Many of my great memories were made when I was younger. I was 4 when I got my first horse. It was my dads idea and I still feel it was his best idea ever! My first horse was Trigger. He was a palomino morgan pony cross. He wasn't all that short but he really wasn't tall either. I rode him, till I was about 13 years old then I switched to the horse I have now and my sister was the only one riding him till one of my brothers took interest in riding this past summer. Well times are getting tough and my parents told us we had a choice as to what two horses we would keep and what two had to go. We all said Taylor had to go because he was trained in a discipline we didn't know how to ride in and so we didn't get to ride him very often. Then it was the hard decision, was it going to be Buddy, King or Trigger? Well I wanted Buddy because that's who I was riding and I wanted Trigger because I had had him for 11 years and he was part of my life, but my sister wanted King because she had been doing a lot more riding on him then on trigger. We talked about it for a long time and finally I decided, because the only person who would be riding him here would be my brother who would only be able to ride him for another year or two and the little girl who wanted to buy him was like 7 and paying for him with money she had saved up, that we should sell Trigger.

The day the girl and her mom came out to look at Trigger was hard and I almost started crying even though they weren't sure they were going to get him, it was thought of not having him when I looked outside like he had been for 11 years. Finally they called and said that they were interested in buying him and they set up for a day to come and pick him up. The day they were to come and pick him up started just like any other day I went to school and stayed after to watch my sisters basketball game and my mom got there and said to me 'I hate to tell you this but today Nichole is coming to pick Trigger up' I almost started crying right there at the basketball game but I kept myself together thank God. My mom proceeded by telling me 'I want you to go home with Grandma,' who was just leaving the game 'so someone is there when they get there to pick him up just in case the game isn't over.' I said ok and left with my grandma who took me home.

I wasn't home for 2 minutes when they pulled in. I started crying and forced myself to stop. I walked outside and seen the little girl and the joy in her eyes when she seen him standing at the fence and it reminded me of the way I always felt when I was getting my horses ready for shows, it was very emotional. Here was a horse I had had longer then I had known most of my friends, a horse who had always known what was needed of him, and he was going some where else for the rest of his life. The girl went down to the pasture with me. I went in and got him and whispered in his ear 'be good for me please' then I handed him to her and she walked him to the trailer and gave him to her dad to load and he got in and they shut the door. I wouldn't look at the trailer because I knew if I did I would start to ball and it would be the end of keeping my cool. The guy gave me the money and he and his daughter climbed in the truck and I forced myslef to look at the trailer now that they were about to leave. I will say that was one of the hardest things I have done in a long time because the only thing I could see was the top of his head. His eyes and up that's it. I looked right into his eyes and whispered 'I'm sorry' and to this day I only see his black eyes looking at me from over the top of bar on the trailer. I ran inside and cried and called my mom and told her they had came and picked him up. She instantly started crying and when she pulled up my brother got out of the car just crying and he ran into the barn and I went in and all he was saying was 'I didn't even get to say bye.' over and over again. This made me cry even more, my 10 year old brother who is sensitive was crying just as hard as me and it was not an easy sight so I sat down with him and told him it would be alright and that we would see him again this summer at shows which is true but that didn't help any.

A couple weeks ago we were driving home from my brothers basketball game and my dads like how bout we go see where Trigger is living. we drove down the rode and there he was eating as he loves to do, its his favorite past time let me tell you. I immediately wanted to start crying but I didn't because my brothers were in the car and it would have made them start crying even though they already had tears in there eyes. We drove away and I started replaying memories I had of the 11 years we spent together and smiled at all of them and even started laughing out loud at a few and everyone just looked at me like ok'.haha. To this day I love Trigger ad cant explain the look, as they were pulling out of the driveway with him last fall, without crying. Even though I wan him back I know he is at a great home with people who love him, that was proved when I seen him 2 weeks ago. Those people really got a great horse.