The Testimony and Life of Sandy KIrby
Sandy Kirby’s doctors don’t know if they should call her a walking
miracle or a testimony to faith. As for Sandy, she accepts the miracle
and lives the testimony. She’s survived cancer, come back to ride after
doctors said she might not ever walk after a serious accident, and even
survived a lightning strike.
“I feel I am here for a reason,” she said. “And that’s to testify and
declare the works of the Lord.” She still has symptoms from the
accident and from the radiation therapy, but she is firm in this: The
Lord healed her from the cancer. “If my body felt totally healed, why
would I need to have faith?” she asks.
Sandy owns Sunshine Acres Ranch, a 100-plus acre horse farm located in
Romance, where she breeds, trains and sells registered Quarter horses,
Paints and Appaloosas. She also trains a few horses for the public,
something she’s been doing since she was a kid.
Born in Bucks County, Penn., Sandy remembers her first horseback ride
on Bubbles the pony. When Bubbles went to the creek and lowered her
head for a drink, Sandy fell in. It might not have been a perfect first
ride, but after that she was hooked and begged her parents for a horse.
When she was 11, the family moved to Forrest City, Ark., and Sandy’s
dad made her a deal - straight A’s in exchange for a horse. Within six
weeks, she had straight A’s, and soon after that, a palomino gelding.
Soon after that she met a man named Arthur Louis Devereaux. Sandy said
he could make a horse do just about anything, and that was the first
time she realized how much could be accomplished through training. It
wasn’t long before she was working horses for other people. Her
standard agreement was to ride four horses and get to keep one for
herself. By the time she got ready to go to college she had 11 horses;
she sold them all except for Misty, her buckskin mare, who went with
her when Sandy went to Arkansas State to major in pre-vet.
Even though she had good grades, Sandy soon realized how tough it was
to get into a veterinary school and she transferred to the University
of Arkansas - Little Rock to major in dental hygiene. “I decided to get
a good job and have horses on the side,” she said. So she worked two
jobs, as a vet’s assistant and a hostess/waitress to put herself
through school until she graduated in 1976. She was riding her
motorcycle up to Heber Springs for a day on the lake when she found a
beautiful piece of property with two waterfalls on it. Before long, she
had bought the property and was working for a dentist in Heber Springs and for
one in Conway.
Then it was time to get horses again. Sandy remembers going out to see
an old horse dealer named Ned Smith out on Highway 10. She was torn
between two horses there. One was a big beautiful bay mare; the other
was a blue roan. Another horse trainer was there that day and urged
Sandy to take the bay and it turned out to be a great choice. The mare
had great bloodlines: Goldseeker Bars, Clabber Bars, Top Deck, and
others. “My whole program was built on that mare,” Sandy said.
Besides her bachelor’s in dental hygiene, Sandy also earned a B.S. in
biology with a minor in chemistry, and went back to school to work on
her master’s in microbiology. She was even accepted into dental school
in Memphis, but she declined once she added up what she would have to
give up to go. The fact that the place where she was staying got robbed
that night didn’t help, either.
While working on her master’s at UALR, Sandy had to take some physical
education courses and one of the offerings was hunter/dressage. She
jumped at the chance, signing up for the advanced course. “I figured
out the first day I wasn’t ‘advanced,’” she said, laughing. “I had
never been in an English saddle, but pretty soon I had Raja (her bay
mare) doing side passes and all kinds of stuff while we were waiting to
run barrels.”
A lot of the fortunate things that have happened to Sandy were just too
well-planned to be “coincidences,” she said, and she credits them to
God. Having someone urge her to buy the bay mare was one and running
into a vet while working at the dentist in Conway was another. She
asked the vet if he knew a good stallion for her mare and he told her
about a stallion named Go Sugar Bars in Guy. The owner had bought him
off a racetrack with a broken ankle. She was able to breed to the
stallion for only $100 and from that got a stallion of her own, Go
Sunshine Strider. “That’s what Sunshine Acres was built around,” Sandy
said. “I feel like it was a God thing. I never cleaned that vet’s teeth
before and I never did them again.” And, it turned out that Go Sugar
Bars was only in Arkansas one year - when she went to breed her mare
again, he was gone, purchased back by the original owner.
