True Stories

A Pony Named Sue: Sue was the light on a dark winter night. It all started a few days before Christmas in 1990. I was out traveling looking for a pony for my then four year old granddaughter. Thinking it was just a couple of miles over the Ohio boarder, I left 3:00 o'clock in the after noon for a 5:00 o'clock appointment. Taking the two horse trailer and a friend, we headed across the boarder less than 5 minutes away from us. The afternoon was clear and I was truly hoping to make it a quick lock and load trip, with directions I felt it would be a snap. Four hours later in pitch blackness I was still trying to locate the small pony farm that I had the appointment with, now mind you this was before my time of carrying a cell phone, which I would never be without again, we were lost, getting hungry and with nothing in sight no where to stop and make a call, not even sure if we did we would be welcome so much past the time of arrival expected. About ready to give up I agreed to make it down to the next main intersection or in a better term, the next road that would allow us to either turn around or to just make another lost turn in our blacken maze. I had no idea where we were or how to get back to a main road. I could barely see 10 feet in front of the lights that our big Dodge truck illuminated for me. "It has to be here" I kept telling my friend. "Give it up" came her replies. "Alright, watch on your right and I will watch on my left and the first place we see with lights we will stop and ask for directions. After all this is farm land and they should understand" I managed to get that out and make myself feel a bit better in doing so. "What's that?" a whisper sent my head spinning in the opposite direction. "I'm not sure" I whispered back not really for another reason than the dark and the offering of the moment it sounded right. "Looks like something in the field is down, what do you think it is?" Taking a closer look I decided to try to back up the trailer hoping to back straight and not get caught in the narrow roads ditch. Slowly I moved backward and manipulated my lights to angle toward the right hand shoulder of the road giving us a little more viewing of the field and the content in the field. "Awe, it's a horse and it looks hurt" Tina stated. I being the hearty one and always out to do the right thing, decided to get out of the vehicle and take a closer look. "Are you nuts?" came another silly question, we both knew I was. I slowly walked the 25 feet or so to the fence rail and just as slowly climbed up and over it. Taking a flashlight with me I could hear comments in the back ground which of course I ignored. "You're trespassing, we are going to get shot, Jesus Christ," they kept coming. Now, in the center of a large field with no apparent building, shelter, home or anything else around I stared down at the most hideous site I had even seen in my entire life of being a horsewoman. The small creature was on her front cannon bones scooting along, her hooves were over grown to the extent that they were wrapping themselves around her fetlock and started in a deformed way to grow up the cannon. The word speechless comes to mind but it does not do justice for my feelings at the time. I am sure my face was as white as the 2 feet of snow I was standing in. Come and take a look was all that I could manage to get out in return to Tina's repeated request for information. The gasp and moans that came from her small frame as she approached the creature were my feelings that were silenced inside of me. "Who would allow something like this to happen?" she asked. Tears ran down both of our faces as we stood there now well past 10:00 pm in the evening freezing cold with snow up to our knees. "I don't know but I will find out and I will see that something is done about it;" I made a whispered vow as I turned to go back into the warmth of my truck. Sitting there waiting for the warmth to come to my cold fingertips and warm my face, I could not think of anything but the creature out there in the snow with her face barely above the snow line. I put the truck in drive and slowly crept along the road now on a whole new destination plan. I was going to find the house that this field belonged to get an address and turn them into animal abuse or control or where ever you turned in situations like the one I just seen. Anger was setting in now that I was driving away, anger that boiled as my wheels turned down that narrow road in the darkness of night. Nothing, no house, barn or any form of occupancy to the field. I began to wonder if the animal was left out there to die in a back 40 or something. When I came upon the road that crossed the existing one I was on, I decided to turn to my right and see if it was possible that a house was down the on the face of it, after all the land had to belong somewhere, nothing but another road appeared shortly and we turned right again. Similar to going around a city block but racking up much more miles in the process. I would say we traveled a good three quarters of a mile from where we left the poor creature in the field. There it stood, a shabby old and what was left of a long ago farm house. I pulled up in front of the place, sat in my truck and stared to the surroundings. A big farm house that looked almost deserted except for the vehicle in the driveway, a more up to date garage in back of the house and a few out buildings off to the left of everything. Sitting there right in front of mailbox I could see no identification to tell me who lived here, no address on the box, not even a street name that I could remember seeing on the entry to the road. I decided to put caution to the wind and just march up there and tell them what I felt of them, for it was more than likely that nothing would transpire for like I said I had no ideal where I was or how I really got there so chances of finding my way back were next to impossible. Still I wasn't going to let it go that easy, I would make them think I knew and that I was about to bring the legal world down upon them. Old or not old I said to myself, that is inhumane to keep that poor creature like that. I suppose the looks of the run down farm made me assume the occupants were elderly, I