I’ve owned my one-and-only, once-in-a-life-time horse, Happy Go Lucky, for almost 10 years now, but I remember the moment we bought him like it was yesterday.

My dad and I had driven to Mason City, Iowa, about two hours from our home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, because my trainer, Leah Horrigan, wanted us to try a horse. I was 12 years old at the time, and we had been looking for a suitable partner for me for months. We needed a horse that could carry me in my first hunter classes out of the ponies, but also a horse who wouldn’t break the bank.