CUMBERLAND, Maine — There’s a certain healing power that can be found in animals. That's something Peggy Thyng discovered when she immediately connected with a horse in Cumberland. A horse she named My Saving Grace.
We met up with Peggy and Grace at a barn at the Cumberland Fairgrounds.
"I fell in love with her from the start," Peggy told us.
She met Grace while volunteering at a barn near her home. She knew nothing about horses, just knew that she needed a change.
"I was in a really bad relationship, just abusive, took my identity, everything from me. I had nothing. I lost the place that I was living, which put me in another downward," Peggy said.
She had become estranged from her family and had lost her way, while Grace's path through life seemed to be over before it even started.
"She has a club foot, which is not a good thing to have for a horse," trainer Gretchen Athearn explained.
Grace had just been born into a barn that bred racehorses.
"Realistically, they didn’t think she would make it racing," Peggy said.
So, without a place of her own or a full-time job, Peggy bought Grace at a discount.
"The breeders did this amazing thing," Christine Ohman explained. "They gave her this opportunity that, I mean, just doesn’t come along, you just don’t see that very often. So they gave her hope and I don’t know that they realize that."
Christine had connections with the barn and had befriended Peggy.
Both she and Peggy saw something more in Grace, so Christine connected them with trainers Gretchen and Mark Athearn. Mark spent hours working with Grace, and as the filly gained confidence, so did Peggy. They decided to try the now two-year-old out in harness racing.
"Anyone who had her as a baby would’ve given up on her, but you can’t see what’s inside. Her heart is huge. She wants to be a racehorse. She wants to do her job," Gretchen said about the horse.
In a qualifying race, Grace—more aptly known on the race course as "My Saving Grace"—came in fourth place and has been blazing her own trail ever since.
"In the top three every race, except two," Christine told us. "Grace is only one of four trotting fillies in her class in the state of Maine, so if she made it as a racehorse, [Peggy's] going to be guaranteed a check every single week."
That was enough to light a fire under Peggy, the idea that a check every week would help pay the costs of owning a racehorse.
"It’s gonna give her something of her own," Christine recalled telling Peggy at the time.
And while Peggy started hitting her stride again, her family started showing up to the races to cheer them on.
"At finals, we had like 25 to 30 people here just to see Grace and there were people from the family that hadn’t been together for 20 years here to watch this happen. So it was really cool to see the whole family come together and everybody just kind of get behind this filly and behind her," Christine said.
"To see my daughter now, she has … her light is shining," Lisa Yerxa told us.
Peggy's two children stood beside Lisa in the barn, watching their mother work with Grace, the horse that brought them all together again.
"She has an internal joy that’s showing her self-esteem, her confidence, her humility. It’s gotten our family back together and I’m just really grateful for that," Lisa said.
Barn visits now are often a family affair, and Peggy is working more and learning more about horses and about herself every day.
"I am so proud, like so proud," Peggy said. "I feel like Grace saved me."