Ride Baby Ride

By Mike Maharrey
Woodford Sun sports editor
Published 6-3-2009

Cowgirls don’t cry
Ride baby ride
Lessons in life are gonna show you in time
Soon enough you’re gonna know why
It’s gonna hurt every now and then
If you fall get back on again>
Cowgirls don’t cry

Then again, sometimes they do.

As the Brooks and Dunn song played through the car stereo speakers, Grace Stone sat in the backseat of her mother’s car and bawled.

Just two months ago, the 10-year-old girl buried her “best friend,” a red chestnut Saddlebred horse with a perfect diamond on his nose.

His name was Sunny.

It was a bright cool spring morning, and Stone was on her way to ride in a show for the first time since Sunny’s burial when Cowboys Don’t Cry came on the radio.

“She would not let me change it,” her mother Jackie Stone said. “She said she believed Sunny played that song so she would stand up, get on that horse and go.”

The horse Grace would ride in that first competition that day was ironically named Lazarus – after a man who got a second chance at life.

She won a blue ribbon.

Heartbreak and tragedy eventually touch every life. At some point, people of every nation, race and creed must learn to cope with loss, get up and move on.

The fifth grader at Northside Elementary in Versailles learned that lesson younger than most.

***
Grace Stone loves horses. As far back as she can remember she’s wanted to ride. Horse posters adorn her room’s walls. The entrance to her bedroom mimics a barn door.

But Grace’s family never imagined they could buy her a horse.

“Who could ever afford it?” Jackie asked.

That is until Jackie found out through a friend that Brett Day of Grey Ridge Farm in Versailles was willing to give two pure blood Saddlebreds to a good home. So Sunny and his half brother, Dixieland Jazz, became part of the Stone family.

Both horses were named after Fleetwood Mac songs. Sunny’s given name was Over My Head. Their sire was Mac Attack.

For the first three or four weeks, the horses stayed at Grey Ridge. Grace and her mother visited every day and fed them apples. Eventually they found a farm to stable the animals. With little experience in handling horses, the family didn’t even attempt to ride for the first year.

“They were young horses and we really couldn’t do a lot with them,” Jackie said. “We just babied them and spoiled them. Grace just built a bond with Sunny.”

Grace and Sunny quickly developed a special relationship. She fed him, groomed him and loved on him. The horse responded to her like nobody else.

“I’d say, ‘Give me a kiss,’ and he’d stick his nose out for me,” Grace said.

When the family would pull up in their car, both Dixie and Sunny stuck their heads through the car windows in greeting.

Last October, the Stones moved the two horses to Reed Stables in Woodford County. Grace started taking riding lessons from Doris Reed, and Reed’s daughter, Holly, began training Sunny.

“He needed to be finished,” Doris said of the six-year-old Saddlebred. “Holly finished him out so Grace could show him.”

But Sunny was ready to show before Grace was prepared for competition, and Doris’s granddaughter, Kelsey Reed, showed Sunny for the first time.

They won.

Grace struggled watching another girl show her horse. Apparently Sunny wasn’t thrilled about it either.

“He would see her and holler every time he went by,” Jackie said, remembering Sunny’s first experience in the show ring.

“I finally had to hide,” Grace added with a smile.

Jackie said that Grace was determined that the next time Sunny showed, she would be the one on his back.

“And I was.”

Sunny and Grace won a first and second place ribbon in their first show. Grace showed Sunny two more times, racking up first place prizes.

“He was a blue ribbon horse,” Jackie said.

***

The family sits on the couch. The tears flow freely and it is clear that the wounds have yet to completely heal. Jackie said that she hopes sitting down and talking about the ordeal will help Grace’s grieving process. Grace has to leave the room before her mom finishes the story.

“She told me she lost her best friend.”

It was just a week after Sunny’s last show. Jackie went to the stable to feed him and noticed he hadn’t eaten and that he was acting funny. The vet said it was probably colic. The doctor gave him a shot and said that Sunny would likely recuperate by morning.

He didn’t.

