Before Du Doc came up my driveway that day, I need to tell you something else. You see, there was another horse at that mans house. My friends, Shelly and Sue, spotted him in another part of the barn, when they were secretly feeding Du Doc one night. He was a young gelding, copper colored with a blaze. When Shelly finally came to buy Du Doc she saw the gelding out in the sunlight. He looked like a copper penny but had wounds as if hed been beaten with a metal implement. One stood out badly--a raised scar on the side of his belly the size of a golf ball, pink and protruding. He had sweet but frightened eyes. Shelly bought him too. My friend Sue, ever hopeful, not her real name, took this beaten damaged youngster, and named him Lucky to live. The problem with Lucky was that he had become mental from the abuse hed had at such an early age. Hed come to the man as a young and trusting foal and the man cracked down on him hard. I think it scattered his personality. Sue took Lucky and boarded him at a lovely farm and spared no expense at training. Since she worked full time she didnt see what the barn owner did and was surprised when she received a call telling her Lucky had to go--NOW. They said he was dangerous on the ground. She never experienced this with the horse so she assumed they were inexperienced. This happened however over and over until there were was only one barn left in the entire area that Lucky was not banned from. Now Lucky HAD been trained, and he was certainly broke to ride. As far as groundwork went she saw no evidence to indicate he was a danger. One day Sue took Lucky out on the road with several other riders. She had tacked him up English and just as she was putting her feet into the stirrups a tractor trailer came to a quiet halt right by them; the driver being very cautious. However, he let his air brakes out. You know that loud whistling skull piercing hiss? Thats what they heard right NEXT to them. The horses spooked, and Lucky was off! He was out of there like a million hornets were stinging his butt, and that crazy man who sold him was following swinging a hatchet. With metal stirrups flying loose, whacking his sides, Sue was trying to stay on and control him. But Lucky was bucking and galloping like a thing possessed and heading straight for the highway. Sue came off when he jerked sideways leaping a ditch, but she held onto the reins--Lucky wasnt going to get hit by a speeding car if she could help it. Sue was dragged some two hundred feet across gravel until she hit a big rock. She head the crack. It broke her pelvis in two. Lucky survived the accident. He was willingly caught by a groom from the barn and went in as if nothing happened. Go figure. Sue was picked up by the EMT and headed into the worst period of her life. Coming out of surgery she got the call at the hospital that Lucky had to go. In desperation, Sue dialed a friend begging her to take Lucky at her private facility. Her friend agreed. The facility was an enormous polo pony estate and it seemed Lucky didnt have anything to lose. No lessons for him anymore, just in the barn at night, and out to rolling green hills with beautiful wood board fencing during the long sunny days. Cavorting with other horses seemed good for him for the first week. But then the grooms started finding him loose out in the aisles every am when they got in. It appeared that Lucky was leaping out over the lower Dutch stall door. They tried everything. One night they decided to shut the top Dutch door too thinking that would fix it. You have to imagine this barn. It had a really high peaked roof so air flowed over the tops of all 40 stalls. Lucky must of thought that was strange. Locked in a wooden box with no lid he couldnt see any of his new friends but he could hear them. It must have given him the willies, triggering a panic and memories of the abuse place. Thats all the grooms could figure. In the morning when they showed up at the barn they saw Lucky hanging over the top of the higher Dutch stall door 9 feet up. He was head and front legs over in the aisle. The other half was dangling over his stall side. Apparently, from a standing jump, hed not been able to perfectly clear 9 feet with his entire body. The grooms stood there dumbfounded and frightened. Somehow they got him unhooked from up there without being killed themselves. Sue got the call at the hospital that day. Not one groom dared to handle Lucky again. Lucky had to go. Today lucky is on a farm for horses that live wild. They get hay and grain but little handling. He is a real horse for once in his life. My friend Sue however carries severe scars and pains not from Lucky, but from botched surgeries. Neither will be the same. If you like this daily posting series please click on the Author name above, Milena Banks, and click LIKE on her page. Thank you!
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 12:27:07 +0000
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