More stories shared regarding rescue and rehab of the big lick horse: I have saved 3 horse so in the last couple of years one had holes drilled in the top of her feet an bolt installed and covered with hoof filler Back in the late 60s I worked at a top English show barn in Michigan. There were 3 shedrows and an indoor arena and restaurant/observation room. The shedrow I worked in had ten stalls on either side of a large aisleway. I groomed privately owned horses. I had a string of ten horses that I took care of. A young man “groomed” the other ten. It was a nine to five job. By the time I arrived to the barn in the morning, a crew had already fed the horses and cleaned all the stalls. All of the stalls had automatic waterers. My job was to turn out the horses, weather permitting, and give each horse a thorough grooming. I would also look in the tack room to see if any of my owners had ridden the night before. If they had I would clean their saddle and bridle. I would also tack up a horse if the owner called and requested that. I was out of there by five oclock and so I didnt often see the horses being ridden. The young man who I worked with was a lazy conniver. He figured out which of his owners came out in the evenings and it was their horses that got groomed. The other horses got ignored. He didnt last long on the job. One of his horses was a stunningly beautiful Tennessee Walking Horse. I am not going to name him, but part of his name was Go Boy. His sire – Merry Go Boy - was one of the important foundation sires of the Tennessee Walking Horse breed. The owner came out rarely, and from the scuttlebutt around the barn, nobody liked him. He would come out, tack up and put chains or rollers on the horse and ride him hard in the indoor arena until the horse was a sweaty foamy mess. I never saw this, but the next day a few times I saw dried sweat on him. This poor horse lived in the stall 24/7 and got groomed occasionally. He did not get turned out because he was too feisty to lead to and from the paddocks. His day was spent rubbing his nose back and forth on the iron bars of his stall. I could not stand it. I asked if I could add him to my string, until the worthless groom got fired and replaced. I would get him out in the aisle and curry him, loosening up the dander and dried sweat and then vacuum him. He had a coat of black silk. He was so kind and I could not understand why he was not allowed turnout. After asking my boss several times if I could PLEASE turn him out, I was told “Put a chain on his nose and be very very careful. You are on your own.” I led him out of the barn to the paddock, through the gate. He was about to explode. Who knows how long it had been since he had been able to run and play on his own ? He kept making false starts and trying to break away from me. I could not let him go without getting the lead shank off him and since I had the chain over his nose, it would take some finessing. I kept talking to him softly and moving with him until I finally got the chain free. Easy boy, Wait. Youre all right. Easy. Easy son. Chains off ! He exploded and spun and was in a full gallop with his first stride. I watched him buck and play and shake his head. His black wavy mane flying. His long black tail flagging. What a sight. Pure joy. After that first turn out, he developed manners and was not so anxious about being turned loose. He led pretty nice to and from the paddock although he was definitely “up” and spirited. One night I was bringing him back in. It was that time of year when it freezes at night and thaws in the day. A truck had driven along the barn and left ruts which were now frozen. As I stepped on one of the ruts, he accidently stepped on me and I knew instantly my toe was broken. I cried out and he stopped. I was crying from the pain. I put my right hand over his withers and used him as a crutch as I could barely put any weight on my right foot. This horse baby-stepped me back to the barn. He would wait for me to take a step and then he would. He went from I FEEL GOOD to ARE YOU OKAY ? in a nanosecond. After a while they fired the young man and hired a girl to take over his ten horses. She insisted on taking over grooming my TWH. She also wanted to lead him in and out. I refused and kept doing it. She got ugly about saying “Youre not my boss. This is my horse. I want to do it.” She bugged me so many times that I finally gave in and talked to the boss and got his okay. I had her watch me release him after taking him through the gate,turning him back towards the gate and closing the gate. I gave her explicit instruction to talk softly to him until the chain was free. The next day off they went. She came back in a few minutes with a broken finger. She apologized for accusing me of being bossy. I continued making sure he got out every day. I was young and got an offer to manage another boarding stable. The perks were a free apartment and free board for one horse. I was living at home with my parents and this was such an opportunity. I took the job and left my beautiful boy behind. If I ran into anyone that had connections with the first barn, I always asked how Go Boy was doing. It wasnt long after I left that I got the bad news. The owner had come out and ridden him hard on a hot night then threw him in the stall and left. He didnt get cooled out properly. I dont know if Go Boy had a stroke or an aneurism or what really happened to him. He was gone. He hadnt even hit the prime of his life. It took a few more years of working with riding horses and harness race horses for me to decide that I just didnt have the heart to work with other peoples horses. I had no control over their destiny. It hurts me to this day that I left Go Boy.
Posted on: Thu, 05 Dec 2013 00:16:38 +0000
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