Sassy,
On that bitter cold day in February of 2005, from the first moment I saw
your brother, Tigger, and he came to me at the fence, I adored him and knew
I had to have him. This was funny because it was actually you, called
Brownie then, that I came to see from an ad on the internet. You, however,
wouldn't come near the fence to say hello.
Walking back to my car, I asked the woman if she would consider selling
Tigger and she said she would if I took you both. A few days later,
I came to get you. Neither one of you wanted any part of the trailer. When
I got the halters out of the truck and proceeded to pick you both up, it
was then the owner said, "You don't think you're going to get those on them,
do you?" It was then that I realized the two of you hadn't been handled at
all. She said Tigger was, but not broke to ride, but if you wouldn't
let me halter you, then she knew Tigger wouldn't allow it.
Well, we did back the trailer up to the fence that they had cooped you
into since they knew we were coming, but it wasn't easy getting you both
in. It didn't take too long, though, and we got halters on you while
you were inside. Once we got you two home, we got Tigger out first,
then you. By the way, we didn't like your names too much, so renamed
you Sassy, and tried to rename Tigger, but Tigger just stuck. You got away
from the handler as you came off the trailer, but he was able to catch you
again without too much problem.
During the weeks that followed, I worked mostly with getting you both
used to humans; brushing, haltering, cleaning your hooves, catching, letting
you know I wasn't going to hurt you. My daughter even
sat on Tigger's back while he was tied up. He let us saddle him and lead
him around, but whenever we tried to get on, he moved away and it scared
my son-in-law to get on him then.
You wouldn't let us get the saddle on or much of anything else, thus why
the name. You were a wild one and it even showed in your eyes. After
several weeks, Tigger softened up to us.
I had been looking around
for trainers to break you both. I had one come to the farm to work with you.
You seemed to learn quick, yet still wouldn't find the trust necessary, and
so I stopped having her work with you and did it on my own.
One day I decided to send
Tigger away to a trainer since he was so sweet, and that was the most dreaded
decision I had ever made in my entire life. Sending him away meant coggins
tests. I felt everything would be okay, but when I saw my husband sitting
on the front porch that day when I came home from work, I knew something
was very wrong.
Tigger's test result was
positive for EIA. I was heartbroken. The state stepped in right away and
quarantined the place and tested the others. That was the longest 5 days
of my life waiting for the results. So much went through my mind as we had
5 horses at the time. Who else had it? I guessed it was Warrior for some
odd reason. Sassy, you came across my mind, but I never believed it could
be you.
We never got the results,
just the dreaded phone call. It was you, Sassy. The 2 of you were sold to
me without a coggins and I wanted you so bad I didn't care it wasn't done.
I fought the state for 3 long months. I even found a place in Florida to
send the two of you that has all EIA positive horses. It's a haven for them
to live normal lives. I had 275 yards of the 300 necessary to keep you where
you were. The state wouldn't budge. I asked questions about statistics, etc.
and there weren't any. There was nobody to do research on you two to find
out what the disease is all about. Every horse with a positive coggins is
put down instead of doing anything to try to save you. I wish I could have
done more for you both. I wish I had never gotten that first coggins.
I couldn't drive you to safety,
but I could drive you to your fate. That day was the hardest day of my life.
I loaded the two of you in the trailer the night before because I wasn't
sure how you'd go in. I felt bad the next morning when I came to see you
for the last time and saw the mess in the trailer. I fed the two of you and
offered you water. I opened up the trailer vents and you both stuck your
heads out.
Tigger trusted me and I
let him down. I drove away so fast that day after unloading you that I didn't
even hug him goodbye. I did say goodbye to you and watched in the rearview
mirror as you looked with eyes asking, "Why aren't I going home with you?".
I just wanted to get away before you both went to the "Rainbow Bridge" together
as you had lived.
The other horses were tested
and were all negative, so we know that you both were inapparent carriers
and maybe would have never gotten sick or even given the disease to another
horse. We will never know.
I made you two a website and
someday, Tigger and I will have that first ride together! I miss you two,
my friends. Know in the last months of your life I cared a great deal for
you both.
I have a special page for you and have found Hoofbeats In Heaven and added their link to my pages.
I hope you're looking down and see the poem, Sue the trainer, wrote for the
two of you and me, of course.
Missing you always,
Marj
Sassy 
