In 2019, at 15 years old, I was considered a revolving door patient. I was in and out of hospitals for a slew of issues ranging from anorexia to self harm and even attempts on my own life. I had been to numerous hospitals, residential therapy programs, outpatient therapist, and nothing made a difference. I had no will to live and had completely given up. My own family didn’t think I would make it to 16.

After discharging from my latest residential program I found a sale ad for Rogue online. Seeing as I was 15; I didn’t have an ideal budget to go horse shopping. Lucky for me Rogue was an extremely green (un trained) 3 striker BLM Mustang which meant she was pretty cheap. If I’m being completely honest when I went to try Rogue our ride was a mess. It was obvious she needed a lot of work and so did I. But even though our ride was pretty rocky it was the first time in a really long time I felt truly happy again.

One week later, on September 9th 2019, Rogue came home. I’ve owned Rogue for almost 6 years now. For the first 4 she was almost completely unrideable, I’d fall off almost every ride, was told by trainers to sell her, euthanize her because she was dangerous, or send her back to the BLM. Nonetheless, even with all the bad rides I stuck with her, even when all we could do together was go for a hand walk, I promised she’d always be with me. 2 years ago we found the trainer who believed in us. Rogue and I now successfully show in the .60/.70 jumpers at the local circuits and she recently had a clean sweep for her Hunter debut.

Most importantly through these last 6 years with Rogue I’ve genuinely been happy. The residential program I left in 2019 was the last one I’ve ever been to. Rogue has done more for me than any treatment program and therapist could do. I’m now a week away from my 21st birthday and in school to become a nurse! At the risk of sounded cheesy; she saved my life. I can say with 100% certainty if she hadn’t come into my life I wouldn’t be here.

Unfortunately, Rogue has started experiencing seizure like episodes. Via CT scans she was diagnosed with spinal cord compression at C6-C7. This disease is inherently painful and will continue to progress to fatality if I do nothing. The surgeons and vets at the hospital indicated that if we do surgery we could stop progression, take her pain away, and she’d even have a really good chance at become rideable again.

I never thought I’d be here asking people for help but I can’t lose my horse. I can’t do this without her in my life and I don’t want her to suffer. The CT scans totaled at approx $7000 (invoice proof in pics) the surgery was estimated at approx 12-14k and the rehab facility is approximately 2.5k-3k a month. All said and done we sit at somewhere between 27,000 and 30,000 to save her.

My insurance will cover 15,000 but the rest would be out of pocket.

I’ve scheduled her surgery for August 25th but the debt will be crippling. Anything you could donate would mean the world. I can’t lose Rogue.