can't really give another explanation. At a stressful friends warnings I pulled into the driveway and got out of my truck, marching up to the house. Motion detectors lighting up the area as I approached. A smart comment ran across my mind, the place is run to the ground and they have motion detectors like they have something worth watching. I climbed the back steps to a porch, with no doorbell in sight I loudly banged on the door to the arouse the inner darkness of the house. Nothing, not a peep, so shuttling of feet, no comments no lights came to my thunderous pounds. With my courage up I continued to bang away with Tina in the background using whispers so low that I could not make out what we was trying to convey to my ears. I did however after a few pounds decide to take a closer look around perhaps I could station the area in my head to try to make my way back in daylight hours. That is when I noticed, again I gasp. Everywhere there were animal pelts, all over the garage, the closest out building, even hanging off sections of the house. Animal pelts everywhere, some that seemed they had been there forever aged and others that looked bright, shinny and new. Oh my god! I took a deep breath. No one at the door thank god, I decided I would better help the situation by getting into my vehicle and leaving as fast as I could. I did not turn and walk away, I backed away all the time watching the door and praying to god there was not some insane lunatic in there waiting with a shot gun to add my hide to his collection of skins. The mind does strange things when fear sets in and trust me I was afraid. I managed to get to the edge of the porch and had only a step or two more before I was off of the porch when the door flew up and there stood a large old man in coveralls he was pulling the bib section up over his long john shirt. Stumbling backward I almost fell off the porch, catching the rail I froze in place. "What do you want?" came the request from the man before me. I could see he looked normal and for the best part he had no gun in his hand as he opened the door to step out on the porch. My courage seemed to rebuild itself and I again spoke up. "Is that your pony in the back field"? "What the hell are you talking about" he looked at me very seriously. Taking a deep breath I again asked my question, "yeah so what" came his reply. Now I found him, I found this inhumane human man that was old and gruffy and normal and he was not going to get away without me putting in my two cents. I was proud of myself for my convictions were strong so out it came before I had a chance to change the words. "I am going to call the law on you and help prosecute you to the full extent of the law for what you have done, don't you realize how cruel you are in your treatment of that poor creature". "Lady! get the hell off my porch and off my property" "I'm going, but you can depend on me coming back with authorities" I informed him as he moved toward me. I backed off the porch now and stood on solid ground a few feet from my vehicle which I noticed started to back out of the driveway. It crossed my mind that my close friend was moving my truck and trailer out away from me, and might just be going to leave me standing here. Why that thought came to my mind I have no ideal but I can assure you that the mind thinks of everything at these moments. I fired back comment after comment with hopes of keeping him on the porch talking while I made my way back to the safety of the truck and that would be only if he decided not to enter his house come back out and fire at the truck. I was hoping for the best here and afraid of the worst. His rude comments flew as fast as mine did and somewhere in the process I got "lady if you feel sorry for that damn pony take it with you". I stopped to register what he said. That meant he had no intention of making me wall covering, and how could I now knowingly leave the poor creature behind. I quieted my altonation and with the sweet softness of voice I said, "can I go through your field here to get to her". Tina not willing to give me any help in the situation and quite shaken up herself, I had to get a bit over barring with her. "You have no choice now come on and help me I can't drag it out of the field in this snow alone". We together somehow found the little thing and ironically enough we managed to carry it in our arms between the two of us. With the trailer doors open we gently lowered it into one side of the trailer which it instantly fell under the side rail into the other side. I decided against ties for it was already on the ground and I had pictures of it being hung with lead ropes tied to it's throat. I had no halter that was capable of fitting the small head. As I was about to close the trailer the old man threw a dirty, hard, nasty old saddle right in on top of the poor animal hitting her in her head and back with it. "Might as well take her tack he said we won't be needing it any longer", he threw in a bit and bridle just as old and nasty on top of the saddle. I took both pieces and put them in the manger to the trailer up off the little pony. Closing the door and backing out of the drive, I lined up the truck to head toward home. Quite as a mouse the saying leaves a lot to be said. You could have heard the mouse in the truck even over the sound of the crunch of tires on the road not a word, a sigh, nothing. I tried to hear my heart beat but for the pounding in my chest, there was no sound of life in that vehicle right then. Finally I blurted out "are you alright?" "yeah" was all that came. The ride home took another couple of hours just to find US 2 east bound. My thoughts never leaving the animal I had in the back of the trailer, I was about to introduce her to a barn full of expensive Arabian show horses. Oh god what did I do I asked myself, why would I be so stupid? The damn pony might give my horses strangles, some unknown disease good lord. As I crossed the boarder into Michigan, the welcome sign put me to some comfort of knowing I was home and safe. As I got closer to where I was going to drop Tina at her home I asked if she would mind taking the poor thing to her place after all she had one horse only and to put it mildly it was only