After listing Shiners Bright Spark for sale on a few different online sales sites, Preston received a call from Randy Bird from Texas. He told Preston that he was very interested in Sparky and that he would like to come try him out. Randy explained to Preston that he is paraplegic but still loved to ride. He even makes therapy and trophy saddles. He said he would work on planning a trip out to Utah with his therapy saddle to try Sparky out.Unfortunately we received another call from Randy a couple of days later explaining that his wife, Linda, has been having some hip pain and had recently gone to the doctor and found out that she will need a total hip replacement. He said that he still was very interested in Sparky but he didn’t want to commit to buying a horse right then for financial reasons. Randy was extremely nice and we were very impressed that he would even call us back and tell us that he wasn’t going to buy him.
We were disappointed that it wouldn’t work out with Randy but we knew Sparky was a nice horse and that we would eventually find another buyer for him. Two days after Randy called, Preston received a call from a friend of Randy’s. His name was Randy Saunders. He told Preston that Randy Bird is the pastor of their church and that he and a few other members of their congregation had heard about Randy’s desire to purchase Sparky. He said when they found out that Linda was having surgery and Randy decided he couldn’t buy Sparky, the congregation rallied together and combined their funds to buy Sparky for Randy. What incredible generosity and kindness! We were so surprised and excited about this! Randy Saunders explained that the Birds are amazing people and they wanted to help out. We were very happy to know that Sparky would be going to a wonderful home.
Linda and the congregation surprised Randy with Sparky on Christmas Eve. Randy said that Sparky walked right up to him and put his head in his lap. The entire congregation welcomed Sparky with lots of love. We are thrilled how everything worked out! Congratulations to Randy and Linda Bird on their purchase of Shiners Bright Spark!
