BELLA

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I’m always in awe of my animals—their strength, their intelligence, their capacity for love and forgiveness.

But I’ve never been more in awe of them than I was this one 6 years ago, just as we were coming out of another nasty storm up north.

Bella came to me from the slaughterhouse, not one but two babies in tow and—as it turned out—one on board, yet to be born. She was enormous and beautiful, but so very neglected, so badly abused, terrified of people. Her halter had been left on so long it had grown into her face, leaving a scar that has never really healed.

Whatever human-inflicted damage done to her remains in traces still today. And I’ve had her almost 20 years now. She’s an incredibly smart and sweet and powerful horse. She’d never intentionally hurt anyone or anything. But sometimes still, she’ll shake at the mere thought of human touch. And given the chance, when afraid she’ll generally run the other way.

Bella and I slipped on the ice that day as I was bringing her out of her stall, and it was the worst case scenario. We both fell in the narrow opening between her barn and my trailer. Through no fault of her own, she fell partially on me. A lesser horse would have panicked, wedged herself, flailed her massive hooves, really hurt herself and me.

But not Bella. She somehow managed to not only right herself fairly quickly, she did everything she could to avoid hurting me. Given the circumstances, I can say, without hyperbole, it was nothing short of a miracle.

She is a miracle, in so many ways.

All those years ago, when Bella first came to me, a vet asked me—with clear disdain—how much longer I was going to “put up with her,” because, yes, she took a lot of cajoling that day, needed a lot of tranquilizer, and through the years has taken an immense amount of time and patience to trust even a little. Still.

And so I immediately knew my answer for that vet. “How long will I put up with her?” I repeated back to him. “Well,” I continued, “You? Not so much. I’ll no longer be needing your services. But Bella here? I’ll care for her as best I can, for as long she’ll have me.”

And I have, for the better part of two decades now. And I will until the end.

Because I am the lucky one to have had her. Some think I saved her, but she saved me. In so many ways.