There are no words to describe Sara. She was a one of a kind horse. When I met Rudy he had been working with Sara for about three years. Sara was owned by a dear friend of his in Tucson. Kitten (her dam) was a champion QH and Serinask (her sire) was a well-known son of Bask. Sara was an extremely dominant mare, so much so she could never be put out to pasture with the other horses. She would kick the living daylights out of anyone who came close, even if she had to chase them down. Since no one would ride Sara, Pat gave Rudy a free hand. I believe he told me it took him 2 years just to slow her down. By the time I met them he was showing her.
When we moved from Tucson to Phoenix Rudy asked Pat if she would sell Sara to us but she couldn’t let her go. Off we went to Phoenix and three weeks later Pat called and said she couldn’t bear to see Sara all alone in her stall day after day. She brought Sara to us and we had our first horse.
Now comes the fun part. I hadn’t ridden a horse in over twenty years at this point, but I had no fears. From the first time I really rode a horse on a friend’s cattle ranch, I had no problem. I had a perfect seat. I knew how to steer, how to move into a trot and a gallop. When it came to rounding up the cattle you kept your feet away from the horse’s side, let the reins loose, and the horse did all the work, facile. I was never saddle sore no matter how many years were in between, so even that wasn’t a worry. Of course I told Rudy I already knew how to ride. Oh, big mistake! I did confess one thing, I had never actually saddled a horse. There was always someone there to saddle for me. Well that had to change.
He showed me how to brush Sara down, how to clean her feet, and then came the saddle. His saddle was one Pat had given him, an old working cow saddle. It was worn and tattered, and he loved it. It fit him perfectly. I repeat it fit him. At this point in time I was a 120 lb accountant. For my size I was pretty strong considering I never really did anything like weight lifting and such. I was also (sadly was) naturally toned without any effort. Rudy brought the saddle out and showed me what to do. I put the blanket on just as he showed me, and then he handed me the saddle, the at least 70 lb saddle. I could barely hold it let alone lift it onto a horse’s back. Ok he gave me a break, we had only been married six months so he put the saddle on Sara and proceeded to let me cinch her up etc.
Now we get to ride, yes. He gives me instructions, what do you mean right lead, left lead. I have no clue what he’s talking about. You get on a horse and they go, no problem. Ok we will walk, and trot. OMG! That natural seat I had, well somewhere down the line of life it totally left me. I was bouncing all over the place like a total greenhorn. I couldn’t believe it. No mater what I did I couldn’t sit my seat. Sara on the other hand was perfect, and Rudy couldn’t believe that. She was as patient and careful as if I were a six-year-old child taking her first ride. This horse that no one could ride because she was so hot, and Rudy had to spend years getting her to slow down because all she knew was to take off at a gallop, was walking, slowly, and trotting, slowly. No matter what I did or didn’t do, she was perfect.
That lesson was fairly short, I knew I would do better tomorrow, wrong again, and I’m starting to what, hurt? How can that be? I’ve never been saddle sore in my life, never, and I would ride for hours. That was only the beginning. By the end of the week I was so frustrated. Rudy was telling me to do this, and do that, and I couldn’t because I hurt so bad I couldn’t stand it. Then he would tell me to take a right lead, and I went right, no you go left when you take a right lead, what kind of sense does that make? It was a very bad two weeks. Eventually I was human again, and all through it Sara was a perfect angel. That is until Rudy got on her back, and then she was a pistol fully loaded. It wasn’t that she was bad, it was just that with Rudy she would get so excited that she would try to do everything she knew all at the same time, and she had been trained to do everything, including cutting, reining, roping, you name it, she knew it. She also knew that I was a novice and she treated me as such. The more advanced I became the more she started to challenge me. She wanted to make sure I knew my stuff. Rudy didn’t train me so much as Sara trained me. I’ll never forget those days and the special bond we had.
It was about a year later when Rudy came home and said there was going to be a horse auction down the road. One horse is hard to share, and we could never go out for a ride together. We bought Marina, and Moraddinn. The big fear was, what would Sara do? We had a little over an acre and we bought some corral panels for the two kids and the rest of the fenced back we left for Sara. The kids were only about a year and a half so the hope was Sara wouldn’t think of them as a threat. I kept telling Rudy “it will be alright, don’t worry, Sara will be fine.”
We set up the corral panels and the day came when our first kids came home. They were so good. We carefully took them in back and led each one to their corral, and prayed. Sara went over to meet them and she was fine. Ok who is this and what have you done with Sara? We watched them carefully and as night came there was Sara standing in front of the two stalls protecting her kids. She was Queen and they were her kids.
She was like that the rest of her life. I think when she came to us she finally had a purpose in life. We were her people and she was there to take care of us, to raise our kids, and teach them their place. I think coming to us changed her. She was no longer just another horse who had to fight for her place of dominance. She taught me just about everything I know about how to handle a horse. She kept me on my toes so I wouldn’t get lackadaisical about any horse I rode. Rudy taught me what to do, she prepared me to do it.
When we were in Ca., we discovered she was a Cushing’s mare. Neither Rudy nor I had ever heard of Cushing’s. She had an abnormally long coat, but that’s just the way she was. The vet never really explained what Cushing’s was, she just told us there really wasn’t anything we could do about it. She also had arthritis and stifle problems but she still had all her fire, and despite her pain, would do what ever we asked of her. Exercise seemed to help so I rode her but not hard. We also found different supplements that seemed to help ease her pain. Rudy didn’t want to give her Bute all the time because it is so hard on the stomach, so we tried to give it to her sparingly. Finally she foundered. We got her over that and she was fine for a while, and then she foundered again. That was it. Rudy couldn’t stand to see her in such pain, and we made the decision to put her down. She was 21. I know she had a happy life with us and in spite of the Cushing’s she had a fairly long life. Sadly if we knew then what we knew now, she would have had a healthier life, could have lived longer, and we could have bred her, which was always my wish. Marina, whom she adopted as her own, and who she taught to be just like her, also has Cushing’s. There is medication you can give Cushing’s horses, and Marina’s Cushing’s is under control. We have bred her since she was diagnosed, and I plan to breed her again this spring as she seems to do better when bred. A veterinarian friend of mine, told me that some studies have shown that Cushing’s mares actually do better when bred, because they do not have the ups and downs of hormonal changes brought on by their cycles. If only we had known.
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