My fairy tale...except it’s true, part 4

For those of you joining this story in progress and wanting to catch up, click here for part 1, part 2 and part 3.

We join Rancher-woman as she has moved to a ranchette east of Albuquerque and discovered her raison d’etre - scooping horse poop.

Caring for two horses, two dogs, two goats, one pig, three cats, and three chickens was enough to keep Rancher-woman busy, but she still had a little energy to burn. So when she heard about an equine rescue and rehabilitation ranch opening up nearby, she had to check it out and see if she could lend a hand. Thus began a three-year tour at Walkin N Circles Ranch/New Mexico Horse Rescue.

Here was a chance to help care for 15 horses...then 20...then 30...and by the time she moved away to the 7MSN, 50! She went to the rescue ranch three times a week after she finished her paying job, to feed, doctor, and help do whatever needed doin’. And she spent most weekends there, too, after she was done working her own horses. She trained new volunteers, helped fund-raise, produced the annual calendar, served on the board, and scooped more poop, gave more shots, and dewormed more horses in three years than most horsekeepers will in a lifetime. And boy did she learn.

The residents all arrived with unique stories and issues - many of them physical, but a lot of them behavioral. She immersed herself in this environment and thrived in it, caring for the rescued horses as if they were own. As much as she gave to the rescue ranch, the horses gave her back a million times more. She remembers every horse she ever met there - their names, their stories, their ailments, their quirks. The other volunteers...she just remembers their quirks.

Forrest and Tarzan


Star and Cody


Chief, a retired Percheron from the Albuquerque Police Dept. mounted patrol


Four White Horses


Cowboy


Faith, one of three PMU mares that Rancher-woman helped bring to the ranch from Canada, and her foal Calvin


Joe


During the spring of 2004, the stucco began to fall off her house. Strange how such a bizarre little problem could snowball into a life-changing experience, but it did. As she was having it repaired, she got to thinking I should just sell this place. Combined with neighbors who were making her crazy, rumors of a Walmart being built one town over, and a steady stream of city-folks invading her once-quiet existence, it took about two seconds to go from thinking about selling to looking for land. She thought if she could find a hundred acres and build a house right in the middle of it, she would have the solitude she craved and her horses could live like horses.

She spent the summer looking at land, ruling out everything she saw for one reason or another. Then a realtor told her about this cattle rancher who was selling off some parcels at the corner of his land. It was accessible by “a good county road,” she said. It looked promising, until they actually went down the “good county road.” Rancher-woman remembers saying “are you freakin’ out of your mind?” as they went under the railroad trestle, into the muddy arroyo, through the herd of cows. Once they finally got there, the land was exactly what she’d been looking for. And the rest is history.

When people would ask her where this land was, since there wasn’t any town or landmark nearby, the only way she could explain it was, “Well, it’s 7 miles south of nowhere.” The phrase stuck, and so began the creation of the 7MSN Ranch. Designing it kept her busy through that winter. Finding a lender willing to finance construction in the middle of nowhere proved nearly impossible but she prevailed. She survived the stress of getting it built and moved in 11 months after she found the land.

That was two and a half years ago. She’s been living happily ever after ever since, and she can’t imagine a more perfect existence.

The end.