The Santa Rosa Trickster

by Brandon Enyeart

Sometimes one story seems the same as any other: little girl begs for a horse every year for Christmas; one year she gets a Breyer horse, the next she gets a book about all the breeds in the world; the next perhaps a life-sized poster to hang up in her room. Then, finally, there is that one Christmas where everything comes together and the girl’s biggest wish comes true.

You've heard this story before, right? Maybe...but sometimes happy endings are just the beginning of the complex bond between a girl and her horse.

On a crisp winter morning in Santa Rosa, California, 13-year-old Suzy and her family set out to find her the horse of her dreams. No matter what she had been told, she wanted a baby. Everyone told her it would be harder to train and a lot more work, but Suzy didn’t care; she wanted a baby and was determined to make it work.

As she made her way out into the muddy pasture, her parents stayed behind and talked with the owner of the horses that were for sale. Suzy’s eyes immediately locked onto a fuzzy, jet black colt whose name at the time was Rupert.

When she approached the colt, the first thing he did was kick her in the shin. Hoping her parents hadn't seen it happen, she shrugged it off and immediately started to fall in love. After spending some time in the pasture, she made her way back to her parents. When asked if she was sure that she wanted the 5-month-old colt, her response was “Yes, he’s perfect!”

Rupert became Atticus, but the name change didn't alter the antics of the shin-kicking troublemaker, often referred to as “Dennis the Menace” by those who knew him. Even at a young age, Atticus was brave and brazen and would frequently snap crops in two, not caring if they were fancy $80 dressage whips. He and Suzy spent their time together playing games like hide-and-seek around the trees in his pasture, leading to a few small problems once he reached 1200 lbs. as an adult. A game of tag gets dangerous when your opponent is eight times your size!

Finally, Atticus' somewhat mischievous attitude lead to an ultimatum: one of the trainers at the stable Atticus called home told Suzy that he would either have to shape up or ship out.

Suzy's family found a professional trainer and sent Atticus to him to learn some manners. Suzy was too sad to watch her horse leave, so she said goodbye early that morning and wished for the best. Atticus started his new adventure off well by being nice and courteous as he entered the trailer...but by the time he had arrived at his temporary home, the inside of the trailer was nearly destroyed.

The next morning Suzy received a call from the trainer. Atticus had bucked the trainer off—which he had always done with everyone but Suzy—broken the trainer’s leg, squeezed underneath a 3-ft. fence, taught the other horses at the stable to open their stalls, and had gotten into the hay storage. Needless to say, his first few hours of boot camp hadn't quite gone as planned.

Things did get better, though, and Atticus did return to Suzy a little less naughty than he had been before.

Five years after that winter morning, Atticus has grown out of some of his youthful tricks, but old habits die hard. He now has a partner in crime: a big palomino draft named Nari who recently helped him push down a fence to visit neighboring longhorn cattle.

Despite—or maybe even partly because of—all this, Suzy loves Atticus as if he were the most well-behaved grand champion show horse. Maybe it is his good looks, or maybe it is just the unexplainable connection that grows when a young girl gets the horse of her dreams.