Soon after we moved to Missouri, we bought a four year old quarter horse gelding named Bo. Bo had a beautiful grey dapple coat and was a "gentle giant" standing over 16 hands tall. Bo was well broke so riding him was a breeze. Bo was also very playful and inquisitive and would often pick up my tools and carry them off somewhere as I worked on our fence. It didn't take very long for both my wife and I to fall in love with good old Bo. A couple years later my wife and I decided to start breeding Missouri Fox Trotters as we both loved riding Fox Trotters because of their smooth natural gait. We therefore decided to put Bo up for sale and one day a couple from a nearby town came to see him. They both seemed very nice and the man explained that although his wife had little experience with horses that he had owned horses all his life and we felt comfortable that Bo would be going to good home. So we sold Bo the next day and it was so difficult for me to sell Bo that I opted not to be there when the couple came to pick him up.

Several years went by and we would call the folks that bought Bo from time to time just to check on how he was doing. On one such phone call, we became concerned as the woman told us she had become afraid of Bo and that he had foundered. Although we had absolutely no business bringing another horse into our already crowded ranch, we couldn't stand the idea of Bo being abused or neglected so we drove out to see how Bo was doing. Our worst fears were realized when we saw Bo as he'd been allowed to founder very badly. The bottom line is that this couple had abused Bo by severe neglect and we immediately decided we would bring Bo back to our ranch.

Over the next 11 months we did anything and everything we possibly could to save Bo's life including:

• Purchased special rubber boots to keep his hooves dry.
• Constructed our own padded boots (per our farrier's instructions) to relieve his pain
• Never let him out to pasture and purchased quality hay for him to eat
• Took Bo for walks to give him exercise
• Had two different vets see Bo to give advice and take X-Rays of his hooves
• Under vet supervision, dropped his weight by over 150 pounds
• Had the very best farrier in our area come and treat Bo's hooves every two weeks
• Gave Bo Bute and Biotin to relieve his pain and stimulate healthy hoof growth
• Massaged Bo's legs regularly to increase blood flow

However, despite our very best efforts, Bo's front hooves continued to deteriorate and abscessed repeatedly. Essentially his hooves rotted from the inside out. It got to the point where Bo laid down most of the day except to eat and was in very obvious agony. So, after nearly a year back at our ranch, we made the very painful decision to have Bo humanely put down as there was no chance of recovery and we could not stand to see him suffer any longer. What made this decision even more painful was that all local facilities that dispose of horse carcasses had closed and the only legal and cost effective means we had to dispose of poor old Bo was take him deep out into the woods of our property. When the sad day finally arrived, we gave Bo lots of grain and love and over the course of several hours we strolled back deeper and deeper into our woods. When the vet finally arrived, I led him back to where Bo was eating happily in the woods. He gave Bo a quick and painless shot of a vile blue colored liquid and it was all over in a matter of seconds. Bo continues to rest out in our woods to this very day though my wife and I have never since summoned the will to go out there.

The painful lesson we learned from this experience was that we always need to go the extra mile to double verify the "horse worthiness" of each and every new owner of one of our horses whether the horse is purchased or won in our Free Fox Trotter contest. We could not bear to ever again allow what happened to poor old Bo happen to another of our horses. This was our promise to Bo. So, we very much hope that all the finalists in the WikiHorseWorld.com Free Fox Trotter Contest will be patient and understanding when we contact you and ask for some evidence of the facilities where you plan to keep the horse and your ability to take proper care of the horse. After watching Bo suffer for nearly a year, we have no choice but to insist that our horses only be awarded to very good homes.