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Home › Articles › Essays › With the Eyes of Love

With the Eyes of Love

Heart, Hoof & Soul

By Vicki Beach Knocke

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My daughter Jamie has been horse-crazy since she was a small child. At 10, tall for her age, and extremely long-legged, she was already the veteran of two years of riding lessons. Though Jamie desperately wanted a horse of her own, I thought this would be a dream unfulfilled. Her father and I had been divorced for some time, and my funds were limited.

However, in November 1995, we were approached by Jamie's riding instructor about leasing a horse she had recently acquired at her stable. This seemed a good way to determine Jamie's level of dedication to horse ownership, and her father agreed to finance the enterprise if horse and child proved compatible.

Jamie and I first met Twisty on a cold December day. At the time, I knew little about how horses were supposed to look and even less about equine medical problems. In a matter-of-fact way, the instructor told me that the mare had heaves, had recently lost a foal midway through pregnancy, and that she suffered from arthritis in her left stifle, probably caused by an old injury.

Even with this warning, I was completely unprepared for the pitiful specimen of horseflesh presented for our approval. What I saw, as Jamie rode her, was a big red horse, dull-coated and dull-eyed, with a horrible scar on her left shoulder, one hock almost twice the size of the other and all her ribs showing. It was NOT love at first sight! Still, animal rescuer that I am, I calculated that the poor thing just needed some good food and attention. It took only two visits for Jamie to fall in love with Twisty and for me to formulate a plan to save her.


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