Special Time With Scarlette

Now that both my little girls are in school, when I go out to feed the horses in the morning, there is no longer a rush to get back in the house, I can spend as much time out there as I want.   I always feel closer to God when I'm with the horses, it's very special time.

After feeding, checking water tanks, and checking over a few of the horses, I was standing out in the paddock by the barn where I saw Scarlette standing nearby.   Scarlette is a special horse, she was not treated very well in her younger days, at the farm where she was born and raised, she was feared, handled roughly, etc.   I was the only one who showed her kindness and we had an immediate connection to each other, that was so powerful, we were just drawn to each other, all those years ago.

When she arrived on my farm, in the fall of 2004, we had not seen each other in almost 12 years, but we picked right up where we had left off.

In the almost 9 years since she arrived, our relationship has gotten even closer.   She is, no doubt, one of the smartest horses I have ever been around and worked with.   I talk to her in plain english, as if I am talking to a person, and I swear she understands.   This morning was no different, but it was so special.

Scarlette rarely approaches even me, when she is loose in the pasture, but this morning, I asked her if I could check her over and she stood still as I approached, instead of turning and walking away.   I ran my hands across her neck, over her topline, over her ribcage, across her flanks, and rump, checking her body condition.   Now that she is 22 years old, I am trying to watch her weight carefully as I can, along with the other 2 senior horses on the farm.   I recently changed to a new grain and am watching for changes to tell me if I have made a good choice.

After checking Scarlette's body condition, she stood close to me and I gently touched her face and discovered some seeds of some sort on her face and I carefully picked them off of her fur.   There had to be near 50 of them, it was a lot.   She stood letting me do this and then when I was done, she shifted her weight and I thought she was going to walk off, but she moved and seemed to be asking me to scratch her neck and shoulder on her right side.   After a few minutes, she backed up 2 steps and repositioned herself so I could do her left side.   I never moved, I let her do all the moving.

As we spent this time together, I started talking about our history together and if you have read the story of our time together at Longwood Farm, you will know of the Angel experience we had together.   For some reason I asked Scarlette, "Do you remember the Angel?"

At that very moment, she stepped back again, raised up her head, ears pricked, and then she gently put her nose to my face and continued to gently sniff my chin.   You will know the significance of this if you've read that story or if I have told it to you.   I will put the link to it at the end of this post, but if you have not read it, I was touched by an Angel feather on my chin, to protect me from Scarlette's knee hitting my face, when she threw me off one morning, when something scared her.   No one can tell me otherwise, that it was definitely an Angel experience.  Scarlette never threw me again, from that day on, she always let me calm her down.

Scarlette and I continued our peaceful and loving conversation and rubbing session for almost a half an hour.   It was of her own free will to spend this time with me and it was, by far, the longest time she has ever spent with me, of her own free will.

As I scratched her itches, from time to time she seemed to tell me "Thank you!", she'd wrap her neck around me, put her head on my shoulder, and sniffed my face a few more times.   Most of these things are not her normal behavior, as she is not the most affectionate horse, but I have noticed that she seems to be becoming one, in her older years and maybe as she realizes she's here to stay and at peace.  

I told her of her son, Marcus, and how proud we are all of him.   We always tell her about his races right after we get home, but I just decided to talk more about it.   I even told her that if he continues to do well that maybe we could breed Glory, her daughter, next year, and she could see her grandbaby running around the fields in the next year and a half.  She seemed to like that and pricked up her ears and even looked over towards Glory, at that moment.   As I said, this mare is smart and understands what i'm saying to her.

This morning was definitely a very special time with my beloved Scarlette.   She is now retired from breeding and will live out her life with me and I look forward to many more special times with her.   What a blessing from God she is to me.


You can read the blog entry "Red Devilette's Yearling Story" at:

http://theblindhorsewhisperer.blogspot.com/2011/05/red-devilettes-yearling-story.html