We left off with Sara. Well after Sara left to VA at the end of my freshman year of college, I went down to work at the Chincoteague Pony Centre for the summer. Kerra had a mare that she was training and eventing for the owner. She was a 8 year old Thoroughbred/Quarter Horse/Appaloosa cross named Minnow. Minnow was 16.2 hands and build like a TANK. She was black but not pitch black...with a star. She had a big quarter horse butt with thoroughbred withers, shoulder, and legs, and an appaloosa mane, tail and attitude.
I rode Minnow a few times for Kerra over the summer and liked what she had to offer me. She could jump the moon without batting an eye and would jump anything you pointed her at without a question. At the time, I was only beginning my education in jumping and liked the idea of having a confidence builder, and a horse that could help me start eventing. So at the end of the summer, I scraped up all of my money and bought Minnow and brought her to school with me my sophomore year.
It quickly became evident that Minnow and I were not a match made in heaven. She did manage to build my confidence over fences, but little else. She had a very poor work ethic and did not like the consistent training I was trying to put into her. She didn't like just spending some one on one relaxing bonding time with me either. She had no interest in being my friend, which was a huge difference from Sara, who was my shoulder to lean on. If I tried to lean on Minnow, she probably would have threatened to kick me or squish me against the wall. She was very tough mare too, so she would ignore my aids when I was riding, and would plow me over on the ground despite my best efforts. I welted that mare so many times trying to work on her leading manners, but she just didn't care and would plow me over anyway. I felt so bad and like a poor horsewoman when I'd resort to lashing out at the mare, but it became a necessary means of self defense. She just plain didn't care about me and knew that she was bigger than me and at the end of the day, she could win any battle against me if she really wanted to.
Her favorite thing to do was squish me against her stall wall. If I was grooming her in her stall or even just quietly trying to spend some time with her, she would move sideways up to me and use her side to squish me against a wall. All my yelling and kicking and punching wouldn't even make her acknowledge me.
She wasn't a spooky mare at all. She'd seen and done it all. But she would pretend to spook. I would be riding along on a loose rein letting her have an easy walk, and she might "spook" and tuck her but and scoot out from right under me. That happened at least three times.
I was ready to sell Minnow after only a month or two of owning her. We were not a match at all. I could tell it would always be a power struggle between us and while I could learn from it, I wanted to have a horse I enjoyed visiting every day. I would have sold her right away but sadly, Wilson College had a case of strangles come through, and the barns were completely quarantined for months.
I sold her after six months of ownership, and that was too long. A young student of Kerra's actually bought her. I think Minnow probably likes that situation better. Not much is expected of her in that situation. Though I believe not long after I sold her, she was diagnosed with ringbone...I don't know what ever became of her.
It's really a shame it didn't work out...that mare could jump anything. I remember free jumping her once and cranking up the fences, completely in awe of her jumping abilities. We got her up to 4'6", and that mare acted like that size fence actually bored her. But without the work ethic, it didn't really matter what her abilities were.
I began my horse search again. My mom was my side kick as we went all over creation to look at horses. Luckily, I found a horse I liked relatively early in the search.
In upstate New York, we happened upon a 3, coming 4 year old dark bay gelding pretty fresh from the track. He was 16.1 when I bought him, but he shot up an entire hand his four year old year and ended up at 17.1 hands. He had three names before I owned him, but I liked none of them. So I renamed him Louie, because he looked like a Louie. His show name became Stuntman Louie...I thought Stuntman was a cool name for a thoroughbred eventing prospect.
Louie was the sweetest horse. Didn't even know how to pin his ears. He had the personality of a big lab. I will never be able to say enough nice things about this horse. It was always a pleasure to spend time with him.
Louie shortly after I bought him...just look at that face!
Lou was nervous and had some habits from the track that I had to have patience to break, but he always gave 200%. He would get very upset if he thought he did something wrong and would really dwell over his own imperfections. After he got to know me better, he began to focus better, and I found out that I had an amazing horse on my hands.
He was very bright and once he would figure out what you wanted, he would never forget and never put a foot wrong again. He had three wonderful gaits and a beautiful, natural jump. As soon as he figured out what to do with his feet over jumps, he made leaps and bounds in his progress. He was so good at jumping! He had a natural eye for distances and always kept a polite pace in between fences. One week he was lumbering over a small cross rail, the next he was breezing through a grid like an old pro, the next he was jumping a full course complete with gates, oxers, flower boxes, and roll tops at a 2'9" to 3' height like he was an old packer. This horse always kept me amazed at how quickly he learned and how I never had to reteach him anything. Once he got it, that was it.
I stayed at Wilson College that summer to work school horses, so Lou and I continued our work and play at the school. He even got to help with pony camp and loved the kids.
Louie after being attacked by little kids with finger paint! They were SUPPOSED to be learning parts of the horse, but got a little carried away!
