Rescue me

After surviving a massive heart attack, I put one goal at the top of my bucket list--to own my own horse.

Gown. I had

my doctor.

azing out into

the green

pasture

dotted with

horses, I can always

immediately spot my

Tucker, and my breath

catches in sheer awe

every time. Tucker is a 16-year-old,

18-hand Percheron I bought at auction

more than four years ago. All I wanted to

do was save his life, but he---quite liter-

ally---saved mine.

About two years before I found

Tucker, I had a massive heart attack at

a very young age. My doctors told me

they couldn’t believe I had survived the

“widow maker.” Even the emergency

room staff came up to my hospital room

to congratulate me on surviving---I was

the first many of them had seen.

By the time I went home to recover,

I’d had plenty of time to think about how

lucky I had been and all the changes I

would need to make in my life. It was

then I made

my bucket list,

and the first

item on it was

a horse of my

grown up rid-

ing, and I was

eager to start

taking lessons

again once

I got the go-

ahead from

I discussed

it with my hus-

band as I was

recuperating,

and being an

instant gratification

kind of person, I told

him that I wanted my

very own

with Lisa Post, who owns a

m

---

horse and

sooner rather than

later---and that I want-

ed it to be a rescue.

Being the wonderful

man that he is, my husband got in touch

dressage

barn and runs Helping Hearts Equine

Rescue in Perrineville, New Jersey.

Thanks to Lisa’s efforts, a large local

auction has agreed to post to Facebook

pictures of all the horses heading to the

block each week---an effort that has so

far prevented any from going to slaugh-

ter. After several months of monitoring

the site, a friend alerted me to a posting

for an older horse

who was described

as bombproof and

easy to handle. Lisa

assessed him and

agreed he was a

go

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