Thursday, May 7, 2009
My Boy Bucky
The horses now belonged to Travis and Mr. Hunt. Mr. Hunt decided to send a hauler to pick up the yearling "Derby", his Mom Artic Roll and her foal. I was not terribly upset for Derby to go as he was a lot for me to handle as an inexperience horse woman. Artic was the prize mare at this point with some potential for the new foal and the foal within, so I could understand Mr. Hunts concern. I took more pictures and said my goodbyes. I did not want to be there when they left, Travis would see them off.
It seemed quiet now, I had Salina Star and Lady Gelaine and both of their foals, this suited me just fine. Morning and night I doted on my charges. Salina was so happy to be rid of crabby Artic and she and Lady got along wonderfully. Travis took care of getting the feed when it was needed, We had developed a nice friendship he and I , I lost Johnny but gained a new friend
I talked with Mr.Hunt about worming the horses as Julie said they needed it. He told me what to purchase and how much to give. The only one I could not treat was the filly so we had to give John a call, If you remember he is the ex-jockey that was helping johnny train. John was almost always available if we needed his help. Since you could not get close to the filly it was best to get the mare and foal in the barn. Lady was no problem but that filly had a mind of her own. Lady was not an experienced mother and could of cared less if the filly followed her into the barn,, she never once knickered, John said she was a horrible mother, I took offense because she seemed attentive enough to me.Anyway, the filly just took off and ran all around the yard like a wild child, my worst fear... a runaway foal. There were 4 of us and after quite a while John wrangled her into the stall with Lady.
She was a tough one and it was hard to watch. John finally got a halter on her and gave her the medicine. After a bit they were back out almost the same as they came in. Phew!!
Bucky, Salina's foal was my little buddy he was the sweetest foal, I could do anything to him. Putting a halter on him for the first time was so easy. I knew I was spoiling him, he already loved peppermints. One thing I remember Johnny saying was racehorses were always spoiled so I guess I was starting him early. I also like to think that all this attention made him so loveable too.
Now that Bucky had a halter on him I wanted to try to clip a lead on him. I talked to Julie about it and she said to give it a go.Julie was in Louisiana and had Johnny's other two race horses. I called her when ever I had questions, she was most helpful. Since the horses were kept in the pasture I would clip the lead on Bucky when I would go in the pasture to feed, he would eat and go from pail to pail, I let it stay on until I left so he slowly got use to it. My buddy was growing so fast he was going on 4 months old.
Ok...question...how many horses and foals are now at the barn with the ones going away? I can't believe how much you took on. LOVE the picture!!
ReplyDeleteThat is a great photo! You learned a lot fast, didn't you.
ReplyDeleteAlicia, I now had 2 mares and 2 foals to care for.
ReplyDeleteWhen Johnny passed away we had 9 including the foals and the stud pony.
I look like the wreck of hesphah in that picture, but it has my sweet boy in it so I said what the hell! As always after leaving the farm I was one dusty mess, I can't believe how fast I got use to it. My Massachusetts life was soooooo very different, hard for anyone to imagine me doing the things I did here in Tenn.
ReplyDeleteCute!! It's an itty bitty Chippy!! Your blog is great too!
ReplyDelete