She had been so degraded and repeatedly abused, that she had given up….almost as if she had a resolute understanding of what that hip number 565 really meant. She wouldn’t make eye contact, and she shifted her weight from foot to foot with the obvious discomfort of a woman standing miserably in the corner of a party in ill fitting heels that were both too high, and too tight. Her foal had been pulled of of her without ceremony, and certainly without empathy. Regardless of the aching hooves and pounding pulses, her body mass was large…promising to bring top dollar. Once we saw her, we weren’t about to leave her, and made it clear that we would out bid the kill buyers who eyed her with dollar signs in their otherwise soulless black eyes. We named her Pearl, and while we loved her instantly…it took her over a year to love us back. But then in her own time she softened, no longer felt the need to be guarded and defensive. Over the course of two years, like a bud slowly opening and blooming, she revealed herself to us, and slowly began to live again. On Mothers Day, her adopter reached out to thank us for saving her, this little Quarter Horse mare, who is now treasured and adored. Her adopter, Betty celebrated Pearls “birthday”, as the day that we rescued her four years ago, on Mothers Day. Pearls “birthday” was celebrated with a “mini spa day”, sunny turn out, red bucket of goodies, and the continuity of love that has become a daily routine in her second chance.