The School of Life with Horses

Why Patrick is Special - Concluded...

A new horse
It was towards the end of Patrick’s 2 year-old year that the girl’s trainer finally traded her out of the mean gelding. With a huge training credit the girl decided she could afford another horse, and she knew just the one she wanted. A friend of hers owned a mare that had been consistently producing excellent winning babies. This mare was by the famous late great Dynamic Deluxe, and she has just had a baby by Infinitive a couple of years ago. Exactly what the girl had been wanting for a long time – and just to make it even better the baby was colt and it was black, the girl’s favorite color in horses. In short the baby was everything the girl had been wanting in a horse.

So a deal was stuck and the girl bought the colt using some money from the girl's savings. The plan being that the girl would futurity both colts one in Western Pleasure the other in Hunter Under Saddle, save the winnings and eventually sell the black colt for a huge profit. The girl named the horse Cole (pictured below) after his coal black color, and because he seemed to be all colt so the name fit well. The girl was excited over having two very nice colts to show in the Spring as it had been a long time since she's had a horse she could compete on – however the excitement was not meant to last.



The fire
The colts were in training that winter while the girl worked away saving money and planning show outfits. During the winter a boy the girl knew from when she was younger passed away and other things in the girl’s life became a struggle. She wanted to go visit her horses as they always made her feel better. After a few failed attempts to visit them she finally had a date scheduled for the weekend. Two days before this date while working she received a call from her friend informing her that there had been a barn fire at her trainer’s place. She didn’t know much only that a lot of horses had died.

The girl’s shoulders fell and she slumped at her desk, as much in sorrow as in disbelief, one thought occurred to her…..Patrick! “Oh no, God please no!!” she prayed as she tried to call her trainer and other friend who lived in Lewiston but couldn’t reach anyone. Finally her trainer answered the phone – but in a voice she could just barely recognize. His first words were controlled and with each following word, what he said became almost like a sob. He said that something terrible had happened, a barn fire, and a bunch of horses died, he began listing the horses that had died.

What we lost in the fire
Infinitive had died (Patrick’s sire and Joe’s favorite all time stud horse)….Grace (the girl’s friends’ horse show horse, who was recently sold to a youth on the west side of the state), Simeon (her other friends horse who was qualified to go to the AQHA World Show), Phil (the girl’s friend Kelly’s horse), Dan (Joe’s nice cowhorse stud – which was going to Kelly’s husband to ride and show next year), a young colt belonging to some folk’s north of the trainer’s barn, a young filly owned by some other friends of the girl…….and the girl’s horse, Cole. Patrick had been one of the few rescued, but that was of little condolence. Everything had been lost all tack, blankets, brushes and anything in or near the barn was gone.

The girl hung up the phone and sat there at her desk for a moment while her co-workers awkwardly glanced at her. She felt her heart sink into her gut and slapped her hands over her mouth to avoid yelling but a sound could still be heard in the office, it sounded like the whine of a small wounded animal – for a moment the girl didn't know it was coming from her.

Grief really is the price we pay for love
She left work for home intending on picking up the trailer and picking up her remaining horse – she didn’t even know if there was a place for them to stay for the night. On her way home she was called by many people, but she can’t remember exactly who, emotion does funny things to memory. She does remember picturing in her mind her little colt, alone, running around in his stall scared and crying out, breathing smoke, then burning….it was more than her mind could handle. She pulled over in the woods between the two HWY's she takes to get home and threw up, fell to her knees, and cried like she hadn’t cried since she was child. She couldn’t breathe, it was like she couldn’t force air back into her lungs, the world spinned and for a moment things went dark.

When she had regained a moment of control she jumped back in her car and with the help of a phone call from another horse friend made it back home safe. The girl made the trip to the trainer’s place that night and will never forget the smell of the burned barn and horses that night as she drove by it to see her other horse, Patrick. The foundation of the barn glowed a bright orange red – it seared itself into her memory like a brand.

The horses had been put up at the near by Round-Up grounds and were well taken care of – so she did not need to bring Patrick home, but the smell of him, the feeling of his warm body and his breath on her shoulder helped bring her back from the brink of despair. She sat in his stall and cried – his eyes were watery from the smoke and he smelled of the fire but he was otherwise unharmed. He was gentle and quiet in his stall just as Gracie would’ve been – and sniffed and bumped the girl with his nose while she cried and hugged him.

While the girl was there another lady entered the barn spotted Patrick and said “Oh my God you’re alive – thank you!” she ran over to pet him. This lady, as it turns out, was the stall cleaner and helper for the old barn and had taken a liking to Patrick, upon hearing of the fire she was worried sick he had died. She started crying as well.

What followed was one of the darkest times the girl had ever gone through. A horse injured in the fire was put down shortly after the fire bringing the count to nine horses that died in the fire. For a while afterward it seemed as if nothing would go right for the group. The girl was heart broken, not just for her horse but the others as well, she had groomed, lunged, bathed, and ridden almost every horse that had died in the fire and her brain didn’t understand that they were all just gone now. Very little except Patrick could cheer her up, not her friends, not the pills the doctor gave her, not her family or her husband.

Time heals, but sometimes it takes a long time
As the world moved on everyone started to feel better, little highs like seeing the immense generosity of others lifted the girl’s spirits if only for a little bit. As a new barn was built and as horses were replaced and due to the quick enormous efforts of her trainer to erase any trace of the fire, everyone involved began to recover, but it was and still is a slow process.

The girl was angry that no one was at the barn to spot the fire and help the horses – but there was no one to be angry at. She was angry that she was not there to save and protect her colt – but grateful Patrick had survived. She was also angry that she had not insured the colt and had spent so much money on him. The anger is gone from the girl now, replaced with a deep lingering sadness that is no longer tapped unless conversations of the old barn or colt are brought up.

The girl is grateful for her friends, family and her horses, she doesn't know what would've happened without them. Her friends and parents, during that dark time and even Patrick it seemed, formed a protective circle around her and didn't let her fall beyond an arms reach into the depths of depression. She would do anything for those people as they have all done so much for her.

With his mom, his dad, and his half brother now gone Patrick (picture below as a two year-old the summer following the fire) is truly the last of his kind and the girl vowed to give him every chance at a successful future as a show horse and to always give him a home, he had become very special to the girl and she to this day treats him as such.



Of course the story isn't over - you've been reading about it since April here on my blog...

As an interesting side note - most of the Infinitive breedings the year of the fire didn't take and the mares that were pregnant had problems only one healthy Infinitive colt was born, making Patrick is one of a handful of the last Infinitive babies. Maybe it was the smoke or stress but no one is sure but most mares aborted their babies and/or absorbed, and there was one still born the following spring year.