A woman enters a large barn with her husband. They peer around, as if searching for something. Another woman emerges from outside. "Welcome!" she says brightly and breathlessly, like she had been running up stairs. "You must be here to see Dancer. I'm Mary. Let me go get her for you, it will take me just a minute." She is middle aged, with a kind face and she disappears as quickly as she came. The visitors stand quietly, taking in everything. The barn is a beautiful two level structure, with that newly-built smell. It's an overcast September day, a bit dreary, and damp in Newville, PA. There is a sound of hoofs clacking on a cement walk and then Mary is back, with the beautiful bay mare. The horse's head is high in the air and the whites of her eyes are showing. Her mane is dark and a little disheveled from when the halter went over her head. She is doing a sort of dance-prance in place. "She doesn''t like being away from the rest of the gang," the woman says-nodding her head to the paddock adjoining the barn. Through the window, two geldings are waiting anxiously outside, pacing back and forth. Dancer let's out a whinny to her partners. They reply in unison.
"I got her for my grandchildren,"Mary begins. "She is a very sweet girl. But, I think she's too much for me at my age to deal with,"she says, as Dancer steps back and jerks Mary's arm with her. "I'm going to put her in a stall and you can look her over." She walks Dancer over to a big airy stall with dutch doors and unhooks the lead rope. Dancer wheels around and goes to the window to peer at her friends. She nervously circles, stopping each time at the window and to whinny. Mary chuckles. "I suppose she is a bit herd bound,"she offers and then adds,"Oh, and I've noticed she's pretty head shy. I can't seem to get a bridle on her. I've had my neighbors across the street come over to see if they would have any luck; they breed Tennessee Walkers and have a lot of experience with horses. We think she may have a problem with her teeth." The visiting couple moves into the stall with the mare to look her over. She is gorgeous, standing at about 15.3 hands and appears to be in fantastic shape, with a gleaming dark brown coat and beautiful full black mane and tail. She is just seven years old, and had been recently racing somewhere in New York. The story goes that a woman in the area sought out retired racehorses from the tracks there and promised owners and trainers that these horses would end up in good homes. Little did they know the fate these poor animals would encounter. They were brought to a livestock auction in PA where animals are sold primarily for meat. Jo Deibel and her organization, Angel Acres, rescued Dancer from a fate too horrible to mention. Jo and her team then spent many hours retraining Dancer (as Angel Acres does with all the horses in their care) and eventually placed her as a police horse in the D.C. Park Police program. They decided shortly thereafter that Dancer's build was too slight for the men on the force and she also wasn't fond of traffic, so she was again back on the market for a new home. Enter Mary, who had been working at the Department of the Interior and was just getting ready to retire. She had mentioned she was looking for a horse for her grand kids to ride when they were visiting her farm. The Park Police often give away horses to good homes that don't make the cut in their program, and Mary took advantage of this. Fast forward to the couple in Mary's barn: The female guest went up to the horse, took the halter firmly and asked her to stand. The animal immediately responded and stopped, regarding this woman for a brief second who was standing before her. For a moment, a look of calm washed over the equine's face, but it was gone just as quickly as it had come, and Dancer started fidgeting again. The husband turned to his wife and said, "She comes by her name honestly, doesn't she? Quiet a handful, don't you think?"
The woman replied in a breathless voice, full of awe. "She's beautiful," she replied. And, with a gleam in her eye, she turned to her husband and said with conviction, "I want her!"
And so, the story begins....
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