Found on Facebook @ Sixteen Hands
This is Mahala Ludlam on her trusty steed Dusty. Mahala is a very special little girl in our horse family. She is 7 years old and has down syndrome. She has done many things that the doctors told her parents she would never do, including riding horses indepandantly!! Her mother and father have proved EVERYONE wrong! Her parents took this pony in after another child could not ride him, Mahala and D&amp;#8230;
usty now have a bond that can not be broken! He takes the utmost care of this precious child, always careful of where he takes her and the speed that he goes!! Dusty and Mahala have sored to the top of our local saddle club bringing in a staggering 8 belt buckels for the year end awards! Barrel racing, tunnel race, potato race and arena race!! She has down sydrome and can ride, whats your excuse? :) Submitted By:Leni GambleMahala saved this horse. We brought this horse to the ranch for another older child to try out as a barrel racing horse, but he had been turned out in a pasture for some time and the owner did not realize it, but in that time, he had developed the beginning stages of Ringbone, a crippling bone disease, that in uncurable. MOST of these horses are humanely put down. We took him and put him on meds to see if we could give him some comfort. Well&amp;#8230;.one day, I just sat Mahala up on him while I was doing a lesson for another child and when I looked around, Mahala was TROTTING the barrel pattern with him. He never limped, although his strides are a little shorter, he doesn&amp;#8217;t seem to be uncomfortable at all&amp;#8230;.and with her being small THAT was a better fit for him. They were soon loping ..then runnning. He has our complete confidence and she has no fear at all of him. We joined outr local saddle club and the rest is HISTORY. SO..From Mahala Ludlam to Dr. Brown and all the others at SEMC&amp;#8230;.&amp;#8221;How do you like me now???!!!&amp;#8221;&nbsp;
