He Gave Me His Heart, His All...

Sport's story started long before this particular day in the late 1990s and will be told, but this is one of the most memorable moments in years and years of memorable moments.

I was taking both Sambora and Sport to the Dominion Valley Pony Club Schooling Event at the historic, picturesque Foxcroft Boarding School just outside Middleburg, Virginia with a new trainer. She pulled up to the barn with an older bumper-pull trailer, and we loaded the horses - Sammy on the right and the BigMan on the left. Something happened when the trainer started to pull the trailer forward, and the horses got jostled. They squeezed together, popping the center divider off its pins and it came sliding down between them. We got the trailer stopped, the divider out, and the horses unloaded and calmed down. However, they had each been scraped and Sport was rather bloody on his back right from the hock down. We got him cleaned up, Sammy checked out, and - bless them both - reloaded and on our way to Foxcroft.

Sport's division was first, and we managed to complete our dressage test reasonably well. Then came cross-country. We warmed up, then took our turn in the start box. Down and over and across and back up and over fences and obstacles, through the water, then we pounded on the right lead, around some trees and up to this particular jump called a hay manger. It was 2'7" high with maybe a 3' spread. But Sport was on it, listening to me, moving forward. As we made the turn around those trees and up the hill to this jump, I remember the sheer strength and power of him. Approaching, I touched him with my leg, yelled my encouragement, and felt him gather and go - up, across, over, down. The last fence was a stone wall leading to the alley home, and Sport got even bigger (as if 16.3 wasn't big enough). Hurtling through the finish flags, he started screaming for Sammy, exceedingly proud of himself. We made it through stadium, then Sport got to relax while Sammy did her thing.

Coming off cross-country, Sport was all big and bad, bursting with excitement and pride, calling for Sammy to share his triumph. He was brilliant that day, not high in the ribbons, but he went out after a terrifying trailer incident and gave me his heart, his all. THIS was my BigMan. And so he had always been...