It has been said that faith is seeing light with your heart when all your eyes see is darkness.

The remarkable story of Million To 1 will make you a believer.

The red roan son of VS Flatline and Congress Champion A Certain Illusion arrived on Super Bowl Sunday in 2015. There were big expectations for the feisty fellow nicknamed Brady after the legendary New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.

A lot of thought and planning went into selecting a mate for Michael Hershberger’s Congress Champion mare. And a lot of work and care from the whole team at Starnes Quarter Horses in Summerton, South Carolina, went into making sure a healthy foal would be born. So when Brady stood and nursed for the first time there was relief all around.

“He was a phenomenal mover from day one,” recalled Kristy Starnes. “His unique light red roan color with the bald face made him look that much more special.”

But relief would be replaced a month later with fear and devastation when the youngster was found in the pasture unable to stand four-legged, but rather holding his front leg up.

Kristy recalls the day with vivid detail. She remembers her husband Jay and their farm hand Carlos Udave, carrying Brady to the barn.

“There was no sign of what happened so all we can think is he fell and landed just wrong to break the humerus bone in his right foreleg,” she said.

The veterinarian was called but the news was not good.

“It was a complete fracture that was displaced almost two inches,” Kristy said.

The prognosis was poor and the first six weeks were especially bumpy.

Just two days after the accident Brady had to be weaned. Unable to get up his recipient dam gave up on him since all he could do is lie on the ground 24 hours a day. The foal had to be bucket fed and a goat named White Lightning was found for company.

“We had to take a lot of weight off Brady because his leg could not support his weight at all,” Kristy explained. “He looked rough for quite some time.”

There were several times over the next six weeks it was feared Brady would have to be euthanized.

But then it happened. He moved his injured leg for the first time and started bearing weight.

But as is many times the case, with one step forward came two steps back.

“Now our struggle was the left front pastern which had dropped and we had to get that fixed,” Kristy explained. “A custom Dyna Splint was made for his leg and he wore it 12- 18 hours each day.”

Progress was slow but it was steady. Over the next three months Brady wore the brace and slowly started improving.

By September of that year he was finally able to be out of a stall and into a small paddock.

“It still took several more months before he looked 100 percent,” Kristy said. “But he was at least pasture sound and to us, that was wonderful.”

Brady was turned out to pasture to grow and “just be a horse” and hopefully continue to improve. By the time January 2017 rolled around Brady looked normal.

Could it be possible?

Scans confirmed it. There was no longer any sign of fracture or ligament damage on xrays or ultrasounds so in March Brady got a fitting registered name – Million To 1 – and was brought up to get started under saddle.

Although they got the go-ahead to start Brady, Jay and Kristy knew they needed to go slowly.

“We knew he was sound but we just were afraid we might break him again if we did something too stressful to him,” Kristy said.

Million To 1 took to training very well and was entered in the Coughlin 2-Year-Old Western Pleasure Futurity at the Quarter Horse Congress.

As part of his preparation for the Congress, Brady attended the National Snaffle Bit Association’s World Championship Show in Tulsa last August. It was there that Nettie Olsen, of Denver, North Carolina decided to purchase him.

“Jay and Kristy raised him. They believed in him, when no one else would,” Nettie said. “Logan (their son) would spend his afternoons with him in his stall since he was stall bound for the first year of his life.”

Whoose On First

Brady made his show debut at the Congress where he was a finalist and this year Jay Starnes is showing him in Green Western Pleasure and Open 3-Year-Old Western Pleasure events.

“He has really improved with age,” Jay said. “He is maturing into a beautiful horse with great presence. He is very willing to please and enjoys the attention of people. Probably as he spent many days of his young life with people rather than horses. He has a very unique personality for sure.”

Jay and Brady are already off to a strong start picking up points at the Arizona Sun Circuit and with championships in the $2,500 Horse Western Pleasure and Green Western Pleasure at the Silver Dollar Circuit in Las Vegas. Nettie is also showing him in 3-Year-old Non-Pro events this year.

