Of course the day finally came when she was brought to the auction in such poor shape nobody would buy her. It was a miserable fall day. Temperatures were hovering around freezing, turn out at the auction was poor, and nobody wanted the expense of overwintering a mare they could not ride. The meat man was the current highest bidder when I stuck my hand up. There were no other bidders and I would be going home with a horse I had no intention of buying but could not stand to see go for meat.

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By the time the auction was over and people had loaded their horses it was past midnight. The cold wind was miserable for loading, only one horse left… Blue. Oddly enough she loaded easy.

I had a saddle I bought earlier that night and put it in the cab for the long drive to take Blue home.

By now the rain on the roads had turned to ice and the blowing wind was making for horrid conditions. I was driving slow, but the deer that leaped out in front of my vehicle caught me off guard. Instinct caused me to swerve and the ice caused me to end up in the ditch. It was dark, it was wet, it was windy, I was out on a country road, no houses in sight. This was before cell phones are as popular as they are now. I did not have any way of contacting help. Home was miles away, my truck was in the ditch, with a horse in the trailer behind. The trailer was leaning in such a way I knew if I left the horse in there it would eventually tip over from her moving. With nerves of steel I backed Blue out into the night. I still had to her her, myself, and my saddle home. The truck and trailer could wait.

So I did the only thing I could do. I put the saddle on old Blue. I knew she’d been saddled before so this was no big deal. Her known trick was to wait a few minutes into the ride before bucking like mad. I figured with at least 10 miles to go, I would see how far I could get, and if nothing else I would try to make it to a farm house. I climbed into the saddle.

With the snow/rain beating down on us we rode into the almost pure darkness. I could make out the road asked her to jog. A dangerous thing perhaps, but it was cold and I knew we had at least 4 miles before the nearest farm. However far we would make it as a pair was that much less than I wanted to walk on my own.

To my surprise she maintained a fairly steady jog. It might have been the cold, it might have been her age, she never bucked or flinched once. I don’t even recall passing the farm I was looking for. My hands more or less froze around the halter shank I was using for reins. The road was straight, thank goodness for that. Her stamina was impressive. I allowed her two walk periodically, but she had plenty of energy, probably brought on by the weather.

We finally saw the farm lights of home, we had made it. I dismounted at the end of my drive way and led her the final steps to her new home. I took her into the barn and found strength in my cold hands to remove the saddle and scrape the water off her body before putting her in a stall and turning in for the night.

I got the truck and trailer hauled out of the ditch later that week and found that Blue had been brought to the auction last by a well known trainer who wanted to give her another chance but had been thrown on more than one occasion and had given up hope.

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I never did try to ride her again, nor did I take her back to the auction market. Blue is welcome to finish her days at my farm.

-  *  -  *  -

*For the record this story is pure fiction. 

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