SPOKANE, Wash. – Brooke Boykin, a local student, has found a meaningful way to honor her family’s military service. She rides her horse, Chief, while proudly carrying a flag at her school.
Brooke spoke about her journey with Chief, a gelding she rescued. “This is Chief…. My big Gelding I saved. I started riding horses when I was nine months old. My mom would ride with me, in the saddle with her,” she said.
She explained how her tradition began. “And then I just started this tradition last year with the flag. I’ve just worked with him a lot. And then I saw the girls at rodeo running the flags around, and I figured that I’d want to start that at my school on the horse that I trained that means a lot to me,” said Brooke.
The bond between Brooke and Chief is strong. “When I got him, we were on the verge of putting down my heart horse. A couple years later, we ended up putting her down. And then he just – something clicked in him, and he reminds me so much of her. He just had that very soft eye,” Brooke said.
Training Chief was not easy. “He was not an easy horse to train. He hurt me a few times, but after we got over our problems, he became a very good horse, and we’ve just bonded over the time,” she said.
Brooke shared her sense of pride in honoring the military. “I’m just there to represent the flag in the school. I’ve had family that’s been in the military and it’s just a good way to honor them and everyone else that served for us,” she said. “I’m very thankful for them and everything they’ve done, and I could not be more proud of all of them,” Brooke added.
