How the tragic death of a Champion Reining Horse has given a hopeless horse hope.
February 16, 2009 was like any other day for Leslie Sawyer. Her reining horse Rock (Hard Rock Siemon) had a minor injury to his eye and she was trying to decide if she should take him to the vet. She shared the issue with friends on a popular horse forum and everyone agreed. Take him to the vet and have them flush it.
She drove to the vet and wondered if his injury would cause issues at the upcoming Pinto World. At worst case, Sawyer thought, he would lose the eye.
She was wrong.
Sawyer drove home with an empty trailer and her beloved Rock was gone.
Rock had a reaction to a medication incorrectly administered and the horror unfolded in front of her. Within 20 minutes he was gone. Sawyer is comforted that she was with him but the hole in her heart was unimaginable. "You don't take your horse to the vet when they have never been sick and come back with an empty halter." explained Sawyer.
In her grief she tried to decide what to do in Rock's name. "He was a two time Pinto Reserve World Champion so I thought of donating a trophy but then decided no one would really get what he meant to me" said Sawyer. "Then I thought of giving a trophy at a local club but they always had issues with people giving it back after they had it a year so I decided I did not like that either."
She was not sure how to memorialize her multiple reserve world champion reiner. He was not a household name - but he was incredibly important to her and she wanted to do something meaningful to make sense of his meaningless death.
