©Voice, December 2006

The graceful little girl on the pretty, black mare creates a picture pleasing to the eye, by any standards. Horse and rider are immaculately turned out. Both demonstrate considerable show ring savvy, and appear to be having the time of their lives in this well-filled, easy-gait class for riders 17 and under. The glossy pair executes a mannerly, beautifully choreographed performance.

Only when their number is called, and they leave the lineup to receive the first place ribbon, do we see a minor detail that somehow escaped our notice during the class. The girl is riding with no left stirrup, and there is no left leg and foot below the girl's handsomely tailored saddle suit jacket. We look on, mystified, as she graciously accepts the award, and then retires her mare to one side of the ring to await their victory pass.

When the little black mare's number is called, a man and woman standing by the rail react immediately. Beaming with delight, they whoop and clap excitedly, then hug each other. They are the girl's parents, Mike and Cindy Malloy. Litchfield, Ohio residents, Mike works as a network technician, and Cindy is a registered nurse. The diminutive girl on the black Walking Horse mare is their daughter Jennifer, age 13. There must be a great deal more to the story, we realize, than winning a blue ribbon at this horse show.

When any child is born, there tend to be few real surprises, because parentage and genetics pretty much dictate race, eye and hair color, general size and physical structure. In 2006, even gender can easily be determined well before birth. Occasionally, however, Mother Nature throws parents an unlikely pitch. In 1993 Cindy and Mike Malloy's first child, a girl they named Jennifer, was born with a rare condition called proximal femoral focal deficiency, or PFFD. This meant that the femur of one leg had not developed as the fetus grew, leaving the child with one leg dramatically shorter than the other, albeit complete with knee, tibia, fibula, ankle and foot.

"We were stunned when the doctor explained to us that she would always have to wear prosthesis," Cindy remembers. "As professionals, Mike and I realized the implications for a child, growing up with an artificial limb. Our major concern was how this PFFD would affect her life. Would she be able to walk, run, dance or play sports? The list seemed to go on forever.

"Our first plan was to research the problem, so that we could formulate a treatment protocol. Mike went to a medical university library, but was only able to find one article. Our doctor gave us a copy of an article from a textbook, and the prosthetist gave us a copy of a 1969 National Academy of Sciences symposium. While all of those helped, it took months to gather the information, most of which was very hard to understand. There was no support group - and very, very little information - for parents and families dealing with this issue."

Nonetheless, baby Jennifer was flourishing. As she grew, with her prosthetic leg being replaced by a new one every year to two years, she was hardly mindful that life had dealt her a challenge few people ever have to face. The bright, charming child learned to walk, talk and socialize as naturally as could be. Santa brought her a personal home computer to play multimedia-learning games, and she attacked that challenge too, with great relish.

"She was 11 months old when she got her first prosthesis," mother Cindy explains. "Because her leg had a normal knee, which included a foot, we had her knee fused, and the foot amputated at 11 months, so that she could wear a prosthesis. She wore that first prosthesis until she was three.
She was then fitted with a new prosthesis, with a hinged knee. We also got her a little walker, because she had to re-learn to walk with the knee.

"Maybe it was serendipity that Lodi Hospital, where I worked part-time, had a hippo-therapy program. I enrolled Jennifer, with the idea that riding a horse would help her start getting her balance, which it did. She was also very much intrigued with the horse, of course. She loved the riding, so as she progressed, we moved her into a therapeutic riding program with Tom and Mindy Baker at Peniel Farm, in a village nearby."

"I was very excited," Jennifer remembers. "I may have been a little afraid, but it was something I really wanted to try. I was sure I could do it. I figured out the 'tripod' of pelvic bones you sit on almost intuitively, so I really never had a serious balance problem. When I learned to read, I read everything I could find about horses, and learned about the different breeds and styles of riding. After about four years at Peniel, I took hunt seat and dressage lessons at another local farm. I guess dressage appealed to me because of the longer leg you ride with; that looked interesting - and challenging."

