Happy (Bert's Happy Indian) February 3, 2000--October 3, 2011
Thank you Happy for all your steadiness, strength, and your huge, fun loving personality! There is such an emptyness at Beyond Boundaries without you! We love you and miss you! You were an awesome friend and therapy horse to many.
11-year old black paint gelding. Happy is also our comic; we have even caught him in the therapy cabinet! Happy was used for ranch work and team roping before coming to our center. Happy takes breaks from roping to help us out with some of our bigger riders. He is very calm and is loved for his steadiness and strength. He loves the kids, attention, and being an OT assistant.
On lease from: Jamie Carman Reagan and Joel Reagan
Happy's Story by: Jamie Carman-Reagan
Sire: Indian Bert Money
Dam: Sugar Free Sprite
Happy’s bloodlines go back to foundation bred quarter horses like Oklahoma Star, Bert, King and Three Bars to name a few, these horses were well known for their trainability, athleticism and versatility. Happy lived up to his ancestors, in so many ways, some words to describe him are: a gentle giant, steady, fun loving, easy going, comical, a dear friend, therapy horse, ranch rodeo horse, team roping horse. There are not enough words to describe what a great horse he was!
Happy was bought for my husband Joel for a Valentines present to be used as a ranch rodeo and team roping horse, but one summer we needed a steady horse for our larger Beyond Boundaries riders and we borrowed him from Joel.
Happy loved the interaction with all the riders he had at Beyond Boundaries and was always trying to lead the sessions, by being a therapy assistant, there were many times he would stop at points in the arena, like the basketball goal just to encourage the therapist to move the session along, LOL! We could put any rider on him big or small and know he would take care of them. He was also the King of our Beyond Boundaries horse herd, and kept all the other horses in line; I have seen in the other horses a sadness that he is gone.
Happy also liked to have a change of scenery and go hang out with my husband and I at the roping pen, ranch rodeos and in Nebraska. We go to Nebraska every year for vacation and to help our friends that own a large ranch there with the branding. Brandings involve, gathering cattle, branding calves, vaccinating the calves, and hanging out and having a good time with neighbors and friends. Joel often times would take a young colt to ride while we were in Nebraska and I would be fortunate enough to get to ride Happy, being around Happy every day at Beyond Boundaries and seeing him and our riders interact and sharing one of my favorite places, Nebraska with Happy, made us fast friends and as the years went on I just loved him more and more. If you have animals you know what I mean, some of them have one person, I like to think I was Happy’s person because we seemed to know each other so well, when he looked at me it was like he could see into my soul and I felt like we were one and the same. Happy and I loved to race after cattle over the sand hills of Nebraska it was the best feeling in the world to ride him over those hills, he loved it out there and you could tell by the amount of speed and energy he would show, we all know he rarely did that in the therapy arena!!
Happy passed away after a twenty-three day struggle with a neurological disease, I was fortunate to spend these days with him and also heart broken that I couldn’t save him. His regular vet and the neurologist at OSU vet school, after extensive testing could not come up with a solid diagnosis. I have been in the veterinary field for many years myself and though I gave it my all with hand feeding and following the veterinarian’s treatment protocols, it was not meant to be. The not knowing and that he was so young and irreplaceable is what is so hard, I think of him every day. I have been very fortunate to have horses in my life since birth and have loved them all, but Happy was my horse and seemed to know me better than I knew myself, through the deep sadness that I have for losing him he also gives me inspiration to be happy, fun loving and live life to the fullest in all I do, that’s how Happy did it!