter and dropped his head into her chest and arms (something he had rarely done and certainly never with anyone he was untrusting of), while she hugged him tearfully. They just stood there quietly reunited. That is when I knew he had loved her and was truly loved by her as well.
Our "five year probation" for the adoption dragged on and thankfully we are past that now. I will not forget the sacrifice that our horse's first adopter made in giving him up because of "not so favorable rescue business practices" and I know our horse will not forget her either. Thank you for being the kind and "stable" horse owner that you are, and for being such a good person!