Regards, continued & a Surprise!

7/8/23

The moment we got to the stall, there was a big crowd all wanting to see the super hero. She’d out jumped one of the best open jumpers on the East Coast.  Regards was ever so pleased with herself, she bounced all the way back to her stall. 

It was my job to give her a bath to get the sweat off of her coat and to help cool her off. Normally she loves a bath but today she was very anti-shower. We took a long walk around the show grounds to let her relax some and tried it again. No problem this time… it seemed like the “Jumping Queen” had appeared. 

‘Noooo, I don’t get a bath until I have been shown off to everyone’. 

Hmmmm….. seems as though the one that jumped over the moon (almost) was declaring the rules… silly ol me. Once she was dry and in her stall, I wanted to wrap her legs. Just a good rubdown and standing wraps. Hahaha, I would get one almost finished and she would reach her face down and pull the bandage loose. I would have to begin all over again. She’d offered to do that back at the barn but never as much as today. I told her that she was being worse than Jellino… she paid no attention, gazing down the aisle.

We loaded the up and got on the way home. When we arrived the whole farm was nickering and whinnying, saying “hello!”. Finally we were all done and I headed home to my little house.

The next morning, I was doing the normal routine turning some horses out and feeding the horses who were retired, living outside. Mucking up manure, setting up haynets and all that comes along with caring for a barn full of horses. The weather had been getting colder now as winter approached. Soon it would be Christmas time and I was excited about the gifts I had for the Boss, his wife and Anna.  It was going to be the best, I thought to myself.

My favorite mare was so heavy in foal that she looked like she was going to explode. She had two more weeks to go in her pregnancy still. She was miserable and it was like she couldn’t get out of her own way. She’d stand by herself so the other mares would not bother her. I tried to spend extra time with her and I think she enjoyed it. Plus she got all of the best carrots.

Jellino was flourishing in his new life. He wasn’t sore at all and acted like a big nincompoop when he thought he could get away with it. One day he decided that Jellino was to come in first rather than 4th… so he calculated the fence height and popped right over it, trotting into the right stall. I was floored in watching him. Wow!! From a trot,he cleared the 5’ fence easily. My boss was amazed at his ability. Perhaps we’ll have another jumper in the future?  He was a favorite ‘ big putz’.

 Because I had just about been living at the farm, I was told to take a few days off and then return on a certain day. I had time to get back to riding my horses and get everything cleaned up before the big holiday arrived. It was not as though I was going to get any company but it was nice to get home to a sparkling clean house. 

The morning I went back to work I was excited to see if everyone was alright.  Sure enough, there was Anna riding a colt who had been on stall rest for a while. He was looking sound as could be. The farm was able to redo the old track with Regards’s earnings and what a big difference it made. The new footing was slow to freeze ,making it much safer.  Jellino was upset being outside because he was no doubt getting chilly. I told him that if he kept running the fence that he would be warm in no time. 

I turned the broodmares out for the day and got started on the stalls. It was then that my boss showed up and helped me with them. I was thankful that it was not a big place like some other places. I would have been cleaning stalls all morning…

The clouds began rolling in as predicted and wow, the temperatures dropped considerably. A cold wind picked up making it feel a lot worse.At noontime,I was to bring my mares back to their stalls.They were ready, standing at the gate, whinnying for me to come get them. Two by two, they were led in. Every time a gust of wind hit them, they would jump around like one ton hippos. I could imagine the ride to the barn being an unborn baby that day. I didn’t see Cliché’ anywhere though. My last trip out was for Cliche’. I called and called through the wind getting no reply. ‘ where was she?’ my mind wondered… Still calling her, I headed down the long hill and saw nothing. All of a sudden I heard a gunshot. That was the way my boss let everybody know that we had to get to the house immediately. Dashing along as best I could, I still got there last  We all sat down at the kitchen table to listen to the news. It turns out that the neighboring farm had lost two of their broodmares last night. Heavy in foal and Stolen , it was like stealing four horses. We were told to be extremely diligent about locking doors to the tack rooms and feed rooms too. For the next few weeks, the security cameras were going to be on and to be sure that they were all working. That’s when I realized that I had not brought my favorite mare in yet. I asked permission to go look for her, so I left. 

