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Beau had been rescued from his abusive life of beatings and neglect, but instead of being grateful, he was afraid. Afraid that the next person was going to continue where the others had left off. So he decided to be the one to react first; to keep the people away from him. He became the aggressor.

So it was 8 years later that I met Beau. His owners had decided it was time to let him go. Because of his aggression and his refusal to let any human near him, his only path was the one to the killer sales.

I was asked to give Beau a last chance. I have worked with many abused and problem horses and Beau's owner's brother asked me to try with just one more. I would give no promises as 8 years is long time for Beau's reactions to people to become habit instead of just fear based. I refused payment for working with this horse and I even refused to take the horse for free. I just didn't know what the outcome would be.

I won't go into the details of what Beau and I went through during the 18 months that I worked with him that's a story for another day. What I will tell you is that after those 18 months, I bought Beau for the price that he would have brought from the meat packers.

Beau represented everything that a horse should be. He was big (15.3 hands), beautiful (red chestnut Quarter Horse), and he was a prey animal. To the day he died he never forgot that he had a significant place on the food chain and that anyone and anything could and, in his mind would, hurt him.

Beau was my companion for 10 years. Beau trusted me. Eventually he learned to trust more people, though not everyone, and he was right to do so.

When a call came early one November Sunday morning to tell me that Beau was in trouble, probably colicking, and that my vet was out of town, I gave the order to get any vet that would come out NOW. I jumped in my truck and headed for the farm.
When I arrived, I could tell that whatever was wrong it was not colic. Beau stood in the corner of his stall with his head down, twigs and leaves tangled in his beautiful mane and tail where he had obviously been on the ground during the night. He was breathing heavily and when he heard my voice he tried to raise his head to see me, but his eyes were glazed and unfocused.

The only vet that was available was one that I shall call Dr. Janet. She checked him out and declared that he had choked during the night and that she needed to tube him to make sure that there was no obstruction still there.

I told her to go ahead but to be VERY

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