A Gift Horse Named GEORGE

When April Freeland found herself horseless, she learned the importance of never looking a gift horse in the mouth when a horse named George came into her life.

- NICHOLE CHIRICO

April Freeland’s show career was just beginning, but before she could get a true taste for competition it quickly came to an end. As she was going into the show pen at her second horse show, she felt something was off with her horse Gota Rolex On Mpulse and decided a visit from the vet would be necessary to see what was going on. The vet check went from bad to worse when it was decided they would need to do an MRI on “Benji.” That was when April was delivered the bad news and found out that her horse had the navicular disease and would probably never make it back to the show pen again, leaving April without any idea how she would ever get to own or show another horse.

Fate Happens

When April first heard the news of Benji, her heart sank. Her family’s budget was tight and being able to go out and buy another horse was out of the picture. She thought for sure that her only shot at the show pen had come and gone before she could even have a chance to truly know what it was like to compete.

“After I had been told I would never be able to ride him again I was devastated,” April said. “We had just bought Benji and that was such a stretch for us to even get him. I knew I couldn’t just turn around and say it’s OK, I’ll find something else to show. I really thought this was the end of my story.”

But her trainer, Wes Wetherell, had a different plan. The day after finding out the bad news, a horse Wes had trained for a short amount of time as a 3-year-old unexpectedly showed up at his barn. The owner had his papers in her hand and asked if Wes would be able to take him as she could no longer care for him.

As the horse backed out of the trailer, he was hairy, out of shape, gangly, and had a huge head, but for some reason, Wes knew he had to take this horse in.