Gallery
About
Sugar
While Raven serves as the inspiration behind Ravenheart, it's Sugar who has consistently embodied our heart and soul.
In late November 2006, a few weeks or so after settling in to my new life in rural Saskatchewan, that I lovingly refer to as the “middle of now-here”, I was doing dishes and saw a police car (RCMP) pull up into my driveway. My first thought was “oh, he is here to check out if the new neighbour from Calgary is harbouring certain illegal substances in that big old barn”! I mean, at the time, who moved to Saskatchewan!
I went out to meet a tall, handsome, and very charming new neighbour. He lived as he said, “just over the way”, as he pointed across the fields to a farm in the distance. He said “welcome to the neighbourhood and did I need anything? And, I see you have a horse. We have horses too!” I said yes, I do need something. Raven, my horse who has just arrived from Calgary needs a friend. He responded with, “we have just the horse for you! Come on over for tea tomorrow afternoon and meet her.”
When I arrived the next day he walked us out to a big pasture, whistled, and this lovely young buckskin filly came out of the herd. He said her name was Frosted Brown Sugar and she was just a year and a half old. She came right to me and put her nose to my chest. I knew immediately she was coming home with me. Over a cup of tea in their kitchen, we made the plans to trailer her over on the weekend.
He arrived with Sugar along with his wife and young son on Saturday afternoon. Sugar backed carefully and calmly out of the trailer. We introduced her to Raven over the fence. After a little more time visiting over the fence, we took a chance and put Sugar in the paddock with Raven. It was simply love at first site. They played and danced and galloped around in what looked like pure glee. Watching from the kitchen window at their antics, the family exclaimed “she doesn’t even miss us!” After a few hours of visiting and learning all about Sugar, they got ready to leave and went to the fence to say goodbye. Sugar didn’t seem to notice, so enamoured she was with Raven. Yet, as they started the truck and drove down the long drive, Sugar left Raven and came to the fence. She watched the truck and trailer until she could no longer see it. I called them when they got home to let them know that she did know they had left and had intently watched until they were out of site.
A story they shared about Sugar was that when she was a baby, just four days old, she was kicked by a horse in her family herd and suffered a severe crushing of her face bones on the right side, just below her eye. This meant an emergency trip to the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon, which was an hour or so away, and another trip for a check-up. Her face was reconstructed and healed well, but left her with a torn tear duct and a bit of a lop-sided profile.
All of the early handling, care, and attention that she received may be why she is as sweet and loving as her name suggests. This was only the second horse I had ever owned and I really knew nothing of training a young horse, although she had been handled and trained in a gentle manner by the family that raised her. The smallest of children can lead her around safely. She knows when people need a little extra love and a hug. She is always the first at the gate when guests arrive. She is curious, playful, and as steady as rock, and on the other hand, can teach us about having good boundaries. She loves to pull our coat zippers up and down, take hats off your head, nuzzle your pockets for treats, pull the hay bale off the sleigh, knock tools over when fencing, and generally get her nose in to everything you are doing.
Sugar has also experienced a lot of loss in her time with our herd, starting with her beloved Raven in late 2011. She bonded tightly to Sarah after Raven passed away, to lose this good friend to colic a few years later, along with pony pals Willow and Lacey over the years. We are grateful that she has formed a strong and beautiful bond with our boy Jasper, who arrived in 2016. She is the matriarch of our small herd, and reminds us to always “come with an open heart”.
JB's
Story
Her nickname would be Sug.
Her age would be 18.
Her height would be 5'7.
Sugar's personality: Sugar is very much a social butterfly, she's very friendly, kind, understanding and smart. She enjoys most human interactions and tends to give very positive relationships. She's out-going and not very shy, she's the type of person that would go out of their way to help you or approach you first. Sugar has a type of 'healing aura' when she's around people and people tend to report that she gives 'healing vibes.' People easily tend to bond with her and she has a lot of friends because of this. Sugar is most close with Jasper and she used to be close with Raven till he passed away. Sugar helps Mystic with decorating her hair in the morning and she helps style her hair if she asks for it. Sugar is very affectionate (only if she asks first, she respects boundaries) and will give hugs almost 24/7.
Sugar's appearance is that she has fair, almond toned skin, brown waist length hair that's usually tied into a braid and usually decorated with braids, pins or flowers. She has a few scars on the right side of her face due to her backstory but that doesn't stop her. She has a few brown freckles on both her face and her shoulders. Her eyes are brown in color and she's around 5'7 in height so not too tall but not too short.
Sugar's style is Sugar wears a lot of dresses, whether they be brown, white, yellow, green or anything of that kind she'll usually wear it! she enjoys wearing simple clothes (T-shirts, shorts, sandals, hats, etc.) She enjoys clothing that has sunflower themes, frog themes or anything simple.) Sugar also wears shirts with overalls or shirts with plaid overtop, she sometimes 'mimics' Jasper's style to mess with him, in a fun way of course, nothing harming.
Sugar likes; sweets, tying her hair up, decorating her hair with flowers, baking, apples, decorating mystic's hair.
Sugar dislikes : loud noises, burnt food, thunderstorms, large animals, hospitals, the smell of paint.
Her hobbies are : cooking, baking, bird watching, gardening, knitting.
Sugar's background is : sugar was only a tiny toddler living on a farm when she was hit in the side of the face by a cow, she was taken into the hospital and her face recovered after a few months of treatment with only a few scars and a bit of uneven structure but nonetheless it has no effect on her, she now inhabits the group home with the rest of the group (merlin, jasper, mystic, feather, mr. scirocco, legalos, and navarro.) Sugar is sorta like the 'mom' figure of the group, she often helps in baking, cooking, gardening and helping the 'younger' members, she enjoys helping Jasper with cooking and even helps with his building projects. Sugar was the one who accepted Mystic into the group the fastest and bonded with her faster than the rest of the group.