WOODBURY — With heavy hearts, the students and staff of Nonnewaug High School said goodbye in November to beloved horse Bubba Ray, who died from colic. Bubba Ray was at Nonnewaug for 10 years.

Bubba Ray was “hands-down an amazing horse, and if the ag program’s animals could run for teacher of the year, Bubba Ray would have [won] every year,” Nonnewaug sophomore Maddie Orosz said.

The impact Bubba Ray had on NHS students was immense. In most cases, he was the students’ first chance at learning how to care for and work with a horse.

Bubba Ray was the go-to horse; he was calm, cool and collected with the students.

“He didn’t spook at the loud gate when I struggled to open and close it, and he didn’t run away when I accidentally dropped his lead rope,” Orosz said. “He knew I was new and inexperienced and was so kind.”

Bubba Ray came to NHS from the State of Connecticut Animal Control after the department seized multiple horses from a neglect case.

According to Marisa Bedron, an ag teacher at NHS, “an exact age can be difficult to figure out in older horses, but my best estimate for him this year would be mid to late 20s.”

The Woodbury FFA Instagram page posted about Bubba Ray’s death and asked students and alumni to share their favorite memories of the horse because of the great impact Bubba Ray had.

“He was the first horse I ever led and fed, and I’m thankful I can say that,” Orosz said. “The first morning, he was so patient with me as I struggled to put a halter on a horse for the first time ever.”

Bubba Ray was a great horse and he will be very missed by all.