A few months before Gordon and I got married, I was looking at a website for a farm that I had worked at, a few years before, and I was just curious what they had for sale, when I saw they were selling a mare, for a client, named Messenger of Light. She was a gorgeous mare, foaled in 1988, sired by Halo, and out of the Chieftain mare, Tribal Envoy.
At the time, she had 4 foals of racing age, but all of them were sired by low level Texas stallions, a fairly well known pedigree expert actually told me to through those out, as they were "Texas trash". None of these had raced and the lady selling the mare claimed that she had been told by the lady she bought the mare from, that the foals were being shown, instead of racing. The mare was so nice looking, it was easy to believe such a story.
Messenger of Light, then had changed hands, after Texas, and was bred to Announce and Jules, quite a bit better than what she had been bred to. One was an early 2 year old and the other was a yearling, at the time. The current owner had bred Messenger of Light to Genuine Risk's son, Genuine Reward. So, again, not to a very promishing stallion.
Gordon and I discussed it, the mare was very nice, came from a nice female family, as her 2nd dam was also the 2nd dam to champion Skywalker. We were not interested in the foal she was carrying and we knew the lady who was selling her, was not happy about selling the mare, as she really wanted the foal, so I devised a plan to offer the lady the foal, if she would come down in the price. I got her to reduce the price by almost half, so we decided to go ahead and buy her, upon my personal inspection and a vet checck.
So, Gordon and I went out to see her. She was in the field and was so sweet. She was just as pretty and perfect in conformation, as her pictures had shown. She then passed her vet examination and so we bought her.
Because her cousin, if you think of it in human terms, was Skywalker, and Gordon and I are big sci-fi fans, and love "Star Wars", we decided to call her Leia.
The farm wasn't ready yet for horses, so we kept her at the boarding farm a bit longer and then a new neighbor of ours offered me a stall, so she could be just down the road. I paid them board and I went out to see Leia as much as I could for the few weeks she was with them.
Once the barn and fencing were up, she joined Baron, Bunny, and Angel, at the new location for Perfect Peace Farm.
I tried to have the four horses out together, but for some unknown reason, Baron did not like Leia and would chase her. So, I had no choice but to separate the group. Bunny, who was pregnant with Belle, was kept with Leia, so the two pregnant mares were together, and Baron and Angel were paired up.
Leia was due about 6 weeks after Bunny, but since Bunny carried 10 days late, Leia foaled just a month after Bunny.
Leia delivered a nice looking colt that was a bit weak, at first. He seemed fine the first 12 hours, so passed his first vet check, but when he was about 30 hours old I started to worry about him. It was a Saturday morning, of course, and only one vet at the pracitce I used was on call. I called her and told her my concerns, but since she was a new vet and not that experienced with foals, she was not concerned. I was pretty upset with her lack of knowledge and concern and I did not like being treated like I was over reacting.
Luke was breathing heavily, his heart rate was high, and he was starting to develop a fever.
Still being new to the area, I did not know all the vets in the area, so I called the people down the road, that I had kept Leia with the previous summer, to ask for another vet recommendation. They gave me their vet's number and she agreed that Luke sounded like he needed help.
I called this vet, told him what was going on and he said, "I'll be there in a half hour!" So, that showed experience and concern, that I wasn't just over reacting.
Once he got here, he said that I had acted quickly and praised me for being aware of what was going on with the colt. He said that if I had waited any longer, that Luke would have developed pnuemonia. Since it was borderline, we went ahead and treated him as if he had it, just to be safe. He got a catheter put in his neck, so we could give him the antibiotics straight into his bloodstream. We had to flush it out several times a day and give him the meds after flushing it.
Luke was a good patient and he quickly gained strength and soon was a healthy thriving colt. His owner was very pleased with him. We sent her pictures quite often.
Leia was then sent up to Northview Stallion Station in Maryland, to be bred to Waquoit, a son of Relaunch. Relaunch had sired Skywalker, and Waquoit had a reputation of crossing extremely well with daughters of Halo, so we were very excited about this mating.
Leia got in foal quickly and was soon back home. Luke grea a lot while theyw ere gone. I'm always amazed at how fast foals grow.
Since Belle was now in the stall, due to her fractured pelvis, Luke had no one to play with, until Belle was finally cleared to go out that July. They became quick friends and loved playing with each other. Leia and Bunny were great co-moms, they'd let the other foal come near them, if their foal was at their side. They helped each other out and took turns babysitting.
Belle and Luke were weaned in late August and in September, Hurricane Isabel hit us. Belle and Luke shared a stall and were perfectly content. All the horses were very calm during the storm.
We were without power for a week, after Isabel, and shortly after that, Luke left us to go to his owner's farm in Pennsylvania. Luke was registered as Feel The Force, because I could feel his strength as he fought, those first few days and you could tell he was a fighter. It just came to me, and yes, it has a "Star Wars" sound to it, too. I suggested it to his owner and she loved it.
I usually try to register the horses I breed with religious sounding names, but as I said, this name just came to me, so I figured it was just meant to be his name.
His owner said she planned to train him herself and race him, but I have not heard anything from her since Luke was a 2 year old. I do not know what happened, we had a wonderful relationship, had become email friends, so I worry that something happened to Luke and she just didn't have the heart to tell me. I stay in touch with just about everyone who gets a horse from my breeding program, as I try to keep track of what I breed or what I have even just owned, not bred, for a short time, so I know they are safe and I let everyone know that if they ever need to give the horse away, it needs a retirement home, etc, that I want to be the first person they call and I will take the horse or pony, if I have the space. And if I can't take the horse or pony, I will do all I can to help them find it a good home.
So, if anyone out there ever hears of a Thoroughbred by the name of Feel the Force, born in 2003, sired by Genuine Reward and out of Messenger of Light, please contact me, so I know where he is.
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