This story is shared posthumously; however, for me the right horse, Blue Blue Sea, became my most special horse and illustrates beautifully the message of the right horse. In 2003, I finally was making good progress on student loans and making enough money that I felt I was able to accept the financial responsibility of once again welcoming a horse in my life. The off the track Thoroughbreds were always my favorites and I had found CANTER’s West Virginia site. I was looking in 2003 and found a gelding I was interested in; however, when I called, he already had a home.

Late in 2003, I found a listing for a chestnut gelding with Alysheba lines on the dam’s side. Alydar has always been my favorite racehorse and I had to look. When the picture loaded, it was like Blue Blue Sea was looking right at me. I downloaded the picture to my desktop and looked at his picture regularly and showed it to others. In early 2004, I finally called his owners. They told me that he had generated a lot of interested, but they would take my name and number in case one of those homes didn’t work out. I sadly put it out of mind, but I would still look at his picture.

One February day in 2004, I was home sick from work when the phone rang. The caller ID showed the owner’s name and my heart skipped a beat, and I suddenly felt healed. The owner told me that no one had taken Blue Blue Sea and asked if I wanted to come out to meet him that Saturday. YES!

When I got there, another woman was also there to look at him, and she already had a trailer ready to go. My heart sunk a bit at that, as I had not come prepared. They showed us both 3 different horses, but we both wanted Blue Blue Sea. His owner pulled me aside first and asked what I was thinking. I said I wanted Blue Blue Sea, but I would need time to get a place figured out and a way to trailer him. He said if I could pick him up in a week, he would be mine since I had contacted them first. My heart skipped a beat and I walked away hoping I could make everything work.

It seemed destined to be because despite several setbacks I did bring Blue Blue Sea “home”. He was to be my riding, low-level dressage and jumper. He enjoyed his work and was doing well at his new job. But we kept encountering setbacks. The first was that he had been proud cut and was very attentive to the mares. Consequently, he had to have a second surgery to be gelded. Later, we discovered cancer on his eyelid but he overcame that after a successful surgery.

The biggest blow came in 2006 when he coliced five times in one month. He lost a significant amount of weight and didn’t seem to get better no matter what we did. I took him to a teaching hospital where they did a battery of tests and had him stay overnight. The diagnosis turned out to be a malabsorption disorder. They said he probably had 1-2 years to live and euthanasia was probably best. I thanked them, but something in Blue Blue Sea told me that it wasn’t his time yet, so I took him back home and set to work.

No horse has ever taught me so much as Blue Blue Sea. I researched and networked and found a wonderful nutritional vet to complement the work of his regular vets. I opted not to ride him to avoid unnecessary stress that could trigger an issue. Instead, I started teaching him tricks like “kiss me”, “hug me” and “shake hands”.

Blue Blue Sea lived more than seven years after that diagnosis and brought me some of the best years of my life. People who have heard his story tell me that there seemed something akin to destiny to it all, that the two of us were meant to be together. When I type this all up or reflect back on it, I have to agree – Blue Blue Sea was the right horse for me.

What #RightHorse means to me

The right horse to mean means that you look at the whole horse – conformation, spirit, individual preferences – and you do some self-reflection to ensure that you are making the right call when you bring that horse home. Everyone’s right is a little different and luckily there are so many wonderful horses out there that your right horse is out there and my next right horse is, too.