The story of Riley & Maui

Maui is such a special horse to me… I genuinely don’t even know where to begin. I’ve always owned horses. Since I was 5, I have had one in my backyard to go out and love on. When my parents lost our house when I was in high school, it meant I lost my horses too. Shortly after I graduated, I found Maui at a barn I was working at. He was an absolute fire breathing dragon! No one else wanted to ride him and even handling him was a chore. I remember once when my other friend that worked at the barn was turning him out, he reared up catching her in the back.

Growing up with my horses in my backyard really gave me quite a different understanding of body language, expressions and the feelings of horses. I was around them every day, all the time, they were my only friends as an only child. Maui wasn’t rank or trying to be mean to me, he was wildly expressive and had such GRIT. He wanted someone to be his teammate that he could respect. He didn’t want a bully or someone who he had to pack around. He wanted someone who would work just as hard to be the best that they could be as he was going to.

This horse gave me the entire world. He taught me so much about being misunderstood. He came into my life when I was struggling- I had just gotten clean after going through a lot of challenges in life. He was an anchor to my sanity. Maui was my escape from this cruel world that I struggled to cope with. He was the only one who listened and heard me, who didn’t judge me and who still gave me his all despite my shortcomings.

In 2015 I broke my neck coming off him. I did get back on him when I healed, and we continued training. That summer I had applied to Florida State University, and I was accepted!! I wasn’t going to be able to bring him with me, so I made the heartbreaking decision to put him up for sale.

We were currently boarding at a trainer's barn that I had ridden with growing up. I was working there at the time giving lessons as well as doing general care for the horses. The owner's had just suffered a major family loss, and I wanted to help as I recognized the care of the animals had started to lack.

When I put him up for sale, she had said that one of her students wanted to buy him. I was fine with a student buying him, but since I knew, she was currently struggling to keep her head above water with the work load she had, I told her "I wouldn’t sell him to her."

As I was busy packing, getting ready to leave for Florida in a few days, my dad went to sign the contract for me. She had told him that the buyer’s info was blank because the student was at school and would be by after to fill the contract out. She had left cash so my dad (unsuspecting anything was amiss) signed it and left. She filled her name in when he left.

She owned him for almost a decade. For almost a decade he was severely mistreated and abused.

Then a miracle opportunity arose to buy him back. I had a friend reach out and see if she had any “dark thoroughbreds for sale” because her daughter’s dream was a black thoroughbred”. She sent information on Maui. My heart sank because I knew she was going to ask an enormous amount for him. She said she wanted $15k for him, I knew I couldn’t swing that. My friend countered back, and she came down to $10k.

I immediately called my dad crying, for the first time in all these years there was a chance to get him back. But my husband was in school full time and finances were tight. My dad immediately told me to go buy him, I could pay him back. Bless this man SO much, So I had a trainer friend meet with the current owner with a trailer, cash in hand and I told her, “Do not leave without Maui”!

Another friend had been around the barn over the years, and she informed me that Maui was lame on his RH intermittently. I figured he probably just needed injections or had a bad trim. He was lame when my friend went to “try” him & the owner insisted it was a stone bruise that was cleared by the vet.

When he came home and stepped off the trailer there wasn’t a dry eye on the property. It was the most glorious moment, and I will never forget it. He wrapped his neck around me and hugged me. When I took him home, he hugged me again and he didn’t let go as if to say, “thank you so much, I have missed you friend”. He knew he was safe.

We went to the vet that week to discover he had a bowed tendon on the leg he was off on. He had 90 days of rest and when I went to check in at 60 days, he was doing better. I checked again at 90 to realize he was way worse off, even though his leg was cold and tight.

I made an appointment with a specialist to see him. After watching him go for 30 seconds she knew what was wrong- she had been battling it with her horse too. His ligament in his stifle was done, his body was incapable of supporting him anymore. The neglect had finally caught up after he had time to decompress. The injury reared and showed its ugly head. The vet told me that it would only get worse- I was absolutely devastated. I had just gotten him back.

I made the hard choice after wrestling with my options for a week. He had given everyone whose life he was in SO much. He was in pain and three-legged, (literally) lame. He couldn’t run in the pasture anymore (one of his favorite activities) without hobbling on three legs. I knew it was time. I was so angry and bitter, but I knew what the kind thing to do was.

His last days were filled with pampering and all the extra treats he could want. Old friends came to see him and tell him goodbye. He fought all the way until his last breath, and then he was finally pain free and at peace. His body was no longer in pain. I find great comfort in knowing that he got to come home and be taken care of in his final days. He wasn’t used as a money-making machine anymore. No more being mistreated. He never missed a meal or a trim again, his teeth were done, and he was comfortable and loved even after he breathed his last breath.