Make-A-Wish Foundation fulfills young boy's request for new pet

Nate Prichard, 5, had a very special wish granted Monday afternoon: his own horse, given to him by the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Nate�s parents, Curtis and Michelle Prichard, adopted him as an infant, and have held his hand through his many surgeries to help ease his congenital heart condition.

After the last big surgery, about two years ago, his parents made him a promise.

�We said, �If you�ll just live through this, Nate, we�ll get you a horse,�� Curtis Prichard said, adding it was basically a deathbed promise to give Nate something to live for.

�Finally, today, that promise is fulfilled,� Curtis Prichard said.

Nate Prichard, 5, hugs his mom, Michelle Prichard, on Monday after receiving his new horse, Silver, as part of his Make a Wish wish in Bufordville.KASSI JACKSON

It took a lot of time and effort by a lot of people to get the horse, a small mare named Silver, into the freshly-built stable in rural Cape Girardeau County.

About a year ago, the Make-A-Wish Foundation interviewed Nate Prichard to find out what he wanted, Michelle Prichard said.

�They really grilled him,� she said.

They�d asked if he wanted a cruise, if he wanted to go to Disneyland, and he said �no.�

He wanted a horse.

Brenda McKnight, a volunteer with Make-A-Wish, said Nate Prichard�s every answer to �What do you want?� was �Horse, horse, horse.�

�I�m happy when we can make this happen,� McKnight said, adding not every Make-A-Wish request can be granted before a child passes away. �We try to get everything worked out. This is the goal.�

Nate Prichard had been taking horse-riding lessons at Mississippi Valley Therapeutic Horsemanship, and Varina Luttrull, program director at that organization, worked with Make-A-Wish to find a horse that would be mild-mannered, small, good with children � basically, a horse that would suit Nate�s needs, Luttrull said.

�As a professional, you think, �He�s really little! He doesn�t need to have a horse,� but I knew his story, so volunteered to help scout, to find something to match his ability,� Luttrull explained.

She looked for a long time, she said, finally finding Silver in Farmington, Missouri, just a couple of weeks ago.

�It�s been a whirlwind to today,� Luttrull said. �It all happened at once.�

She got the call Thursday the horse was approved to be picked up. That happened Friday.

Then, Lisa Brown, another Mississippi Valley volunteer who is also a board member, provided the truck and trailer to deliver Silver on Monday afternoon.

And, Curtis Prichard said, getting the barn ready to go was its own hectic process.

The Prichard family, which includes three other adopted children � Charlie, 8, and twins Iva and Ella, 4 � was living in Springfield, Missouri, when Nate Prichard had his surgery two years ago.

�We were living in a subdivision,� Michelle Prichard said. �We knew we couldn�t have a horse there.�

So, when Curtis, who is a pharmacist by training but works as a medical consultant, was offered an opportunity to move to be closer to family, the Prichards found some land with room to build a barn.

Within the last few months, stalls were built into the barn and the paddock fenced in.

Curtis Prichard said some of the land is seeded with fescue, which he�ll cut and bale for the horse.

But he doesn�t have a loft to store the bales, he said, so for now, he�ll put them on pallets to keep them off the ground.

Curtis Prichard wasn�t sure how Nate would react to the big reveal Monday, he said.

Nate Prichard has been through a lot of medical trauma in his short life, and doesn�t always react the way you�d expect, Curtis said.

�But when he hugged that horse, I was so relieved,� he said.

Silver is a small horse, light gray with brown speckles, and stands about 13 hands high. She�s 15 years old, Luttrull said, so she�s calmer than a younger horse might be.

And Silver stood patiently while Nate Prichard learned how to hold the lead, how to sit in the saddle, how to brush her.

He�s been learning at Mississippi Valley, Luttrull said.

Jodie Brunke, executive director at Mississippi Valley, said, simply, �This is why we do what we do.�

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

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