03/12/2024
When one has an animal rescue, whether a 501c3 or not, many special stories are saved in the memory banks of the same lucky person. I fondly recall the renter of my house next dooor. She was one of the sulky racers at the track in Shelbyville. Anyway, She was telling me about a horse she had become attached to from the track which had been retired due to under performing. She went further to say the horse is being kept in poor conditions and could we rescue him.
At the time, Nicole Myers and her three children Dakota Wable , Renae and Dylan were renting the second house down from mine. I asked Dakota if he would like to go with me to try and rescue a gelding in a bad environment. Dakota's response, "let me grab my hat." I believe he may have been all of 15 at the time. Anyway off we went to who knows what as far as conditions and temperament of the horse.
We arrived at a barn which appeared it could blow down at any time and a small run in shelter where the horse was standing, ankle deep in goey mud. This was not an ideal environment to load a young gelding who appeared to be very jumpy and flighty.
After several failed attempts at doing a "Cowboy Bob" lasso session, we finally got a rope around the horses neck. We beckoned, "come on boy", clucked our tongues, applied pressure on the rope only to watch the recalcitrant horse completely lock down in defiance of our efforts.
Then, at this moment, something extremely magical, raise the hair on the back of your neck kind of a thing happened. Dakota grabbed a halter and a lead rope, opened the gate where the horse stood, approached the horse talking easy to him the whole time,"hold on fella.....easy fella". He just walked up and put the halter on the horse, snapped the lead, brought him through the gate where i stood holding the trailer door open and wah-la. Dakota never said anything the whole time except what was directed at the horse. You have to know, Dakota was never around horses in his life.
Dakota named the horse "Fella". The name seemed to fit. The horse "fella" I believe transformed Dakota's young life as he took care of Fella's needs morning and night.