2. Bella Comes Home

My step-mother Arlene, my brother Mark and I all piled into his pickup truck with his girl friend's borrowed trailer in tow and headed for Canyon City where Bella was being trained.  Although I had made an appointment the details about the status of Bella were vague.  I had picked her out at an adoption event in Meeker and the BLM transported her to the prison.  At that point she was in the hands of the prisoners and the wild horse training program.  At that time, from what I understand, the methods they used were a bit more "rustic" than today.  All I knew was that she had been there 6 months, which is twice as long as she was supposed to be.  The man on the phone thought that she should be ready to take home, but he hadn't bothered to verify it. 

So, with some trepidation we arrived at the training area only to find that Bella was out on a trail ride.  The guard called them back in.  We waited on some bleachers while a group of prisoners from the program gathered behind us and began to talk.  After a few moments I realized they were talking about Bella.  They said she had aborted her foal a few weeks earlier. I hadn't realized that she was even pregnant!  They also told me that the prisoner assigned to train her had been removed from the program for drug use. 

When the prisoner rode her into the pen and removed her saddle and blanket, I could hardly believe it was the same horse I had adopted.  With her photo in hand I studied her features and then compared them to the horse in front of me.  She was a different color, her coat was rough and dirty, she had lost a lot of weight.  She looked horrendous!  I was stunned and saddened.  My only thought was that I had to get her out of there that day.




Bella the day I adopted her in Meeker: Fat and Sassy!  She was fat and shiny after coming off the range



Bella more than 6 months after adoption and a few weeks after I got her home from Canyon City.  Her coat
 was still very dull and she had sores on her hips.  If you look closely, you can see her ribs.

The BLM representative, Brian, suggested that I leave her there because her training wasn't finished.  She had fallen through the cracks and due to some problems with the person training her, she wasn't ready to leave.  Yes, she had aborted her foal but they had not called a vet, had not called me, and had no idea why other than horses under stress tend to lose foals.  I was livid, but focused on Bella.  I told him that I didn't care about the money I spent, I had already spent more money to get down here to pick her up and she was coming home with me TODAY.  He acquiesced, finally, and we loaded her quite easily into the trailer.  This will be important later in the story...  Let me say it again:  she loaded easily and quickly right into the trailer!

                          Here she is, IN the trailer coming from Canyon City to her new home.

Once home Bella proved to be extremely skittish and afraid of everything.  She wouldn't leave her pen once she became comfortable there.  Her tail was matted with dried afterbirth and mud clung to her coat.  Once she would let me get close to her I cried into her neck.  I felt so guilty for sending her there and putting her through all that.  For the record, no one had known she was pregnant at the time of adoption, but I couldn't forgive them for not letting me know she had aborted and giving me the option to have a vet look at her. 

Suddenly, there we were, Bella and I.  Neither of us knew anything, both of us full of fear.  But this was my first horse and I wouldn't give up on her or on myself. I would have to do the training that had not been finished at Canyon City. At that moment a horse trainer was born - there was no looking back.