Arabian Breeder's Annual Open House Is Finally Over!! Part 4

Part 1

The field that the yearling colt ran into is overgrown with cottonwood trees. The horses love to run between the trees and play hide and seek from each other. Now, it was Suede that was running through the trees alluding being caught.

At some point the wire from the electric fence that had wrapped around the horse's fetlock came loose and at least we didn't have to worry about him breaking a leg. But catching him was going to be another story.

There were five of us out there trying to corner the young horse but most of us couldn't even see him. We relied on our ears as we heard him crashing through the trees telling us his location.

It didn't take long to realize that we were going to need a lure to catch the colt. The next horse coming up to the exhibition ring was a mare and like all of the Leg's colts, Suede is a hormonal thing. A mare was just what we needed. I called for the mare to be brought up to the fence.

The person with the mare didn't stop at the fence but brought her straight into the field. Once Suede heard the other horse coming, he emerged from the trees. Blood was streaming down his face but didn't stop him from trying to jump the mare.

The Arabian mare, Bint Gamaay Rose, is in foal. She wasn't too pleased with this little upstart trying to jump her and the kicking began. I was concerned about the stress to the mare. She isn't that far along in her pregnancy and I didn't want the incident to cause her to absorb the pregnancy. or for that matter for anyone to get hurt in the crossfire between the two horses.

I hollered at the handler to get the mare out of the field but to keep her right up at the gate so we could lure the colt up to her. Several of us worked to keep the colt away from the mare as the handler slipped her out the gate. Once we had a barrier between the mare and the colt Harry was able to get a halter on Suede.

I got a chance to get a quick look at the colt's face to inspect the cut and give him a once over before the horse was led out of the field and back towards the barns. The cut was right across his nose. It was in the form of a "V" and was going to require stitches to minimize scarring. Other than that Suede looked none the worse for wear.

I tossed Colleen my cell phone and asked her to begin calling vets until she found one who would come out to care for the colt. My regular vet was gone for the weekend or he's have been there at the open house but I had plenty of back-up numbers on my phone. While Colleen took care of Suede we needed to continue with the presentation of horses.

Heading back towards the ring, I found work was already underway to repair the downed fence. While the last U-nails were driven into place, I gave the crowd an update on the status of the colt. Then we quickly went on with the presentation.

The mare, Lucy (her barn name) was pretty jazzed after her encounter in the woods with the colt. She put on quite a show, snorting and blowing for all she was worth. It didn't take long before the people settled back into watching the show. We still had over half of the horses yet to show.

After that, things went pretty smoothly. There were no more horses that didn't want to be caught and no more attempts to flee the ring. Even the mares with foals at their sides didn't show any signs of stress at having their babies exposed to a crowd.

Because the day was as humid as it was, a couple of the horses hit the ring without the fire they would normally display. If you didn't know the horse, you probably wouldn't know the difference but I know them well. It was easy for me to see the horses that didn't perform for the crowd in their usual fashion.

One of those horses was Scandalous Reflection. He is a 5 year old dark bay stallion who is almost the spitting image of the great Khemosabi. Not only does Reflection look like the great horse but he seems to exhibit his mannerisms and his great love of people as well.

And just to make things a little on the "unbelievable" side, Reflection was conceived shortly after the death of Khemosabi and his birth was just hours before the birthday of the legendary horse. Those who knew Khemosabi personally can't get over the uncanny resemblance let alone the coincidence in the timing of his birth.

Sunday, Reflection just was not himself. He did snort and blow and frolic and play for the crowd but he was only a subdued shadow of his normal vibrant self. Always a crowd pleaser, they had no idea the young stallion was not anything but great. Secretly I worried that something was wrong with him.

To be continued............

Part 5


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