In January of 2003, Jennifer's next-door neighbor and schoolmate, Stephanie Sanicky, told Jennifer about a wonderful horse that was for sale at Winfield Farm and Forge, where Steph rode. Wouldn't Jennifer and her mother like to go look at the horse?|

"I was very excited," Jennifer admits now. "She was registered as chestnut, but she's black, and very pretty and sweet. Because she is 'smooth-gaited' we knew I wouldn't have to worry about trying to post on her. Mom rode her, and thought it was a neat experience, and when I rode her, I thought so, too. Riding a Tennessee Walking Horse was definitely different - and an interesting experience. We both liked the little mare, whose name was Apache Rose.

"It took three or four rides for us to get used to each other. Because I don't have a left leg to cue her with, she would get confused sometimes. She took off with me (in the ring) at a canter a couple of times. I had cantered a horse before, but it felt pretty bumpy, and I was unsure. Now that I have the new stirrup adapter, Rosie and I will spend the winter working on our canter departures."

Apache Rose, foaled in 1993, was bred by Dwight and Anne Stubblefield, of Tullahoma, TN. Her sire is Spirit of Apache (Marshall Dillon x Dusty Sally, by Sun Dust), and her dam, Rubies and Roses, is a daughter of the Pride of Midnight HF son, Delight of Pride. Apache Rose' second dam, Vera's Ravishing Ruby, is by Sensational Shadow, and out of Special Sonata, by Go Boy's Special. Line bred to Midnight Sun and Merry Go Boy, she is a feminine, well-tempered individual who takes a nice step, and represents her breed nobly. Do future plans for Rosie include breeding her?

"She is very happy, being a pleasure horse, " Jennifer assures us, and one look at the gleaming, soft-eyed subject confirms her mistress's statement. "She is one-of-a-kind, she's not as forgiving as some horses; she is thin-skinned, and smart, and very lady-like. She doesn't appreciate it if you try to bully her. I still use my outside leg to cue her for the canter both ways of the ring, which is confusing for her. My goal, with my new saddle, is to cue her with my inside "leg" both ways of the ring. We're working on it!"

Jennifer is an 8th grader, and a straight "A" student, taking honors math and language classes, at Buckeye Jr. High School. We wondered how Jennifer's classmates, especially in grade school, reacted to her prosthesis. Children are intrigued by anything "different", and not always inclined to be kind or understanding.

"When I started grade school, I felt a little embarrassed," she concedes, "but Mom went in the first day of class every year, and would explain. As a nurse, she would tell the kids about the prosthesis, and the kids would ask questions. Now, in junior high, most people know about it, and everybody is in such a hurry to get to classes that nobody pays any attention. I never make a big deal about it, and neither does anybody else."

Initially, Jennifer's PFFD was a very big deal for Mike and Cindy Malloy, however, so they chose to do something pro-active about it. In 1997 they established a website: PFFDvsg; the "vsg" stands for "virtual support group."

"Our original goal was for the site to be a PFFD information source and a virtual support group for parents of children with the PFFD birth defect," Cindy explains. "While we still feel that the most valuable part of the site is the virtual support group - where we can share stories and learn from each other - we have also expanded the information section. Hopefully, Mike helped solved the 'in plain English' part by writing A Parent's Guide to PFFD, but initially, we never dreamed that we'd be the ones creating a PFFD website. Our doctor's receptionist, Donna, had an 18-year-old son with PFFD. She came and talked to us, answered all of our questions, and eased many of our fears. She was like a gift from heaven. You might say that the idea for the website was planted when we had the great fortune of meeting Donna the year Jennifer was born.

"We are so proud of Jennifer for all that she continues to accomplish, and the website has grown into something that appears to be truly useful - truly helpful - for other families facing this challenge." Another element in this ongoing dilemma occurs to us. Prosthetic limbs are expensive. Does medical insurance pay for all or part of the cost? We know that Jennifer gets a new leg every two to three years, depending on her growth rate, and that the price goes up, each time she gets a new leg.

"Next time we're probably looking at $15,000 or more," says Cindy, "and the frustrating thing is that there is not much option when it comes to prosthetic styles for youngsters. We see all this fabulous, new bionic technology on television, and we read about it all the time … but those wonderful options are only available for adults. As long as the child is growing, we are very limited, but that seems to be a fact of life with PFFD.

"On the other hand, we are very pleased that the PFFDvsg. website has helped so many people, that Jennifer is who she is, and that Walking Horses like Apache Rose are sure to be a joyful part of our family's future."

–Linda White