A horse story

"A Horse Story" by Sharon Baldwin (Animal Communicator)

            I stood on the porch the other day and thought what a wonderful time it would be to hit the trails in this beautiful country. The weather was crisp, temperature in the 50's, blue sky, good riding weather. What a beautiful day for December!

            The little Arab gelding I rode for so many years has been gone for some time now, and oh how I still miss him. We had such good times together. Wagon trains, trail rides, shows and just hangin out together. I don't think there will ever be another Turkey.

            He came into this world on the hottest day of July ever recorded in the mountains of western NC. I left my mare in the good hands of my then husband Bill and my younger son Scott, and I was off to a horse show with my stallion, Cohali. Unpredictable as ever, Nasheema didn't wait, she decided to have this baby without any help from me. She foaled midmorning on Saturday, her first, a jet black colt with a thumb print on his forehead. The mare was scared to death, had no idea what she had just spit out, but she figured it out real quick. Bill had just come flying to the barn after being informed by Scott that they both had missed it. (New baby, hurry Dad!) As Bill rounded the corner to her stall, one of the mare's friends poked her head in Nasheema's outside window to see what was happening and mama panicked, eons of years- old instinct took over, she pinned her ears at her old friend, picked the colt up with her teeth and pitched him to the far end of her stall. Big foaling stall (12x24), he didn't hit the wall, but went sprawling quite some distance away from the perceived threat. Some introduction to this new world, huh? Scott went flying to catch Missy and put her away, while Bill ran interference. Tough little bugger from the start! After his initial entrance and near catastrophe, everything pretty much settled down. I came home from the show (I did bring home some ribbons) and took over from the exhausted baby sitters. It had taken the guy's, our vet, and a good friend, hours to get the colt to nurse. The mare was sore, the colt weak, and the heat didn't help. We all managed to make it through the first day of this little, scrunched up, black critters first day of life on this planet.

            Day's and months passed, then years. The colt grew, filled out and started to look like a respectable specimen of the breed. 15/16 Arab, somewhere the 1/16 Quarter Horse got lost. I showed him a few times at halter in his early life just to expose him to life away from the farm. He did well, and then the time came to start him under saddle. His futurity class was looming in the near future. All the ground work done, I sent him to my trainer. The colt was a minx, hence his nickname, but never a mean bone in his body. I hauled him over, left, and never once thought about having any problems with this horse. A few days passed, and then I got a phone call. "Nothing to really worry about", Pat said, "This may take a little more time than we thought, Turkey dumped Lynn (Pat's wife) and broke her arm. I haven't seen one buck like this in a long time."   Uh Oh, what's wrong, I wondered. We discussed what happened, and Pat said he'd keep me informed. This colt should have just walked off with no issues. I know, I worked with him daily. Everything I had done with him was easy and fun. He loved to work and to please. Nothing changed. All the ground work was perfect as usual, but when you sat on his back, he exploded. I had him vet checked, nothing was found. Pat decided to try driving him. The first day he hooked him to the training cart, Turkey snaked his long neck around and looked around the blinders and seemed to say, "Okay, this is cool, let's go," and he did. He walked out like he'd been driving for years. He loved it. So, what was wrong, why couldn't we ride him? We drove him in his futurity class, he was gorgeous, did a beautiful job, and came in second. I brought him home, we had exhausted all our options at that point and I knew he needed a break to just be a horse. He played with the other horses and with our dog Beau. He and Beau, a black Lab, had played together since they were both little. They chased each other, and if you didn't know their games, you'd worry that someone would get hurt. Thank heavens they both were good at judging distances. He settled back into the normal rhythm of daily life.

            A few months later, Pat's wife called. She said, "Sharon, you'll probably think I'm crazy, but there's a lady in town who talks to animals, and I was wondering if you would be willing to let her talk to Turkey and see if she can find out what's going on." I hesitated, and then thought, " What have I got to lose?" She made a call, set it up and then this lady was at my barn. Seeming and looking very NORMAL, although I'm not sure exactly what I expected. She talked with Turkey, telepathically, and he told her he had slid under a rail fence as a baby, possibly dislocating his right hip, if, in fact, it had been dislocated it had gone back into place, but his hip and a spot on his back hurt severely when you put the added weight of a person on him. Well-l-l-l !!! Now what, I thought! I tried to think it though, and decided to see if I could find someone to check this out. I made some calls and found a vet in the area who had just started doing accupuncture on dogs and asked him if he would be willing to check out my horse. I didn't tell him about the animal communicator, just that I was having some problems, and would like his opinion. He found severe points in his right hip and two points on his back. He did three sessions on Turkey, and then we decided to see what would happen. I took him back to Pat's, he climbed on in the round pen, you could see him come up and tense, knowing he was going to hurt. He pinned his ears, swisshed his tail, crow hopped a little, and got a perplexed look on his face. His eyes softened, as he started to walk off, the ears twitched, the tail relaxed and his body started to relax. He didn't hurt anymore. Pat walked him around the round pen several times, each circle he relaxed more. He turned him, no problems. Walked some more, then stopped. Enough! I had a horse that could be ridden, thanks to a lady who talks with animals.

            Needless to say, that experience generated my interest. I read, asked questions and was determined to learn as much as I could about what this lady did. Months later, I had T back home. I was riding him by then, slowly, building both our confidence, with me on his back. One morning as I dumped his feed, I noticed a scatch on his nose. Nothing life threatening, just a scratch. I said, "How'd you do that Turkey?" He immediately threw me a mental picture of a nail that had worked it's way lose on his stall wall. I opened his door, walked over, and "lo and behold" there was the nail with blood and hair on it. "YES! YES!! I've got it, I can do it," I said. That was in the early 80's, and I've been talking with the animals ever since. Turkey and I had 13 wonderful years together. We rode the mountains, the Blue Ridge and the Smokies. We rode many miles, some with one of the oldest wagon trains in the country. We showed a little, but by then, I was pretty burnt out on showing.

             My horse and my dog were my best friends. I lost Turkey to colic about 12 years ago, and my old dog last year. I've had horses since Turkey, but there will never be another just like him. Maybe that's just as well. I don't think I'm quite up to the challenges of a young one anymore. We'll see!!

            In July, Mack the Malamute and I moved to Mancos. I finally got settled into my new place in October and decided to wait till spring to look for a horse. On the other hand, my older son asked the other day, "Mom, have you found a horse yet?"

(this story was written in December, 2005)

Telepathy