What’s big mellow, and has many talents?
Yup you guess it a Quarter horses. Kiss Me Color is one of the greatest horses I know. She has a loving personality and is really calm. When kids come to our farm to ride we stay away from the thoroughbreds and the Arabians, but bring out the quarter horses. Kiss Me Color also known as KC has a really unique and heart lifting spirit.
KC is owned my Linda Wiggens who is a survivor of Breast Cancer and a massive stroke. She is a grade school teacher with a husband and two sons. The Breast Cancer came first and with a hard fight she won. The stroke followed a few years later. Linda was ridding her horse Jazzy when a tragic thing happened. Jazzy trip and caught Linda in the neck. Twenty four hours later she has a massive stroke. They told the family that Linda will never be the same. She could hardly speak and when she managed to get something out it was very hard to understand. Her memory was damaged and she even had trouble remembering her boys names. The doctors told that family that she would never be able to go back to teaching and may never walk again. He whole left side got paralyzed.
Through hard work, perseverance and with the help of a horse she proved the doctors wrong. It did not happen right away. Linda’s love for horses was put on hold for a long time after the stroke. All she could do was look out the windo and the magnificent animals. Her husband Gabe was willing to pay and take care of the horses just if she liked looking at them. What a perfect one of a kind husband. It was killing Linda to just watch the horses and finally agreed to start talking lessons at a therapeutic ridding center.
This is where what I have learned from being so close with linda ends and what my personal experiences with here were.
I met Linda when I was in seventh grade. She moved pretty slow and always walked with a cane. None of her horses have been worked so that’s where I came it. I did not have a horse of my own at this time so me and Linda were made for each other. I went to her barn every day after school and played with here horses. She would always be out there with me giving me pointers and enjoying being around the horses. The more and more she came out with me the more and more she wanted to ride her own horse. She would help me tack the horses up and brush them. I was continually encouraging her to ride KC. Finally she was up for the challenge. She tacked KC up by her self she is very well accomplished at finding ways to make things work for her. For example most people use two hands to pick out the horses hoofs. Well she doest have two good hands so she found a way around that. She used a bucket to rest KC’s hoof on so she could clean it out. KC was so god about it she didn’t care one bit. Most of the time when people put thing underneath a horse and they do not know what it is they flip out. Not KC and a lot of other quarter horses.
When it was time for her to get on Gabe pulled the truck into the field. From there Linda claimed onto the truck. I brought KC right next to the truck so Linda could slide on. It was so exciting to watch her ride she really did it well. KC was in a beautiful frame the two fit together perfectly.
The next thing I know Linda is on the horse at least two times a week and all the sudden I realize she’s running around with out using her cane. Looking back and thinking about the transformation is amazing. Horses are used in therapeutic ridding centers all the time. They have done so much for some many people. If Linda was to never get on KC I don’t know if she would be where she is today. It is said riding a horse at the walk has the same beat as humans walking on the ground. This helps people who cannot walk normal to get use to the fell and next think they know there walking normal as can be.
KC has been a great horse and I don’t know where Linda would be with out her.