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Rope a Wish: Foundation presents boy with red quarter horse

BY ANDREA HAHN

Sunday, March 13, 2005 7:17 AM CST

VIENNA - Brent Holland, 15, of Vienna, is ready to rope a wish.

The Make-a-Wish Foundation of Metro St. Louis helped the young man on the way to his dream Saturday when it presented him with a 3-year-old roping-trained quarter horse.

"He didn't know anything about it," said his mother, Barb Holland. "It was hard to keep it a secret for three months."

Brent looks like any other 15-year-old cowboy-in-training. If he wasn't pointed out, he would blend in with all the other young men and boys strolling around the horse and tack auction at the Double P Tack Store auction facility Saturday.

But Brent has Barrett's esophagus, which his mother said is a pre-cancerous throat disease. He also has Scheurmann's disease, which is a bone condition. He is being treated now, his mother said. If the throat disease becomes malignant, he will have a life expectancy of about six years.

Brent began riding horses at Loyd Farms in Vienna a little more than two years ago. His mother said during that time she has noticed a new vibrancy in her son, and a greater activity level.

Not long ago, Brent began to develop a relationship with a young sorrel quarter horse named Mac. A horse at Mac's training level - really, any horse - was just not in the Holland's budget.

Barb's mother, Jackie Tweedy of Bush, said she urged Barb to try the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

"Brent deserved something," Tweedy said. "With everything he has gone through already, and we just don't know (about the future)."

Barb said she knew the Make-a-Wish Foundation was there to help sick children, but she associated it with trips and vacations - which is one of the wishes the foundation most commonly gives. The idea, according to Make-a-Wish foundation officials, is that a trip away gives a sick child a chance to be just a child and to forget about the sick part for awhile.

Tweedy said Barb just couldn't see the foundation giving her son a horse. Between the two of them, though, they contacted the foundation and put in their request.

Lenna Matakewicz and Ann Limegrover, both of Carbondale, were the "wish-granters" assigned to Brent. They said this was the first time they had ever given an animal as a wish, but said it wasn't so far out of what the foundation promised.

The wish was worked out with the help of Gary Loyd, who owned Mac, and Keith Page of Double P. Loyd and Page combined forces to @jump from:From page 9A

sell the horse and all the tack - bridle, saddle, and everything else Brent would need - to Make-a-Wish for a bargain price.

In addition, Loyd has promised the Holland family two years of free board for the horse.

"He's been coming to my place and riding," Loyd said. "When he went to Make-a-Wish, he wished for that horse (in particular)."

The family and Loyd agree that it was extra-special to give Brent a horse he already knew and loved.

As for Brent - when he could talk past the big grin on his face - he is already full of plans to learn roping and to team rope with a couple of his buddies who ride and rope.

"I've always loved horses," he said. "Mac is always ready to go, but he listens really good."

He was only too happy to demonstrate, hopping up on the little red horse and putting him through his paces.

Barb Holland said she and her husband, Jim Holland, are expecting to get into horses as a family, now that Brent has one of his own. Younger brother, Jacob, already sweet-talked Loyd into a bargain deal on an over-sized miniature horse, and Jim looks comfortable in a cowboy hat and cowboy boots.

"You hear the expression all the time, but the Loyd's really do have hearts of gold," Barb said.

andrea.hahn@;thesouthern.com

618-529-5454 x15076