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When a cowboy gives an adopted horse a second chance, he uses his new gelding to wrangle unwanted horses, day-work and team rope.

For 11 years, Matt Petrey has volunteered his time helping the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Texas. He takes horses and cattle to his ranch in Wills Point, Texas, when the shelter is full, and feeds and cares for the at-risk animals. He believes that horses that wind up in shelters are valuable and capable mounts.

When a 13-year-old-bay gelding came in with a herd of
neglected horses, it caught Petrey’s eye.

“I’ve seen some pretty sad situations as far as recues go.
These seized horses were all underweight, but the gelding wasn’t the thinnest
one out of the group,” says Petrey. “He’s actually an easy keeper. He filled
out pretty good, and he’s big and fat now.”

Petrey also helps the SPCA evaluate horses under saddle once
their body condition improves. About a month after being rescued, Petrey
decided to adopt the gelding. Once “Bear,” as he came to be known, filled out, Petrey
says he could tell the gelding had been ridden before.

“I don’t know much about his background,” he says, “but I
figure he’d been a team roping horse and used in the arena. He didn’t have much
pasture experience, but now he does.”

Petrey tends to his own cattle and also day works, and he
uses Bear to rope and doctor. He also uses him in the sorting pens. The
reliable gelding is also his “daughter’s No. 1 rope horse.”

Petrey says folks ought to give adoptable horses a chance, and to use common sense when picking one to use as a working horse. Bear isn’t the first horse he’s adopted that he’s used to day-work with, and he says he certainly won’t be his last.

To learn more about the The Right Horse Initiative, and to submit your own successful adoption story, visit therighthorse.org.

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