That fall, Louie was acting uncomfortable one day. He seemed colicky, but it didn't seem too bad. However, after several hours of trying to make him comfortable, he still seemed to not be feeling well. I ended up taking him to Marion Dupont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg, VA, thinking it wasn't anything too serious, since Louie really wasn't being very dramatic about his discomfort. However, after his work up, it was determined Louie needed surgery, as the vet suspected that he had flipped his colon up over his spleen. So, thanks to insurance, I was able to afford to put him through the surgery.
Two of my friends came with me that night and we got to watch the surgery from a separate room. Despite the fact that my amazing horse was the one under the knife, I felt a strange feeling of optimism, so I was able to actually enjoy getting the opportunity to watch a colic surgery. Louie's intestines were like balloons! They were so full of gas backed up behind his pinched colon. Luckily, nothing was twisted or dead, so the vets were able to put his colon back in place, drain the gas, and stitch him back up. Pretty uneventful for a colic surgery.
Louie spent the next few months recovering, and luckily, had zero signs of discomfort. He recovered beautifully, and eventually went back into work.
Lou completely recovered and feeling good as new!
My roommate, Karly and Lou's best friend, Eclipse, and Me with Louie at Blessing of the Animals at Wilson College
This is also when I first met Pav, who was being boarded at the same place I boarded Louie. Katye Allen, a friend of the Gehmans, was leasing him.
Well a couple of weeks into my summer, Katye went to get Pav to take him to a lesson. Pav had pulled a shoe, so I offered her Louie. He was still green and this was when he was just starting to figure out jumping, but I figured he would at least allow her to do her lesson and get to ride a different horse. She agreed, so we put him on the trailer and away we went.
Louie rocked. Below is the video from that day. This was his first course. His first one stride. His first oxer. His first time jumping flower boxes. His first time jumping anything higher than 2'3". He blew us all away. I knew my horse learned fast and never looked back, but he even caught me by surprise. I was so proud of him. I loved this horse and felt like the luckiest girl in the world.
About two weeks later, I was driving out to take my truck to the shop and Katye was following me in her car. She caught my attention and pointed to Lou out in the field. He was walking very funny, but he was far away so it kind of looked like he was just trying to find a good place to roll.
We went out to check on him. Eclipse, his buddy who ALWAYS was by his side, was down the field a ways. Louie was starting to sweat and was walking strangely, and acting very disoriented.
We led him to the barn to try to cool him off and figure out what was wrong. He couldn't even walk a straight line. When we got in the barn, he starting throwing himself around blindly, running into walls, tack trunks, me...he didn't seem to be in a state of mind where he really could care. He seemed to be in a lot of pain, and was getting more and more painful by the minute. Kerra, a vet tech, and Kendy Allen, pooled together their store of drugs and Kerra pumped Lou full of as many painkillers as she could without killing him. It was very hard to give him the drugs, as by now he was in so much pain that he was throwing himself to the ground and careening all over the place, but Kerra got the job done.
Lou only got comfortable enough to become a little more aware of his surroundings, but even all of the drugs didn't stomp out his pain.
There was only one vet in the area, and he was busy in surgery. Trailering him out to a vet wasn't an option, as I felt sure that he would throw himself around in the trailer and really hurt himself. So we had to wait.
Kerra and Katye came to my aid and stayed with me and Louie the whole FOUR HOURS it took for the vet to get there. I walked Louie, Kerra held a hose of cold water on him, and Katye used a whip to try to keep Louie from going down. He still went down and rolled several times despite our efforts. I was at the point where I was ready to shoot my horse, and even asked for someone to find a gun. I already knew what his fate was, and I hated having to prolong his pain.
What really made me accept what was about to happen was Eclipse. Someone walked Eclipse in from the field, past us walking Louie, to his stall. Eclipse usually loved Louie and liked to be near him. He didn't even acknowledge Louie as he passed. I felt like he had already said goodbye.
When the vet finally arrived, Louie went down one more time, and laid very still and all of a sudden became very calm and relaxed. It was almost as though he know what the vet's arrival meant for him, and he was ready. It was such a strange experience, but I was so glad that my horses seemed to know it was time for Louie to leave, so I didn't have to struggle with the decision. They decided for me.
The vet fiddled around a little but the conclusion was that we should just put him down. I already had decided that. Even if by some miracle, this colic case could be resolved, he already had one surgery under his belt, and a second surgery would mean I could expect him to colic badly for the rest of his life. The vet guessed that he ruptured his colon.
Louie went very quietly and Kerra and Katye stayed with me and Louie like the sisters they have always been for me. They took me for a drive afterward, and we went to the beach, covered in sweat and dirt and tears, and watched a perfect sunset.
I was lucky Louie was in Chincoteague when he died, because we were able to bury him on the property of Pony Pines Farm. The owners, Donnie and Lynn Matthews, took care of everything for me. I am so glad I was able to bury him.
I didn't have him long but Louie was one of the most awesome horses I have met.
Time for bed, Part 3 coming soon...we have three more horses to cover, plus a little blip on my time with Pav :)
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