April 1, 2016 
CLEVELAND—A mother and daughter are claiming they did indeed encounter the majestic, mythical creature known as the Unicorn while horse shopping earlier this summer.
“We were stunned, to say the least. When we saw the ad, we thought, ‘Well, there is no way this can be true.’ But when we walked down the aisle to where he was tied up, it was exactly as they claimed,” said Evelyn Probsnot, who visited the Unicorn at Dream Gate Farm, in East Cleveland, with her daughter, Sarah. “He was a dapple grey and just lovely, with this beautiful, sculpted head and neck. He was a “10” mover—a total daisy cutter. He could have won any hack class you put him in, and he was an absolute packer at 3 feet, with perfect changes and plenty of scope for 3’6, or even higher. He’s only 7 years old, and still pre-green eligible, so he has a lot of time still. We’ve always dreamed of finding something that could grow up with Sarah.”
(via flicker.com/carterse/Ava)
“They demonstrated for us that he would clip, bath, load and trail ride anywhere you wanted to take him, with absolutely no spook or buck,” Probsnot continued. “I was initially hesitant about their claim that he has never in his life looked at a fence, but we hiked up all the jumps and by the end of Sarah’s ride, he was just cantering over these giant liverpools and coffin jumps. We even set a little bit of the brush on fire, just to see what he would do, and sure enough, he just pops over it like he’s been doing it his whole life.”
Probsnot calls the Unicorn’s owners, John and Martha Sap, “just standup people,” and says that they allowed her and Sarah to take the Unicorn on trial at their farm for up to three months, at their discretion. “We had him vet-checked the first week he was here, and he passed with flying colors. Our vet said he’s never seen X-rays so clean—he actually took a copy of them to show his vet students. We just loved having the chance to get to know the Unicorn in our own program. We even trucked him over to one of the local horse shows, where of course, he took home Champion in both the children’s hunter and equitation divisions.”
After such an idyllic trial period, it’s no wonder the Probsnots were concerned about resolving the financials. “We had a strict budget of under $10,000, and the Unicorn was priced just above that. But we were very firm. We really didn’t think going outside of our budget would be worthwhile, and that was naturally hard on Sarah, who was so in love with him. But after seeing how attached she was, the Saps decided to be flexible, and that’s how we finally ended up with him.”
“Sometimes, you get very lucky,” said Probsnot. “You just have to believe that they are out there. We are so excited to see what this next show year will bring for Sarah and her Unicorn.”
After press time, the Probsnot’s Unicorn mysteriously disappeared from its stall and has not been seen since. The Probsnots could not be reached for comment.
“That’s just the thing with unicorns,” said a representative for the Cleveland Police Department, who investigated the case. “It’s like one minute you see them, and the next it’s like they never existed at all.”
