10/18/2026
I got a thank you from a horse today. I know that sounds weird, but I’m not making it up. It’s happened a few times before. Not every rescue says thank you, but I believe they all appreciate the effort.
Today, I was working on filling waters and giving hay. When I got to Momma’s stall, she was standing in the back corner. So I slipped inside to check her water, then started shaking apart her hay.
Softly, on the back of my arm, I felt a little tickle. I glanced down to see this skinny, sick, wild little mare reaching up to touch my arm. This is a mare who has outsmarted coyotes. She has allowed multiple foals to nurse. She has found the few blades of grass in a pasture of weeds.here she was… reaching out to me. Not because she wanted the food. She wanted my attention for a brief moment before I went about my day.
So I knelt down in front of this pathetic-looking bag of bones and, for the first time, she stood still as I reached out to her. In that moment, I felt it. Just a tiny, tentative touch from an animal who is still learning that the world might not be such a scary place after all.
Sometimes, the reward comes in the smallest gesture. A little mare who has every reason to distrust the world but decides, for one brief moment, that maybe you’re safe. Those moments don’t pay the bills, erase what happened to them and they certainly don’t make the work any less exhausting. They remind you why you keep going
So, yes, I got a thank you from a horse today.
