Axl was Brian’s horse — a barrel horse. Brian Hickey used to ride him in barrel racing, the rodeo event. So did Cheryl, his mom.
“We did that as a family, and instead of kids hanging out in a mall or something, we used to go to horse shows,” Cheryl Hickey says. “Beautiful environment, and family events.”
When Brian Hickey went off to college, Cheryl was the one to take care of Axl — Axl and Mr. Tee, her quarter horse. She’s had Axl for 10 years now. Mr. Tee was 31 when she had to say goodbye.
She used to ride Mr. Tee when she volunteered as a mounted officer for a sheriff’s department in North Jersey, where they lived. “Mr. Tee, he would do anything for me. He would walk through fire. He was my lifeline especially after losing my husband,” she says. “
“You’ve got your dogs and your cats, which I can relate to as well, but the relationship you have with a horse —there’s nothing, outside of your children, that can compare to that.”
After Brian went off to college, she was looking to downsize, while at the same time moving closer to horse country. She settled in Clifton Mill. Axl, who is 26 now, is stabled about a mile away, at Old York Farm.
That’s where he was when a doctor who was examining him noticed that there was something wrong with his left eye. He advised Hickey to take him to an equine eye doctor, who told her that the eye probably needed to be removed for Axl’s overall health.
“The first question I had for her was, ‘Is my horse in pain?’ And she said yes. So I said, ‘Take the eye,’” Hickey says.
The surgery took place in the summer. Afterward, Hickey saw the change in Axl immediately.
“It was amazing how happy and content and relieved he was,” she says. “Even the vet said, when she removed the eye, she felt a sigh of relief (from Axl). I as an owner and the vet, we made the right decision.”
Since moving to Bordentown, she had taken Axl mostly on pleasure rides — at the farm, in local state parks, or even out to Island Beach State Park, where she would ride him on the beach. In the Bordentown Halloween parade, she would be one of the people who rides a horse at the end of the parade.
Once she was cleared to ride him again, she gave it a try, and it was like old times. What amazes her most, she said, is the way Axl has adjusted to his new condition.
“From day one he just adjusted to the eye,” she says. “He was just like the horse I know. It didn’t bother him to be riding in a ring where he can’t see the fenceline. The communication that I will have with him will be a lot more consistent, because he needs to know that if I’m watching on that left side and everything is OK. The bond we will have moving forward between horse and human, that relationship will be more than it ever was before.”
Hickey became interested in horse riding when she was growing up in Paramus. She lived with her family on a property that bordered a horse farm.
“Back in the 70’s, they thought that maybe there would be a day their daughter wanted to start to ride,” Hickey says. “Well, that daughter learned everything about riding from the ground up. Then I got my first horse when I was in my 20’s. Now I’m on my fifth horse.”
Hickey has a masters in health administration and spent more than 35 years working in the health care industry. Now she has time to spend with Axl as he deals with the loss of his eye.
“There’s just a relationship that you have, a bond with these animals that are so big, 1,000-plus-pound animals that you just let into your own world,” she says. “Standing there brushing them, or if it’s riding them, they’re extremely intelligent and their heart is just to enjoy what you enjoy. It’s brought me great joy, especially with the losses with my family. Animals know. When you’re down in the dumps or just having a hard day — they know.”
