Scooter

The smartest horse we have at Miracles is a standardbred named Scooter. Originally trained to be a police crowd control horse, he never made it out of the boot camp stage.

My guess is it's because he's just too fucking weird to be a police horse. He does this thing where he exaggerates his bends making it difficult to steer and, more importantly, is incredibly irritating.

Anyway, what is actually significant about Scooter is he is currently the lowest horse in the heard pecking order. Scooter is a social loser. Think:

Seriously though, Scooter's only friend is a fiberglass life-size horse sculpture named Skywalker that he whinnies to and flirts with every time he sees her. The real horses kick and bite him.

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One of the students that rides with us looks like a girl. He is a little bit chubby, has a pretty face with freckles, and long curly auburn hair. The first time I met him he told me "I'm Tommy... I'm not a girl."

Normally my first response would be, well, what the hell is wrong with being a girl? But clearly, this is a serious issue for the kid and I don't think twelve year olds with emotional disabilities really share my brand humor.

Well, today Tommy and I were working with Scooter. Now last week it seems somebody told Tommy about Scooter's problems with the other horses. So while the other four (real) girls were crowding in with brushes and combs, poking and pulling at Scooter's mane and tail, Tommy came up next to me, his own hair pulled into a long cascading ponytail. He leaned in close to Scooter's face.

"Scooter, I want you to know it doesn't matter what those other horses do to you. I don't want you to let it get to you. You're better than that. Most important, though, I want you to know you will always, always have somebody you can talk to."

After the ride he leaned down and patted Scooter's shoulder. "Scooter, I am proud of you. No matter what anybody else says, I'm proud of what you did today... OK?"


All of this just really makes me wonder why don't the parents just cut the kid's damn hair?