08/26/2023
I don’t even know where to begin this post… You came into our life in such an unexpected way, changed our lives in such an unexpected way… I guess it only fits you leave us in an unexpected way. 💔
Hank came to us to try because he was a miserable guy who made grumpy faces and wasn’t polite to his family when grain was around. The last part never changed much 😅. I never expected him to stay. Here he found what he loved… being people’s “firsts”. A few short weeks after he came, he became our first lesson horse. He taught kids how to post for the first time, how to canter for the first time, and brought plenty of people over their first jumps. He became many rider’s “first favorite”. But it wasn’t without his sass! If you told him what to do… he told you he didn’t like it. He taught many riders “ask first”.
He became a corner stone to the lesson program here and we didn’t have a lesson student that didn’t fall in love with him. (Though a few IHSA riders would tell you he had some attitude). This year, he was awarded Best Horse at IEA Regionals. Because, even with his grumpiest faces, he did his job wonderfully for those high school and middle schoolers.
For those of you who haven’t followed our Hank story recently, he had been battling heaves and pneumonia. (He won his battle with pneumonia!). We were organizing for his retirement, attempting to find replacements for him in our program when the unexpected hit. He told us it was time to let him go. Last night we had to make the devastating decision to euthanize him. While it was 100% the right call and an easy one to make, it doesn’t hurt any less. We are going to miss him more than words can explain. If anyone has any additional pictures of this guy, I’d love to see them .❤️🩹😭