Back to the broodmares pasture to see nothing. I hoped that by then Cliche would have made it to the gate. There was nothing but some falling snow. That’s when I thought.                 “ omg,noooooo!” Had Cliche been stolen too?? I raced to the house and tried to let everyone know what was happening. Finally the police arrived and took notes, listened to everyone and then checked for fingerprints on the gate. I remembered that there was an old gate on the other side of the field that might show something. We all tramped down to where it was and found it pried open. Fortunately the snow didn’t dilute the thieve’s  prints. The police were optimistic about having something to work with now, and left. I didn’t want to go home but I had to care for my two horses,etc. Once I got to bed, I realized how tired I was… it didn’t take long for me to fall asleep.

For almost a week, we heard nothing about “ my” mare. I was beginning to give up hope. Never to get gentle hugs from Cliche, or hear the soft nickers. I would never see her new baby!  Christmas wasn’t as good as I thought. It was just sad, waiting to hear from the police that all of the mares had been found. In fact , we decided to delay it until the mares were found. We asked neighbors to watch for the mares at any auctions or advertised for sale.  Nothing.  Even the guy that I had been seeing would drive all over, trying to see if the farms had any new horses. No one really knew him, so he could easily pretend to be wanting to buy mares in foal. Still nothing. It was as though they had disappeared into thin air.  New Year’s Day came and went with no news at all. The neighbors were concerned that they might have their babies early due to the stress. I knew that Cliche was due a few days after the first of the year. Her baby was going to be a special addition to the farm as she had been bred to a stallion known for his jumping talents. 

Where Was She???

One day when I was finishing my chores up, the barn phone rang and rang. Usually it was answered by those in the house. Not today though. Finally just to make it be quiet, I answered it. Turns out it was my boyfriend. He’d been told by a friend at work that someone had some horses for sale and cheap. He was going to see them after work and would get back to me. Of course, when I checked the house, everyone was gone. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know where anyone was so I thought I’d just get done with setting up feed for nighttime and wait. It was close to 5PM  when they all got home. Quickly I told them the days events. They wanted to go see it those horses belonged to us and our neighbors. To do that would make a mess of things, so there we were, sitting around the kitchen table, waiting and willing the phone to ring.  Finally it did. He was not positive that the horses he saw were the stolen ones. We heard a truck drive in and it was the neighbors who had lost their horses too. They told him what white markings their horses had and as much as they could remember of anything that might ID them. We couldn’t think of anything else that would make the extra horse be Cliche when all of a sudden I remembered a little scar on her nose from when she had a small cut on it. I described it and my boyfriend said it was the right group of horses.He said he would try to stall the sellers as long as he could but it would not be long. The police were called and we were told to ‘just sit still’.  It was mighty difficult but we did it. I ran to the barn to make sure Cliche was coming home to a safe clean stall. It seemed like we waited for days but it was just a couple of hours.  Finally we got the phone call that the horse thieves had been apprehended and we were welcome to come get the horses. 

The old farm was a good 40 miles away but we were there and fast. Our neighbors were following us with their big horse trailer. The police tramped thru the snow to a barn way off to itself. As they slid the old heavy doors aside, there were our horses! Covered in manure and crud, tangled manes and tails, but not in terrible shape. I ran over to my girl and she whinnied to me. I was never so happy to see a dirty, big pregnant horse in my life. We led them out to their trailers and loaded them up.  We invited everyone to come over for a belated Christmas dinner later that weekend . I was in tears most of the time that day.; All happy tears. My mare had been found. There was no way I could thank my boyfriend enough. He truly understood me when I was so scared and he did his best to make things happen.  He had my heart at that point… 

The next day, I cleaned Cliché up as best I could. Got her mane and tail detangled, and curried her until her coat was shining again. She was so happy to be home . Regards was pleased to see her too. They had become friends when Regards really needed one. 

