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Photo of Ivory Pal by Cheri Prill Tennessee Walking Horse Issue August 2010

Part 2: Owe Someone Money!

Everything has a beginning and an end (the middle sometimes is optional), and so the end came with Snowy. I was lucky to have her for 8 years before the effects of Cushing’s Syndrome forced me to put her down.

And so the end came with the husband as well. After that, I sold the 3 bedroom, 2 bath with a pool and limited riding space, for a 2 bedroom, no pool but a pond, big barn and LOTS of space to ride. It was also in the same community as my trainer/friend, who was soon to become adopted family member. Daisy pony went back to her, as I wanted no reason for ex-husband to come here. Shortly thereafter she began to act strangely, charging the children who came into the mares’ pasture to get their rides. A trip to the orthopedic vet confirmed polycystic ovaries, and the need to have her spayed. I footed the bill, and off she went to spend a few days at the vet’s.

Then came hurricane Francis, the Hurricane Who Would Not Leave!. I was still at my old, wood-frame house, with all my hurricane supplies packed up for the movers coming the next week. I’ve been through hurricanes (or so I thought) on Long Island, but they were nothing like this! I spent the night pacing the house in pain from the fibromyalgia and beginning osteoarthritis, just unable to get comfortable anywhere. The electric was out, so the a/c was out, and the t.v. It was humid, it was hot, and all I had was a wind-up radio and 3 dogs. Spud (a Schipperke) pissed in my lap when a big tree fell over with a crash. Mercifully, I was lying on the cement tile floor, trying to cool off, so it wasn’t that bad, but still! All I could do was pat the wall of the house and mutter, “good house” when it withstood another big push of wind. Horrible, frightening night. It took the county the better part of a month to finally repair all the traffic lights and for us all to go back to normal. A few weeks later I closed on the new house, sold the old house and moved all in the same day. I’m really not an over-achiever, really! It just sort of ended up all happening at the same time. After it was all done, I went home, my new home!, and fell asleep on the floor of my new bedroom and slept like a baby until my cell phone woke me at 7 the next morning. That was the movers asking if I really needed my furniture that day. Hurricane Jeanne had sped up and was due by late morning.

Keep the furniture! I have no shutters here!, as I grabbed dogs, soda, and whatever else I could think of to take to my brother’s house a half hour away. Feed the old Appaloosa mare, leave hay and water for her and give her run of the place, leave feed for the goose, and run! I was not spending another hurricane by myself, thank you! I just made it to Andy’s house (praying I wasn't breaking some curfew or another) as the wind started picking up, pushing my car around on the streets as I got there. I watched tv with him until the power went, and then slept with the 3 dogs on top of a twin sized mattress on the floor. And I made sure I got the mattress, not them. The next morning, friends in my new community went to my house to check on my horse and couldn’t find her. I should explain that I had bought a “handyman’s special”, and landscaping was one of the first things that needed doing. Nature had taken back the 5 acres of land so that most of it was brush and huge thorny bushes. Finding a horse might have been a problem, yes. I told them to look for the big white goose as she’d be right next to the horse, and so she was when they called back a few minutes later. Again, it took forever to replace and repair all the traffic lights, and for “normal” to return. By then I’d gotten a yard crew in and had the place pretty well cleared, and perimeter fencing put in. Daisy had been farmed out to one of the vet’s other clients before the first hurricane, so I owed someone 2 months worth of board. We finally got it together and went down to the vet’s with some of Dianne’s horses to be looked at. After that we went to get Daisy.

Me: How much do I owe this woman for boarding my pony?

Dianne: You don’t owe her. She's giving you one of her horses. What?? She wants you to take one of her horses, and older one. She’s selling off her herd. What? Yeah, an American Saddlebred. Whaat????? Mercifully, I was sitting down. In the truck. Going to get Daisy. And a new horse. A Saddlebred! Wow! The world had come full circle, from watching them to (OMG!) owning one! I’d never even petted one, now I own one? We arrive at her farm, and she’s waiting for us out on the street with the horse and the pony, not looking too pleased. Dianne hops out, I hop out to help load, and (innocently) ask her the horse’s name: She: Spumanti.

Me: Oh. Pretty .What do you call her when you call her? (confused look): Spuie (like they call her in from pasture? How dumb am I?). Oh .Thank you for Spuie. And we’re gone. I got a quick impression of a chestnut with a large star on her forehead, and that’s about it.

Me: Spumanti, huh? I am not standing in the barn yelling SPUIE! No,no. Sounds like I’m calling a pig!

Dianne: laughing. You’ll have to change it then.

Me:( five minutes later) Ok. She’s now Penny. Shiny, coppery, Penny. That I can yell without embarrassment. And so she became. It was now dark out. Dianne’s big rig can’t get into my driveway, and there is nowhere to turn around in my part of the community, so I had two friends waiting for me on the common road between us. We unloaded Penny and Sam and I walked the mile home with our other friend driving the car behind us with the lights on so we could see where we were going, and others would see us. Good Penny walked between us, looking and wondering where on earth she was, who on earth we were, but staying calm while I talked to her about her new life. And so we got home to a new stall, dinner, and a very new life. Next time: On Becoming a Horse

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