I want everyone to know that a horse knows who his friends are and every kindness is remembered and repaid with interest. I had just moved across the country to work at Spruce Meadows. It was my dream job. How often does every little girl dream of meeting her idols and riding the best horses in the world.
I was extremely lonely, although the Southern family is wonderful and they treat all their employees with kindness usually reserved for friends and family, it was not the same as having all my old friends and my real family near. I lived above the show barn and having no car, I spent most of my free time just talking to the horses. Galactica was a huge dark brown gelding that was lonely too. His regular rider and trainer had gone to Europe to groom for Linda Southern Heathcott.
I spent alot of time with him and he was always happy to see me. I would take him for walks and lead him and another horse for turn out and always had a treat lol. One afternoon I was collecting him and his turn out buddy from the pasture when I heard the other girls yelling at me to watch out. just then a large red mare wheeled around and let fly with both hind feet. Galactica pushed me out of the way and took the blow. After I got up from the ground and stood up to check him out we discovered that she had hit him square in the chest and left a large gouge with her shoes.
We also discovered that had this wonderful horse not nudged me out of the way, she would have hit me square in the head. I would have died. From then on I never went to the grocery store without buying that big lug a bag of carrots. It just goes to show that if you trust your horse, he will always look after you.