"She stood there looking at me the whole time, ears back and unsure but super brave and still": A four-year journey of patience and trust culminates in a life-saving moment as a horse, once terrified of the world, finds her courage in her rider

Author image for Laurent Shinar
Laurent Shinar • Writer and Editor
Aug 10, 2025 4:00 PM EDT

Whether you are a horse rider, owner, or simply someone who has watched all those 90s horse movies, you likely have a deep appreciation for the complexity and depth that horses have. They are not merely an animal that operates on instinct, for they are completely conscious. And it seems that much of that consciousness is based around trust, which is hard to develop with horses, and even harder to maintain.

But when one woman wanted nothing more than to have a horse to call her own, she was initially lumbered with the misunderstood and untrusting horse that no one wanted. But that did not stop her for a second from falling in love and devoting all the power she had to rehabilitate the love of her life. This is the tale of a humble horse and his rider. This is the story of regained trust. This is the story that made you think twice about adopting a horse…
 

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to start your Caturday with the funniest felines on the internet!

Advertisement
  • 01
    Little back story on this horse to show why this situation really was special:
    via HorsesRcoolz
  • 02
    When I bought my horse 4 years ago, she was a big reactor. I had paid $500 for her, as I was only 19 and couldn't afford anything else. And she definitely acted like they said she would. Anything
    via HorsesRcoolz
  • 03
    Cheezburger Image 10540473088
    via HorsesRcoolz
  • 04
    that made her even slightly nervous made her bolt, run through fences, run over people, hurt herself, etc. It was bad. It could take hours to get her to calm down.
    via HorsesRcoolz

  • Holy ghost of Seabiscuit, this sounds like one heck of a hard horse to handle. What an undertaking, if anything it sounds like our brave adopter should have been paid to take on this humungous horse project. But such is the nature of good souls, they do not do what they do for their own gain.

  • 05
    She just generally seemed to not be happy about life. Considering her previous owner told me she spent the first 10 years of her life confined to a stall with little to no turnout or interaction, I wasn't surprised. She was
    via HorsesRcoolz
  • 06
    scared of this entire world. Anytime I would take her anywhere, even in the wintertime, she would be dripping with sweat. I remember being so infinitely jealous of the people who were confident in their horse and could go anywhere
    via HorsesRcoolz
  • 07
    Cheezburger Image 10540472576
    via HorsesRcoolz
  • 08
    and do anything. I couldn't seem to take her anywhere without her accidentally hurting me.
    via HorsesRcoolz
  • 09
    For a long time it felt like I was making no progress. I was working with her all the time. Taking her places, introducing her to new things and the success was definitely not linear. Some days were
    via HorsesRcoolz
  • 10
    better than others and it was hard to not give up on the bad ones. Over lots of time, her reactions got less and less severe until she stopped reacting and instead was curious about new things. She
    via HorsesRcoolz
  • 11
    stopped her nervous sweating, she started looking to me for comfort and bravery, and from there she just simply bloomed. We've now done so many hours of mountain trails, trailering to new places, gathering cattle, even show jumping
    via HorsesRcoolz
  • 12
    Cheezburger Image 10540473600
    via HorsesRcoolz
  • 13
    courses, and loads n loads of groundwork. I bought her at 12 and she's now around 16. It breaks my heart to know a good horse was just hiding in there somewhere, being wasted and left alone all those years.
    via HorsesRcoolz

  • Wow, what a wonderful transformation. Sure it took a matter of a good few years to get there, but the point is that ultimately they got there and the reward is oh so much sweeter when you have put in the time and effort. This is one of the many examples of why you should never give up on an adopted animal.

  • 14
    Well yesterday it was all put to the test when I was riding her in a new field, the grass was high and in parts, it was difficult to see the ground. We had rode along for about an hour at that point, checking on the pivots.
    via HorsesRcoolz
  • 15
    We had started to head back for home, when she suddenly stopped. I didn't understand why she had stopped, until I looked down and saw her legs. Peaking above the grass, I could see a small glimpse of barbed wire. I thought
    via HorsesRcoolz
  • 16
    Cheezburger Image 10540472832
    via HorsesRcoolz
  • 17
    "Oh t". Anyone who's had horses long enough knows the first thing you think is how quick things can go wrong from there. got off real slow, talking to her to keep her calm. She just stood there as I gently pushed the grass around and saw this really
    via HorsesRcoolz
  • 18
    long loose strand of barbed wire tangled around 3 of her legs! Slowly and carefully I was able to remove all of the wire from her legs. She stood there looking at me the whole time, ears back and unsure but super brave and still.
    via HorsesRcoolz
  • 19
    Once we were all clear and everyone was safe all I could think about was how incredible she is. How hard I had worked to get our relationship to the point where she trusted me to pull this scary thing off her leg that was hurting and
    via HorsesRcoolz
  • 20
    G
    via HorsesRcoolz
  • 21
    restrictive. All in a new field she had never seen before. Just a few years ago, she would have bolted and damaged her legs beyond repair, probably hurting me too in the process. Instead, not a drop of b! d was shed from either of us.
    via HorsesRcoolz
  • 22
    Has anyone else ever had a moment where they finally realize all their hard work on a "problem" horse finally paid off? It's definitely euphoric and makes me entirely grateful for my journey with this mare. She's worth her weight in gold.
    via HorsesRcoolz

Check out our Instagram for more hilarious animal content!

Love our stuff? Shop for some of our pawsome merch here.

Tags

world ride life saver brave journey Terrifying animal stories ears courage patience reddit story years back still trust horse
Scroll Down For The Next Article