“He was pawing and digging as hard as he could dig,” Jackie said.

She called the vet back, and while the doctor was examining Sunny, the horse collapsed in his stall. The vet seemed flummoxed and called his partner. They speculated that it could be some kind of reaction to the medications. They were able to get the horse up momentarily, but Sunny crumpled to the dirt again.

“He laid there for two hours on the hard ground. They didn’t even give him any fluids,” Jackie said. “The vet said he was trying to save us money – but I would have spent my life fortune for that horse.”

They finally made the decision to take Sunny to Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington for exploratory surgery. It took six people to get Sunny up. They were struggling to keep the horse upright when Grace walked into the stall.

She insisted on seeing Sunny before he made the trip to Lexington.

“He just dropped his head and sticks his head on Grace’s stomach,” Jackie said. “Then that horse walked out of that barn like he was going to a show – head held high.”

Sunny stood tall and proud in the trailer the entire trip to Lexington.

The hospital required $1,000 up front before they would do the surgery, funds the Stones didn’t have. Dr. Steven Shedlofsky and his wife gave them the money.

“They’d never met us. They just had a horse in that barn and they gave us $1,000. We didn’t even know what kind of chance he (Sunny) had,” Jackie said, clearly overwhelmed with gratitude.

Sunny came through the surgery, but parts of his intestines were dying. The doctors weren’t sure what was causing the condition.

The next morning was inauguration day. But the Stones didn’t join the rest of the nation in welcoming a new president – they were grieving the loss of a friend.

As the family was getting ready to go to the hospital, the phone rang.

“That was a terrible phone call.”

Sunny’s vital signs were dropping. He wasn’t getting oxygen. The vet said that they might have to put him down.

“Just hold on to him. We’re coming,” Jackie pleaded.

But 10 minutes later, the hospital called back. They said Sunny was thrashing around. He was in danger of harming himself or somebody else.

The end had come. Grace new it.

“She said, ‘Mom, please put that horse down. I can’t stand to see that horse suffer any more.’”

Jackie asked the hospital staff to leave Sunny where he lay and the family made the long drive to the hospital.

“She just lays on him forever, bawling her eyes out,” Jackie says, her own eyes brimming with tears.

They laid Sunny to rest on the Reed farm. They wrapped him in Grace’s sleeping bag and his horse blanket. Holly Reed found a pink and blue ribbon and Grace climbed into the grave and placed it on Sunny’s head. It had one word on it.

Champion.

***
For several weeks after Sunny’s death, Grace wouldn’t go back to the stable. She wanted to quit riding. Doris Reeves wasn’t sure she’d ever ride again.

“No, she didn’t even come to the barn for a while.”

When she finally found the courage to go back, she wouldn’t look toward the place were Sunny was buried.

But by March, Grace was ready to get back in the saddle and compete.

Brooks and Dunn gave her that final push.

Cowgirls don’t cry
Ride baby ride

Not only did her courage and determination earn her a blue ribbon on Lazarus, Grace won the high point championship in the beginning 9-10 equitation division for 2008-2009 winter season.

“She did really well on Lazarus. Sunny was right there making sure nothing would happen,” Jackie said. “She finished it out for him. She started on him and she did it.”

***

The summer sun beats down on the Stone household. Nearly six months have passed since that dreadful winter day, and Grace still grieves for Sunny. When she talks about her horse, the tears quickly well up in her eyes.

“I love him.”

But Grace remains determined to move on. She looks forward to competing in the bigger shows in Louisville.

Her instructor thinks she’ll go a long way.

“She’s going to rise to the top because she is a very good rider,” Reed said. “Not a lot of riders come along as fast as Grace. She is determined to do it correctly. She corrects every mistake that you point out.”

Grace continues to ride twice a week. Reed said that she can see her bonding with Lazarus. And Grace has developed a toughness that belies her young age.

“You have to be tough when you ride these horses,” Reed said. “You can’t be a baby up there. She’s getting there right now.”

If you fall get back on again
Cowgirls don’t cry

But then again, sometimes they do.