It was just about time for our delayed celebration and I wanted to get home to get out of the barn clothes.  I was just gone for an hour when I got a phone call to “ HURRY !”  Oh no, not another delay for Christmas! In no time I was rumbling down the snowy lane to the farm. The bosses wife pointed me to the barn. It’s hard to run in heels, let me tell you.  I followed the noise and realized it was close to Clichés stall.  Oh noooooo, she could not be sick… nooo.

I turned the corner to see she was down on her side and groaning something awful. My boss was there along with Anna.  I was going to ask him what had happened and he smiled. “She’s having her baby. “  

‘  No! She is????’ I thought to myself. I would miss the foals being born, only to find them in the mornings all the other times. This was my first time seeing a foal being born in person. And so it came to be a tiny black filly was born on that cold winter night in a barn with all of her family around her. Cliche did it all by herself and what a wonderful mama she was. I sat there with tears running down my cheeks, destroying my makeup. I didn’t care though. We turned on the heat lamps for a little warmth for the new one to get dried off under. 

After dinner, we sat in the living room and relaxed when my boyfriend wanted to open gifts. He sure was in a hurry. So we all moved to the next room. It had been a parlor in the early days but was a TV room now. We all opened our gifts one by one, Ooooing and ahhhing over the gifts for the others. I got a gorgeous pair of custom-made riding chaps from my boss and his wife, and a perfect gold necklace with a silver horseshoe on it from Anna. That’s when my boss told us that there were two more presents for me. Did I want the small one or the big one?  Having never been good at choosing that sort of thing I said to surprise me. A small package was given to me and I had no idea what it was. I gently opened the paper and inside was a long jewelry box. My wonderful man bought me something beautiful I thought to myself…a necklace or bracelet… I sat there thinking of what it would be when Anna said

 ‘ if you don’t hurry up and open the box, I am going to faint '

Well ,we all knew that she had never fainted in her life, so everyone laughed. As I opened the box, I was completely expecting a beautiful piece while my boyfriend sat beside me and watched. I opened it and there was nothing there.  Nothing. He said that before I got any further, there was something he had to say. I was confused and shook my head.  He said that he had been in love with me ever since he saw me take a nose dive off a horse at a show… that he wanted to protect me from any more harm… only to give me happiness. Then he took the box from me and asked if I would be his wife… he opened the small blue velvet box. A diamond and emerald ring was sitting there. It had been custom-made by a favorite jeweler just for me. I knew it was as I had drawn it out to show my boyfriend. I had no idea about the secrets and surprises going on that winter.

 

When he asked me if I would do him the honor of becoming his wife, I said yes, of course!  Everyone clapped and cheered. What a great Christmas!  I wanted to go to the barn to wish Regards and Cliché a Happy Christmas. My boss said he would be there in a few.  Due to my shoes already being ruined, I slopped through the snow to the barn.  

Quietly I slid one door open and stepped in. I didn’t want to wake anyone up so I was very quiet. Regards was lying down in her deep bed of straw, sleeping. Whispering that I loved her, she flicked an ear.  When I was almost at Cliche’s stall, my boss caught up with me. 

They were both awake and when Cliche knew it was me, she gave me a soft nicker. Her little daughter nickered too ( she had no idea what she was nickering about but she made a little grunty noise.)  It was then I noticed that she had something on her neck. It was red and well-chewed. I looked at my boss in confusion. Had someone been in the stall…if so, what happened with the alarm?  He was grinning from ear to ear and as his wife and daughter joined him, he said that I needed to go take the thing off. The little one might get hurt. I did but with a little monkey not wanting to be touched much, it got to be interesting. Finally, I got it free and stepped out of the stall. Thinking who on earth would be so stupid as to do this to a baby.

By then my new fiancé had shown up wondering why the delay. I was standing there, holding the red “ thing “The boss’s wife said that she wanted me to read the words on it. Ooooookay, so I tried to read it even though there were places where I could not …slowly but surely I realized what I was reading. 

“ Merry Christmas, Kris.

    May all your dreams come true 

                and let them begin with Me” 

**Next, Regards becomes a mama, and Cliche’s Christmas Gift grows up.