Sometimes Angels Wear Horseshoes
April 7, 1973-March 18, 1998
Ken's Sunny
This is the story of Kens Sunny, better known as Cook. Cook came into my life in March of 1988. He was my second horse but I was still a very green rider. I wish I could tell you that he always took care of me and everything was perfect, but to be honest I very seriously considered selling him shortly after we bought him. I missed a week of school and had bruises all up and down my torso from getting dumped....hard. To this day I don't know what set him off....just a bad combination of ignorance (mine) and rowdiness (his), I guess. After all, he was just a spry young thing of 16 at the time. He had spent the last 5 or 6 years standing in a pasture so it wasn't as if he was a finished pleasure horse....in fact, he'd never even been to a show! He'd just been hacked around on up til that point....little did he know what I had in store for him. Or perhaps he *did* know....maybe that's why I ended up on the ground that day! :)
Fast forward a bit. I got involved in Easy Riders 4-H where I actually received some instruction and we made steady progress. As Cook and I progressed, we added english events to our reportoire. Cook became well known as one of the best horses in the county...and he became something even more special....trustworthy. He started being borrowed for leadline classes....then walk-trot, and as I moved up to the 14-18 age group, there were even 13 & under kids who showed him in their classes. He was bomb proof....he knew who was on his back or at the end of the lead at all times, and *never* acted up when it wasn't appropriate. That is a quality in a horse that is truly priceless.
Fast forward a few more years. It is now 1995. I was starting to feel like I'd reached a plateau. I had never really ridden a trained pleasure horse, so there were limits to what I could ask of Cookie. He had never been trained as a pleasure horse, so there were limits to what he could give me. It was time for a change. One of the girls I had been working with had a mare who had been trained for pleasure...but the bond of trust wasn't there. She had been borrowing Cookie for shows and they got along fine...so for one summer, we traded. I learned so much that summer! Suzi really taught me a lot, and we were quite successful. But the most amazing thing was that I could take this newfound knowledge and apply it to Cookie and ask even more from him...and I'd get it! He and I started placing higher in pleasure classes again and he just seemed to get better with each passing year.
Over the years I had other horses....young horses that I would bring along as replacements for Cook. I knew the day would come when he would cross the Rainbow Bridge, but in the meantime, I seemed to keep going back to him. When my next door neighbor decided to start showing, it was Cookie who was her first mount. Their accomplishments in their two years together were considerable, and as time progressed, he began to become "her" horse. Amanda loved Cook every bit as much as I did and misses him maybe even more. But the lifelong friendship that Amanda and I have is just another accomplishment accredited to Cookie.
March 19, 1998 was the saddest day of my life. This was the day that my beloved Cookie crossed the rainbow bridge. I wasn't ready for him to go but I have come to understand that it was simply *time* for this to happen. All I can do is thank God for the wonderful memories and know that when it is my turn to pass from this life into the next, I will get to do it on horseback, as my trusty steed carries me once again.
Where to now?