Snow Wonder - The Horse God Picked out for Me
The summer of 1993 I decided I had saved enough money to buy a horse. Mom's ex-boss said I could use his pasture and barn rent free, if I helped take care of the place and let his grandchildren ride. Everything was set, all I needed was a good horse - preferably one big enough for my friends to ride and gentle enough for the grandchildren to ride (and fairly cheap). I started looking at ads in the paper - this summer horses sold quickly, most ads weren't in the paper more than 1 week. I had been checking ads for a couple of months when I saw the ad for a 16 hand leopard spot Appaloosa, $1000. That would be big enough for my friends, but $1000 was all the money I had for buying a horse and tack and all the little things needed in a barn, and I hadn't seen me buying an Appaloosa. I had been praying for God to help me find the right horse - big, gentle, and cheap (which meant buying somebody else's problem - a problem that I would be able to fix). I know that color is the least important thing in finding a good horse, but I did ask God for something besides the usual dirt colored horse.
The ad was still in the paper the next Saturday. But it was for an appaloosa and I had a lot of things to do, including grocery shopping; I decided not to bother. When I got home from grocery shopping, my horse magazine had come in the mail; a leopard spot Appaloosa was on the cover. I flipped through the magazine; every page I stopped on had a picture of an Appaloosa, and most of them were leopard spotted. After the fifth or sixth one I finally said "O.K. God, I got the hint. I'll call about the horse. But I don’t want an App. Don’t you know they’re crazy?"
I was impressed with what I saw - big, well-muscled, definately able to carry my friends. So I gave him a test ride. Spoiled absolutely rotten! I could deal with that. But it would take a lot of work before I would trust him with Mr. C's grandchildren, and $1000 was a steep price for me; I'd have to think about it. Then I found out that this wasn't the first horse the girl had spoiled. Maybe I could help them as partial payment for the horse.
For the next several days, I prayed and worried over what to offer. I couldn't go much over $700 and still have enough left to board him at a place with a round pen for several days, but that would mean his owners would lose almost $400 in the 4 months they had owned him. (They paid $1100 for him in April.) Would they go for that? I talked to Mom and she said that if that was the number I kept coming up with after praying, then try it.
A few days later, I went to look at the horse again. Yes, I did want this horse. I was too scared to offer just $700 (and 7 riding lessons for the girl), so I offered $750 plus lessons and hoped they wouldn't be too offended to even negotiate. The girl's mom said she had to ask her husband. I tried to control the butterflies in my stomach and repeated the offer to him. He said that that was exactly what they needed, it was a deal! (At first it seemed too good to be true; later I wondered if I should have tried $700.) As we worked out the details, I discovered that Wonder's Coggins test was 5 years out of date. They said they would get that taken care of before selling me the horse. It also turned out that neither of us owned a horse trailer, but they had a friend who might could help us.
The next day I had to tell everybody at work about the horse I was buying. And I started calling places about boarding a horse for a week and using a round pen. Everybody I talked to would be happy to train my horse, but nobody would let me use the round pen and train him myself. That was only the beginning of the trouble. Angel (Wonder's owner) called and said her friend's trailer was unavailable and they couldn't find a vet who made pasture calls. So I tried calling some people I knew. Nobody could help. I was really getting frustrated. I only had one person left to try, someone I didn't know (who had been recommended to me by somebody else I didn't know) and who never answered the phone.
Then Saturday night, Angel called me. She had taken the ad out of the paper, but somebody else had come by and offered her $925 for Wonder. The horse her little girl wanted was priced at $950. Did I really want Wonder? Yes, I did. Well, the other buyer wanted to know why hadn't I left a deposit? Simple, they never asked for one. Angel asked if I wanted to increase my offer. I said that I could give them more lessons, but I couldn't increase the money. Angel was sounding upset and not sure what to do. Did I reallly think I could do something with Wonder? I told Angel that I thought we had a deal, and I really wanted the horse and believed I could do a good job retraining him. But she had to believe that she was getting a fair price and that Wonder was going to a good home. She said she would discuss it with her husband and call me back Sunday afternoon.
I was very upset at first. I had told everybody that Wonder was going to be my horse. Finally I prayed, "God, if I've misunderstood and Wonder is not the right horse for me, then let Angel decide to sell him for more money. If he is the horse I'm supposed to have, then help Angel to decide to honor our agreement." Right then, I felt calm and at peace.
Angel called first thing Sunday morning. She said, "I couldn't sleep last night because I felt so guilty. I'm going to sell Wonder to you." Yes!!! This horse was meant to be mine. (In the end, the little girl wanted a different horse that only cost $500, so Angel didn't really lose out by not selling him to the other person.)
Monday morning I finally got in touch with the lady who might could haul Wonder to the vet. She not only had a trailer for hire, she also had a roundpen and an empty paddock where I could board Wonder for only $5 a day. We got to talking and I told her how I believed God meant for me to have this horse. She said she believed it, too, and didn't think God would send me a sick horse, so she would bring Wonder directly back to her place from the vet's, without waiting a week to get the results of the Coggins test. (This saved me an extra transport fee.) It turned out that I got probably the best deal in town on boarding and hauling a horse, and the lady got extra money during a month she really needed it. So the next Saturday I was the proud new owner of a 9 year old, leopard spot Appaloosa. (And yes, the Coggin's test came back negative - my horse does not have swamp fever.)
This is the story of my horse and how I know he was meant to be mine.
Wonder turned out to be better for me than I could ever have dreamed. I moved to Tulsa and got involved in parades. Wonder never spooked at barking dog troups, preschool twirlers, 18 wheelers... he even carried a flag. He safely carried me up and down mountains where we saw wild turkeys and huge groundhogs. I rode him bareback with just a halter at our boarding stable, competed at local fun shows in English tack, and rode him along the road in australian tack. I even rode him to escort winning racehorses from the winners circle to the test barn.
The last 7 years of his life, Wonder was completely blind. We still rode parades and some trail rides. He trusted me and learned quite a few word cues to deal with obstacles he couldn't see.
On Good Friday 2008, we had a freak snow, when we often go years without any snow at all. Snow Wonder got loose and took off down the road. He was confused and disoriented. (Maybe he was dreaming of when he was a foal in Texarkana and played in the snow.) He got on the train track and was killed instantly by a train. I miss him very much, but I trust God's timing. The vet warned me Wonder was showing his age and I needed to prepare myself for putting him down. I couldn't imagine killing the wonderful horse God had picked out special for me. God spared me from that. A train was probably the only way for Wonder to go without any suffering.
In loving memory of Snow Wonder, the horse God picked out for me. 
