Here I Am, On My Way: It was a Fairy Tale: Part 1

Almost every little girl dreams of meeting their favorite princess. Every little kid dreams meeting their hero or favorite sports star. It's very seldom that they get to meet all three of them in one day and it's even more seldom that all of these things are wrapped up into one living creature. I got the chance to meet my favorite Princess, my hero, and my favorite sport star on October 10^th this year: Princess of Sylmar.

For those of you who don't know the story of how I fell in love with the champion mare this is a short recap: I have a form of Muscular Dystrophy (MD) called Charcot Marie Tooth, or CMT for short. CMT affects the nerves in my hands and legs causing weakness and sometimes a great amount of pain. Most days I wear leg braces and on the not so good days I use my wheelchair. To me, my disability isn't anything new since I was diagnosed when I was younger, but in 2013 my cycles of pain were more frequent and more extreme, leaving me unable to move on my own and often times very sick.

The day that I first saw Princess I had left school early because my legs were in another cycle of fatigue. I was resting upstairs when I got a text from one of my friends, an avid horse racing fan as well, asking me to watch the 2013 Kentucky Oaks for her and let her know who won. At the time I wasn't a huge racing fan. I was the kind who only watches the big races when they're on TV since I didn't know anything at all, but I agreed because I was curious. I was just in time to watch the post parade when I noticed the gorgeous filly, whose name was Princess of Sylmar. The first thing I noticed was how beautiful she was--absolutely gorgeous! The second thing I noticed was the jockey who was riding, Mike Smith, who was the first jockey I had ever seen race before. I had watched as he won on Zenyatta in her first Breeder's Cup win. I decided to place my imaginary bet on Princess, because I thought she was awfully beautifully and she was the longshot. I focused on her from the time the gate opened to the moment I saw she was powering down the stretch to win. I was impressed. But didn't think much about her a couple days after the race, that is until she was running in the Alabama Stakes.

I saw that race by pure chance. At a hotel and flipping through the channels I heard a familiar name being called out on my screen. Princess of Sylmar. She won that race too, that's when I knew I needed to learn more about her. When I got home I did research like I was a scouting agent and by that evening I had set up a fan page on Facebook. Every time Princess ran I made sure I had some way of finding out how she did. I would check Twitter every morning to make sure that she was healthy and happy and after every race my first thought was to check to see if she came out of the race in one piece. Fast forward to the end of the year, my page had bloomed with the help of great friends sharing it and the awesome fans that had soon became friends of mine. I had the chance to talk with Ed Stanco and other members of his family through Twitter and my page and soon I felt like I was apart of Princess's inner circle.

Princess of Sylmar came to the scene when I needed something positive in my life and she became the positive influence that I needed in the nights when I couldn't sleep because my pain was too great or I was up again with throwing up because my body was so tense. She had a way of presenting herself that made her great to watch. She was so calm off the track but as soon as she set foot on the dirt she became a queen. When she didn't win the Eclipse Award, I was upset, but to me she was a Champion with or without the official title. I did my best to raise money to watch her run but by the time I raised enough by selling bracelets she had been retired. While I was glad she was retired in perfect condition I wondered if I would ever get the chance to meet the racehorse that changed my life.

So I messaged Ed Stanco over twitter and asked him where she would be residing until the Fasig-Tipton sale in November and asked if there was a way I could go to meet her. When he replied and told me she was in Kentucky (a 900 mile drive from my home in Texas) I was over the moon with excitement. That night my parent's had agreed that I could meet her in a few weeks. That night I cried myself to sleep with happy tears.

In the days to come we began planning where and what we would be doing during my 3 day stay in Kentucky. We knew that we would want to go visit Keeneland, the first race track I would ever visit, and I also knew that I would want to visit Ashford to see Majestic Warrior (sire to Princess of Sylmar).

Amidst all the planning we discovered that almost every hotel within the area was booked for the days we were going to be in Kentucky, but when Adrian Wallace, nomination sales at Ashford, heard about our struggle to find a place he offered us the guest house on the farm free of charge, making our many blessings overflow! Our plans very quickly formulated and before we knew it we were packing for Kentucky: We would leave Texas on Wednesday (the 9th) afternoon after school and stop in Arkansas on that night, then Thursday we would drive all the way to Kentucky to Ashford where we'd be staying. Friday was the day we'd see the horses at the Ashford farm and after lunch at TaylorMade, Hunter Houlihan (farm account manager) had arranged for me to finally meet the Princess. And along the way we got a call from Winstar inviting us to visit them! I had never thought in a million years that I would have a farm calling and asking for me to come visit them.

The drive was eighteen hours long broken up into 2 days. I didn't mind a single moment of seeing the trees that were changing colors or the beautiful hills, or the wide open sky. I only started to mind the scenery when we were about 20 minutes away from our destination! That overwhelming, antsy feeling of excitement and claustrophobia that seemed so strong I felt like I was going to burst if I didn't get out of our car in front of Ashford Stud right then and there!

Well those 20 minutes, eventually passed, and by late Thursday evening (sorry about that Adrian.....) we were all set up in the most beautiful guest house I had ever seen in my life. We had food provided for us for our breakfasts and beautiful rooms ready. Needless to say that night I had a very hard time falling asleep as I thought of all the things I would be doing the next day and all the memories that I would be making. I was up on Friday at 8:30 ready for the day to begin and as I waited anxiously for my mom to finish getting ready I stepped outside and for the first time took in the surroundings of my home for the next couple days. Acres and acres of green pastures, beautifully built buildings and barns, the sweet smell of wet grass, the brisk air, and the distant sounds of horses. By 9:30 we had started the tour of the farm, a personal tour give to us by Adrian Wallace:

First we drove up to the yearling barn to see a horse with a lot of promise, or so Adrian said, as he was keeping the yearling's bloodlines a surprise. As we walked into the barn, actually every barn we went to, we were greeted by some of the nicest workers who were more then happy to show me around. Then they brought out one of the biggest yearlings I had seen. He looked familiar in coloring and stature but I couldn't put my finger on it. Curiously I looked to Adrian for the answer: I learned that he was Zenyatta's full brother. I was speechless. He's was a big colt for being so young and well built with similar color to his sister and very well mannered. Even without a name he had a big personality and knew he was something special.

After a picture and the chance to pet him we moved on to the broodmares when I got to see the famous mare Take Charge Lady, the mother to Take Charge Indy and Will Take Charge, who was very curious about my service dog. She was a beautiful mare with the gentle eyes of a woman who was quite used to being spoiled.

We also got to see a couple of the weanlings and then we moved on to the three stallions that were at the farm, (the others were in South America and over in Europe for breeding but would return later): Giant's Causeway, Thunder Gulch, and the one I was most excited to see, Majestic Warrior. How would I describe him? Simple: tall, dark, and handsome! Now I haven't seen many stallions up close and personal but I can honestly say, without a doubt, that Majestic Warrior is flat out gorgeous. And he was as well mannered as he was good looking. All of the stallions were tolerant of my tentative touch and awestruck demeanor. We took tons of pictures and a video of Majestic Warrior's stride and before we knew it the time had flown by and it was time for the main event of the day: lunch at TaylorMade and meeting the Princess.

Me with Giant's Causeway