*** If you missed part 1, please scroll down...the story makes much more sense read in order!***
Once we were on the road, we decided to stop for lunch. The horse was happily munching hay in the trailer, parked in a shady spot behind a little diner. We took a little break from the road and had a nice meal before heading back out for the long drive home. We had lots of time to talk on the way home and decided it might be best to give her a bath and wash away the grime & germs of the kill pen before we even put her in the quarantine pen. The drive home took hours, but other than some rain was delightfully uneventful.
Once we got back to the farm, she backed right off the trailer. Head up, ears up, she took in her new surroundings. We'll likely never know if she ever spent time around farm animals, so I just let her look for a minute at the poultry running around the yard before I led her around back to the hose. The poor thing had been through so much, but she led rather quietly...already it was becoming apparent this wasn't a wild thing, someone, sometime had spent time with this girl. There were 5 of us there hosing her down, but she took it all in stride- well, mostly...she did not appreciate having her underside sprayed, but this is a rather typical thing for a mare and not a concern. Being lethargic and not caring at all would have actually been more worrisome. The spray from the hose did bring out a little fire, and as she stood there with ears and head up, despite the fact she was blowing snot all over me, she looked like the horse I had pictured in my head after all. I saw the possibilities. In fact, she no longer even looked small, as she really WAS taller than my old mare Sara. She looked strongly Lippitt Morgan to me and in that moment, the fact that she didn't have papers seemed less important, the fact that this beautiful girl had entered my life, and in the process had been saved from a horrible, untimely death was what really mattered.
My plan was to get her better and build trust in the days after she arrived. No need to contaminate all my tack, nor to stress her out, just get her better and let her know she was safe, and home. I also needed to name her, and settled on Faith. A pretty name for a pretty girl, but also because it is a huge leap of faith to go through the process I did to find my next forever horse. We took short walks to nibble some fresh green grass and get some fresh air and sunlight. Even her first full day here she had no problems walking quietly beside me, even venturing into the woods. Then the evening of her first full day with us, the most brilliant rainbow I have ever seen in my life appeared. A perfect semicircle which stretched from one woodline to the other, wrapping itself over the entire farm. Not just a rainbow, but a double, perfect rainbow. One that made you believe in pots of gold at each end, due to the way it seemed to be lit from below on each end. It stayed in the sky for over 15 minutes.
Once we were on the road, we decided to stop for lunch. The horse was happily munching hay in the trailer, parked in a shady spot behind a little diner. We took a little break from the road and had a nice meal before heading back out for the long drive home. We had lots of time to talk on the way home and decided it might be best to give her a bath and wash away the grime & germs of the kill pen before we even put her in the quarantine pen. The drive home took hours, but other than some rain was delightfully uneventful.
Once we got back to the farm, she backed right off the trailer. Head up, ears up, she took in her new surroundings. We'll likely never know if she ever spent time around farm animals, so I just let her look for a minute at the poultry running around the yard before I led her around back to the hose. The poor thing had been through so much, but she led rather quietly...already it was becoming apparent this wasn't a wild thing, someone, sometime had spent time with this girl. There were 5 of us there hosing her down, but she took it all in stride- well, mostly...she did not appreciate having her underside sprayed, but this is a rather typical thing for a mare and not a concern. Being lethargic and not caring at all would have actually been more worrisome. The spray from the hose did bring out a little fire, and as she stood there with ears and head up, despite the fact she was blowing snot all over me, she looked like the horse I had pictured in my head after all. I saw the possibilities. In fact, she no longer even looked small, as she really WAS taller than my old mare Sara. She looked strongly Lippitt Morgan to me and in that moment, the fact that she didn't have papers seemed less important, the fact that this beautiful girl had entered my life, and in the process had been saved from a horrible, untimely death was what really mattered.
My plan was to get her better and build trust in the days after she arrived. No need to contaminate all my tack, nor to stress her out, just get her better and let her know she was safe, and home. I also needed to name her, and settled on Faith. A pretty name for a pretty girl, but also because it is a huge leap of faith to go through the process I did to find my next forever horse. We took short walks to nibble some fresh green grass and get some fresh air and sunlight. Even her first full day here she had no problems walking quietly beside me, even venturing into the woods. Then the evening of her first full day with us, the most brilliant rainbow I have ever seen in my life appeared. A perfect semicircle which stretched from one woodline to the other, wrapping itself over the entire farm. Not just a rainbow, but a double, perfect rainbow. One that made you believe in pots of gold at each end, due to the way it seemed to be lit from below on each end. It stayed in the sky for over 15 minutes.
I believe that things happen for a reason. Sometimes others appear in your life suddenly, because you need them to be there and they need you. As much as I wanted a horse LIKE Sara, I knew that no horse could ever BE Sara, and that we would need to have our own bond, our own relationship. Something I did not expect was how quickly Faith would come to feel as though she really was my horse. I had two decades with Sara and really felt that no horse would ever touch my heart the same way, but this was happening and quickly. We've spent time just walking, letting her graze a bit on a lead rope. Then the other day I thought it would be good to let her run around in the lower barnyard, near the peacocks, to stretch her legs and blow off some steam before Dan trimmed her feet for me. I had to stay with her to guard the barnyard gate, if the other horses came down she would need to go back to her pen to keep them safe & healthy. Startled by the noise & sight of the fully fanned peacocks, she ran...and took refuge behind me. Then, as I sat in a chair trying to read a magazine while she had time to be a horse, I found myself telling her to go play as she tasted my ponytail and licked the magazine. Does she know I rescued her? Maybe. I know she acted as though I could protect her in those moments, and I am excited about a long partnership with her. Her cold has all but disappeared, so soon we'll be trying to figure out exactly what she knows. It's more than just her temperament that makes her so easy to handle, I truly believe she was worked with, probably extensively, sometime in her past. In fact, we had tied her up to trim her feet, and as she pulled back a bit on the rope, it put pressure in just the right place and she parked out perfectly, a stance taught to show horses where their back legs are stretched out a bit. She responded to a cue and executed perfectly. The shame is I know nothing about how to ask her to do it again! But the best partnerships are where you both learn new things and grow together...