PHASE 1 - The Journey Home

The white truck pulls into the sanctuary’s driveway; gravel crunching under the tires and the trailer rattling behind it. Theresa Sutton puts it in park, swings the door open, and steps out. As she walks up to the building labeled “Sagebrush Sanctuary: Main Office”, a voice comes from behind her, and she turns towards it.

“Hi, welcome to Sagebrush Sanctuary. Are you here for the Loshenka makeover?”

The voice belongs to a tall, grey haired lady holding a clipboard.

“Uh, yes! I’m Theresa Sutton?”

“Wonderful to meet you in person, Theresa. I’m Emily Smith, the director of Sagebrush. I’m the one you’ve been emailing. Would you follow me to the horses?” Theresa nods, and follows Emily down a path to the left of the office. As they walk, Emily goes over the rules of the makeover, as well as resources the participants can use. As she talks, she hands Theresa a sheet of paper. 

“You have been drawn for Loshenka 6452. These are her known issues. You’ve got yourself quite a handful here.”

Theresa takes the paper, and her eyes go straight to a line of bright red bolded text.

AGGRESSIVE AROUND FOOD. BARRIER AGGRESSION. AGGRESSIVE TO HORSES AND HUMANS. 

Oh. That’s fun. Theresa carefully reads the rest of the paper. The horse came from a show barn, with little turnout, constant stalling, and exactly three meals a day. Food aggression. Barrier aggression. Resource guarding. Has injured horses and humans. Theresa reaches the bottom of the paper, and notices a small black and white photo, labeled 6452, upon intake. The grainy, desaturated photo shows a gorgeous Loshenka, with a good thick neck, long legs, and wary eyes, tucked into the corner of a stall. Before she has too much time to think about the photo, she and Emily turn a corner, and are met with a series of small pens, a handful of which have horses.

“You’re one of the last to arrive, which is good. 6452 does better… without sharing a fence.”

Theresa scans the pens as she walks down the aisle, looking for that wary horse she saw in the photo. A few of the Loshenka whicker as she goes by, and she stops to pet those that ask for it. All of them are gorgeous in their own way, with spots and stripes and velvet noses. Emily stops a few pens ahead, patiently waiting for Theresa to catch up.

“Here she is,” Emily says, gesturing at the pen on her left. “6452.”

Theresa walks up next to Emily, and the next thing she knows, the metal fences of the pen are rattling and white teeth are shoved through the bars, followed by a pink nose, white head, and a white neck. 

“Shit.” Emily and Theresa chorus, jumping back from the pen’s fence and away from the lunging horse.

“So that's what they mean by barrier aggression.” Theresa laughs shakily, looking down at the paper in her hand. The horse retracts her neck back between the bars, keeping her ears pinned flat to her neck as she surveys the humans in front of her.

“Oh wow. She’s gorgeous.” Theresa breathes, finally able to take in the mare in front of her. She has a thick white coat, broken up with a dark purple-brown patch on each cheek and on each side of her thick neck, gracefully curved despite her tension. Her eyes, hard with anger, were a soft yellow, almost gold. Her curly dark tail fanned out behind her, raised high in anticipation. 

“She looks like a Magpie.” Theresa says, still taking in the mare’s beauty.

“Sounds like a good name, don’t you think?” Emily’s voice jolts Theresa out of her reverie.

“Magpie. It’s perfect.”

“Well, is your trailer all ready? I think the faster we get Miss Magpie here loaded up, the better.” Theresa nods in agreement, and moves towards the fence, keeping an eye on Magpie. With each step she takes, the mare gets more tense; a firm lip, widened eye, raised head, taut muscles. Theresa begins to speak softly to her.

“Hey Magpie. I know you don’t like fences. We just need to get you to the trailer, and then we’ll get you out on nothing but pasture, okay?” She continues on with the soft words, trying her best to comfort the tense mare. Magpie continues glaring, but allows Theresa to approach. Theresa unhooks the leadrope hooked on the fence of the pen. Emily steps back, and Theresa enters the pen, the mare eyeing her harshly from the corner.

“Hey girl’. I’m here to help you. Let's get you home.” Theresa continues talking gently. The closer she gets, the more the mare tenses. Teresa closes the gap to the mare’s elegant head, and clips the lead rope onto her bright yellow rope halter. She places her hand on the rich purpley-brown patch on the horse’s neck, and it sinks into soft fur.

“You don’t need to be so tense. You’re okay. I’ve got you.” Theresa moves her hand lightly up and down the mare’s soft coat, and the mare drops her head a fraction of an inch, and her muscles loosen the faintest bit.

First step of progress, Theresa thinks to herself, smiling at the mare. Reluctantly removing her hand from the soft coat, she places it on the leadrope, and asks the mare to walk out of the pen, taking care to not let the gate hit her. The second the girl and horse step into the wide dirt aisle, the horse relaxes; still on high alert, but visibly much more comfortable. The lead rope keeps slack in it the entire walk to the main lot, and Theresa and Emily go over final details as they walk. As Theresa’s trailer comes into sight, the mare’s muscles tense, and her head goes back up. 

“Here, let me get the door for you.” Emily says, moving to unlatch the trailer ramp. Magpie starts to restlessly move her weight from one hoof to another. Theresa goes to touch her neck, and the mare swings her head around, teeth bared. Not a bite, but a very clear warning.

“Okay, no touchy. Got it.”

Emily lowers the trailer ramp, and the mare catches sight of a hay net at the front of the trailer. Theresa is one step ahead of her, already directing her movement into a circle.

“Easy girl. We’re gonna do this nice and slow,” She murmurs. “Emily, get the side door open for me?” She calls. As soon as she hears the hinges of the side door swing open, she lets Magpie out of her circle, and swiftly moves with her into the trailer. In one fluid motion the mare is in front of the hay net, and before she knew what was happening, Theresa had her tied and was out the side door, with the door latched and pins in place. Emily glanced at Teresa with a raised brow.

“That went surprisingly well.”

“Oh don’t worry, there’ll be plenty of bumps along the way.” Theresa responds with a laugh, getting into her truck. Waving goodbye to Emily, she turns on her trailer camera, and takes in her new horse, happily munching on the haynet. 

“You’ll be okay girl. Just you wait.”

The gravel crunches under the truck and trailer’s tires, and Magpie begins her journey home.