She’s had other God-sends, like finding the place in Romance in 1986,
having a man call her about two horses he had inherited that turned out
to be Dash for Cash bloodlines and a perfect cross for her mares, and
getting a phone call from Romance horse breeder Don Gates about another
stallion with Zippo Pat Bars, Three Bars and Chubby on his papers. “I
feel like God has really blessed me with good bloodlines,” Sandy said.
Then there were the tougher times, like in 1999 when she was struck by
lightning near her barn. The strike threw her 30 feet, and her heart
restarted when she hit the ground, doctors told her. It took a month
before her eyes would focus right again
In 2001, she was turning off Highway 5 onto the gravel road leading to
her ranch when she was struck in the side by a speeder who actually
left the pavement and hit her. Thinking she was fine, she soon went
back to work and was called to give a patient an injection before the
dentist did the procedure. As she twisted her body to give the
injection, Sandy’s right side went numb and searing pain hit her and
she fell onto the patient, unable to move. Later it was found she had
six herniated disks and one ruptured disk. A long period of bed rest,
drugs and therapy followed, but she got little relief until she ran
into Dr. Sabrina Williams in Beebe. Herself a rider, Dr. Williams
understood how therapeutic riding could be and told Sandy to start
trying to ride again, using a heavy back brace.
She got on her gentlest horse and took a slow ride, held on either side
by friends who kept her from falling because she was so weak.
She improved, but in early 2003 she noticed she was falling a lot. Her
right leg was numb and when she asked a doctor, she was told it was due
to the accident and not to worry. Still thinking something else was
wrong, Sandy went to a second doctor, who found an avocado-sized
cancerous tumor on the pelvic bone below her back. “I feel like it was
from all the drugs and junk I was taking,” Sandy said.
On May 1, 2003, she went in for surgery but the doctors were unable to
remove the tumor. Her oncologist, Dr. J.J. Roman of Little Rock, told
her that if the tumor had been found earlier she would have had a 90
percent chance of survival. As it was, he told her, she had a nine to
12 percent chance if the chemotherapy and radiation worked.
“I started praying and studying all the healing and faith scriptures in
the Bible,” Sandy said. “I feel like God is the same yesterday, today
and tomorrow and if He could heal people then, he can heal them now. I
was standing on that.” She had a preacher speak over her that by her
faith, she would be healed, and she believed it.
She started on radiation therapy, soon losing 26 pounds. She made sure
she was never around negative people who might doubt that she was
getting better. “I just couldn’t afford it,” she said.
She did lots of research and even prayed about what to eat.
On July 1, 2003, Sandy said she woke up at 4:30 a.m. with the distinct
impression that she had been spoken to, and that God had told her she
was healed. She had an appointment that morning for chemotherapy, which
she kept. The nurses had a hard time getting blood from her because her
veins were all messed up from all the treatments, but finally they came
back with their bad news. Sandy’s blood work was so bad she couldn’t
receive any more treatments. The nurses were very sad, but Sandy said
she was elated. “I knew I was healed and I wouldn’t need any more
treatments.”
The doctors and staff pretty much sent her home to her recliner and to
settle her affairs. On the trip home, Sandy saw a rainbow like she’s
never seen before or since, and she took that as a sign, too.
Even though she was weak Sandy started going outside as much as she
could, getting on her tractor and doing some brush hogging when she
could. She got stronger and stronger and when she went back to the
doctors in September for more tests, they didn’t find any new cancer
cells.
She’s kept improving ever since. Though she doesn’t talk much about it,
she still has symptoms from the accident and from the radiation. Her
back hurts and her right hand still is unable to hold small things.
But she still feels blessed and sets out to share God’s message
whenever she can. One of the ways she shares her faith is to open her
ranch to youth as part of her Round Pen Ministry. Once a month, kids
come out on a Friday night to see a round pen demonstration, share some
food and learn about God. She’s had anywhere from 12 to 54 kids come
out, and more are welcome.
Sometimes Sandy does the demonstration; sometimes she does the
narration, like when local horseman Ken Martin works a horse in the
round pen. Each month is about a different scripture, and Sandy
compares the work going on with the horse to our relationship with God.
“It’s a daily walk we have,” Sandy said. “We choose. If I get up and
get out there and start walking around, I find there’s so much to be
thankful for. The joy of the Lord is my strength,” she said.