Ohio's feel-good horse
This article appeared in the August 29, 2001 enewsletter.

Cutting may be the best medicine of all. Just ask Sarah Gentry, a registered nurse from West Salem, Ohio, and her mother, Myrth Herald.

When doctors treated Myrth for a fractured hip recently, they found that the leukemia she had battled into remission three years ago was back. Sarah and her husband Skip prepared their home to bring Myrth in so they could care for her.

But mom laid down one of the ground rules while she was still in the hospital:  Make sure 26-year-old Docacoo gets regular exercise. She even paid Sarah's entry fee in the $2,000 Rider class at a recent weekend cutting at Canal Winchester.

"She was adamant about me showing him," Sarah says. "My mother and Docacoo remind me of each other. She has not given up on anything, and that horse never gives up on anything. They're about the same age in people years. He would be 78 and she's 79."

The Gentrys bought Docacoo six years ago after watching cutting horses at the All American Congress.

"I remember coming around the corner and seeing him and I thought - no way," Sarah recalled. "We drove this far and he looked fat and pudgy. Then they put him on a cow and I went, 'Omigosh, can that horse cut!'"

From the advice she gets at shows, sometimes it seems like every cutter in the Buckeye State has ridden Docacoo at one time or another. She relies on commercial feed mixes for older horses, long warm-ups and plenty of TLC to keep him going.

"I'm going for longevity," says Sarah. "After he cuts, I rub his legs down and make sure he's cooled adequately. It takes me all day to warm him up and cool him down when winter is here.

"My vet says, 'He'll tell you when he wants to quit.' To be honest, the longer I cut on him, the more he seems to enjoy it."

Myrth Herald used to ride her father's Belgians down to the creek after a day's work on the farm, and she claims Sarah inherited her love of horses from her grandfather.

As a city-raised youngster, Sarah cleaned stalls and houses to finance her horse habit. The first horse she rode was 32 years old. When she asked her mom for permission to show at the fair, the 13-year-old was surprised to get approval.

Sarah concentrated on western pleasure until she got bitten by the cutting horse bug.

"That rush of releasing the horse to do his work is incredible," she says. "In western pleasure, you're so worried about every movement the horse makes. I love the intensity of it with this horse. He's doing it because he loves it.

"My mother is doing great for everything that's going on right now," she adds. "Her focus is that her daughter rides Docacoo and hits the shows."

When Sarah brings him out of the barn, they stop to tap on Myrth's window, and maybe get a carrot through the door.

This is one 'Doc' that still makes house calls.