Olsen was born in Syosset, New York, into a family with three boys. The youngest was 15 years old when Nettie came along. Because of the massive age gap, she says she grew up virtually an only child.

“I came from a very simple life, we had very little income,” explains Olsen.

Million To 1

Her parents wanted to spend a lot of time with their youngest daughter and decided to put their energy into horses. She was 13 when she sat on her first Appaloosa horse, with the help of her cousins and their trainer at the time, Terry Thompson of Elmira, New York. “My mom became my groomer, my horse show clothes designer, and my dad was my cook and supporter.”

The family had a lot of fun and showed pretty hard in the all-around events, but she says she didn’t have a whole lot of success because they could only afford a certain level of horse.

“We had really low grade horses and I didn’t have a steady trainer,” she says. Olsen loved it anyway.

“I love the act of going to a horse show,” Nettie said. “It’s my passion. It’s in my blood. It’s what I do.”

As she got older, went off to college, fell in love, got married and was holding a full-time job, Olsen started to see the horse show pen less and less. Once Nettie and her husband, Dave, moved to Waxhaw, North Carolina, she decided she wanted to get involved again. She bought a horse named Dakota Haze and started showing in the Western Pleasure with Herm Sherwin.

“He was a really cool horse and we did a lot of cool things, and then my daughter came along,” Nettie said.

Jessica became the Olsens’ total focus.

They started taking Jessica to horse shows and she was showing Lead Line at a national level by the time she was 3. Olsen realized she wanted to put her energy into her daughter’s show career.

“From the time Jess was in walk trot till 2013, I did not show. All I would do is go to the horse shows and be her support system.”

Her daughter has done everything from Reining, Barrel Racing, Pole Bending, to Western Pleasure and Hunt Seat Equitation.

“She has over 100 National World titles,” Nettie explained. But the tides turned again when Jessica married Alan Groome and they started a family of their own with the arrival of son, Brock, in 2013. Her show career is limited now that she runs American Metals Inc., the company Nettie and her husband, Dave Olsen, started in 2001.

Jessica Olsen and her children, Brock and Reece

Nettie returned to the show arena with an Appaloosa named Sheza Charlie Chip, sired by Colored By Charlie and out of Smooth As Chocolate. At the 2013 World Championship Appaloosa Show they won the Non-Pro 35 and Over Western Pleasure.

Jessica returned to the show pen in 2014 by winning the Super Sires Limited 3-Year-Old Western Pleasure with Sleepin N Paradise, by Too Sleepy To Zip and ever since showing has become a “family thing,” Nettie said. Recently,

Nettie recently purchased Whoose On First (Nolan), a 2016 bay gelding by Batt Man and out of Moonlite Ventures from Charles and Angie Cannizzaro.

“It was our goal to get a really nice 2-year-old for Jessica to show this year at the futurities and I believe we have found him,” she said.

“Jay really liked Nolan from the beginning.”

He will make his show debut in the 2-Year-Old Western Pleasure Sale Stakes at the Tom Powers Futurity this month and Jessica will show him in 2- year-old non-pro classes after that.

“He is a strong 2-year-old and very consistent with great self-carriage,” Jay said.

In addition to Million To 1 and Whoose On First, Jay and Kristy also have a 2-year-old Appaloosa colt for the Olsens.

“Nettie is a great client,” Kristy said. “She is very dedicated to the horse industry and really appreciates nice horses. She understands that not all horses are ready for non-pro riders when we want them to be, and she is willing to wait and listens to our opinions which really helps us prepare her horses to the best of their ability. She puts a lot of trust in us into picking out her horses and we appreciate her for that. We are excited for Nettie to get into the show pen more with Brady and for Jessica to show Nolan in 2018.”

Nettie also uses Texas trainer Mike Hachtel for her Appaloosa and Paint pleasure horses and Jessica works with Rob Meneely for the all-around events

“I’d love to continue to show in the Western Pleasure and expand into the Paints and Quarters more,” Nettie said.