Children Hope and Horses Peggy Dee's Story: Florida Nonprofit Equine Therapy For Children

Peggy Lee D's Story

If you can believe it... LeLe was a 4 year old pacer....bred to race.... who came from a very good line......yet, who was neglected to the point of abuse.

To cut to the chase...Laura, who has an uncanny ability to size up a horse... saw an even greater up-side potential in LeLe. She just had to
give this little girl a home and work with her.

What Laura saw was a much larger lesson in life for the children. A lesson with which they could personally identify.....
She felt that... if she could heal the physical lesions and the mental scars....
....(a big "IF") and ...if she could get some weight back on her and if she could begin to work her to rebuild some muscle on that emaciated frame...
It would be the beginning of an experience with which the kids could identify!

What Laura really saw was that 'certain something' that told her that it could lead to much, much more ......but, it was a gamble she was willing to take ! If she could get LeLe back in harness (another big mental and physical "IF"), and...if she could get her back to training ....training to do what she was bred for ...to race ... (an even bigger "IF") ..... it could have a phenominal impact on all the CH&H kids!

Laura's vision was for the the children to be able to watch that little abused and pitifully neglected mare transform before their very eyes. To watch a gutsy little mare ...work hard,....give it her best shot....and succeed.... !

What a MOTIVATOR that could be..... !

But, everyone told her she was "unrealistic" and a 'little nuts' to think that ....even if she could get all the physical issues turned around.... Miss Bones (as they were calling her) was probably beyond recovery, mentally...her spirit too broken... her
"winner's attitude devastated beyond recovery !

Laura, knowing it would take a 'ton' of love & TLC, was sure it was worth the effort...
So, after more 'hassle' than you would ever believe for such little amount of money... she found an investor-partner and brought LeLe home to introduce her to the kids.

Peggy Lee D may never be a CH&H Program horse, but, that made absolutely no difference.......because, the kids were watching her.
They could see her heal.......They could see her try!..........They could see her change.......They could see everyone pulling for her. And, they would see a mirror of themselves !

And ...after one, short. year .... this was what happened !

'Peggy Lee D' did it !..... She IS a WINNER ! (Can you believe that is the same horse that is in the first picture ???)

LeLe entered 4 races that winter..... and, she was 'in the money' in 3 of those four races. Only in the first one was she back in the pack, finishing 7th in a field of 9. From the beginning....it was all about "ATTITUDE" & "COURAGE"

Don't you love it ? There is Laura in the Winner's Circle, standing there, proudly holding on to her new champion role model, with a smile that told the world.... what she had just told LeLe moments before, "I knew you would !"

And, from the beginning..... from the time Laura found a person willing to back Laura's vision with just a few hundred bucks.....
everyone else donated their time, their equipment and their considerable energy so that "Miss Bones" could have a real shot at showing our kids the way to a new life.....she met them every step of the way....she never disappointed any of them.

Laura's vision was realized ! She made true believers of all the skeptics and nay-sayers !

Peggy Lee D showed the world what a true winner is made of. The gutsy little mare beat the long odds to become just exactly what Laura wanted her to be.....the heroine role- model for all the CH&H kids ! She led each one of them through a 'larger-than-life' experience that not one of them will ever forget.