Second Chances

by Teresa Fackrell

We ride a horse that only has one eye. She is our rope horse. She is an amazing story of second chances.

Racheal had been using her for High School Rodeo Breakaway. She had done okay in the fall but she was still a little unpredictable. In the spring, she got a little infection in her eye. We thought it was no big deal. She would be fine. Then one day it got a lot worse. We hauled her to the vet. He gave us several things to treat it with. In a few days she was looking better. Then the next day, it was horrible. We hauled right back to the vet. Our only option was surgery to remove her eye.

When she first lost her eye I thought for sure we would not be able to use her for anything. It was sad because her and Racheal had just started to get along. We gave her some time off to recuperate.

Racheal wanted to try riding her again. So we started really slow. She did okay with normal riding. I thought we could at least sell her for a trail horse. Then we thought what the heck, we should try to rope on her again. It worked. She roped just fine.

We have to do some extra things to make sure she does not hit her head or walk on you when she can't see you but she ropes really well.

Brent decided since she was mellower than the horse he showed last year that he would try and show her. The mare has never been showed. We have only used her as a rodeo horse. Brent had a good over all show. He got a blue ribbon in Horsemanship on her and he placed 3 in Reining. We did not even know the mare could do a flying lead change and she did it beautifully. WOW!

Brent is now using her Heal, Goat Tie and Breakaway. Racheal uses her in High School Rodeo.

Now my nephew Cole who is 5 is also using her in rodeo. He placed 3rd on her in Poles and placed twice on her in the goat tail untie!