an old retired thoroughbred racehorse. The look on her face told me not to ask twice. I dropped her and took the last mile to my farm alone full of anxiety of coming events. Almost 2:00 o'clock in the morning I pulled into the driveway, taking a moment to gather my thoughts I sat there with the motor running. Alright no choices here, I turned off the truck, got out and went into wake my husband. "You better get up and go take a look at what I have done" now it was my turn to whisper. "What"? "Just go take a look then we will talk". Opening the back of the trailer a few minutes later I watch the expression on my husbands face as he took a deep breath and tears came to his eyes. He sat down on the back of the trailer bed and looked closely at the small pony. At least I was not alone he was overwhelmed so it justified my actions I was sure of it now. I had an inner circle ally. We stood there in the middle of the night in the freezing cold and cried together as I told him my story of the events that took place. Now my concern was for the existing horses what to do. My husband began to unload the shed in back of our house that was used for sleds, ski mobiles, snow shovel and a bit of lawn supplies. He gutted it to the ground, went to the big barn and brought back three bags of sawdust and a small bucket. He took the time to drill a small hole in the side of the wood shed to install a hook that he used to mount the water bucked against the wall on the floor close to where we was about to lie the head of the pony. We secured the doors to block the wind and we called it a night with our new addition to the family. No sleep came to me that night and many nights to follow over the outcome of the creature. What was suppose to be a child's Christmas present was now a rescue mission gone sour. The vet advised us to put it down, the farrier was not willing to give it a try to salvage the hooves. What was I to do, yep you're right take a stand, after all both farrier and vet had been taking care of my expensive show horses, at expensive prices for many years. I would use that as my leverage. They take care of this pony or they could find themselves a new client. Of course the vet was more than willing to give medical attention even against his own advice, after all it was just shots, and medical cream. Oh, I forgot to tell you about the chemical that poor thing fell into. The blue chemical covered her face giving her sores and crusted eyes most likely blinding her. The vet estimated her to be well over 25 years old, a Shetland barely 3 1/2 feet tall standing on all fours which at the moment was an impossibility to do. The farrier on the other hand elected not to give in so easy and I did call another farrier and he did loose my business which he begged my forgiveness for several months, never to return to my farm. The new farrier was more than willing to put a little extra effort to take on a client with over 20 horses. The farrier is another story in itself, but he did manage to take off bit by bit of Sue's hooves. We named her Sue, or our granddaughter did. She went as a present to the little four year old anyway. Not for Christmas mind you but shortly afterward her little roaming eyes spotted the little pony and her squealing little voiced yelled "it's just my size grandma, it's just my size". Sue became the light of that little girls eyes. Many months past and over time we did manage to get Sue standing up on all fours again, we also moved her from the shed to a personalized stall that we got instructions to build from our granddaughter, with Sue's name in a brass plate on the front of the 3 foot high stall with a two foot door on it, so Sue could hang her head out and see the other horses. Sue eventually was turned out with all the other mares in the big fields of grass to live what we thought would be her last years in comfort. Two years into our endeavor of rescuing Sue, Alexandra our granddaughter decided to become a trainer. She wanted to train horses, after all like she stated she was already riding and showing professionally why not do her own training. I laughed and laughed at her little temper tantrums. If you want to train, go get Sue out of the field and train her after all she is just your size I reminded her. Well to make a long story short and to cut a lot of corners and take away a lot of great memories, she pulled Sue out and tried and tried to get that pony to go into a circle, refusing lunches and crying her eyes out day in and day out I decided to lend a helping hand. Late in the evenings after Alexandra went to bed I would go back to the barn after evening feed, get the small Shetland out and work her. It wasn't but a couple of days before the old girl remembered what to do. With the help of the right cues she began to walk, trot and canter on commands. The problem was Alexandra loved the cantering part best of all. Give the old girl a break I would warn Alexandra before she drops dead from exhaustion. We all agreed that Sue was not a riding pony only a kids pet. It wasn't long that Alexandra decided after watching some of the bigger girls ride bareback that she too was going to be a bareback rider. Now one thing is to let her canter on an Arabian in a saddle at 4, 5 and 6 but to have her go bareback even I was a bit worried there. Get Sue and bareback on her was my suggestion if you want to learn then you can do it on Ibn. Ibn being her first western horse was not really a smooth ride bareback then again after watching her try to ride Sue, the bounce the bump, the falling off, the sliding down the back and hitting the high withers, maybe Ibn would be a better teacher. I recall her first day, she fell so many times, cried and climbed back up. She would make Sue stand next to the fence as she mounted her then a few steps with the choppy pony trot off she fell into the sand only to repeat the process. That first night after her shower she laid belly down on my lap while I put salve on her little butt to cover the blisters from her bareback attempt. Alexandra never did manage to ride Sue bareback, but she never gave up on the ideal that Sue could be rode. So a new pony saddle came next with new bridle and bit. Oh and how fancy in pink and black nylon with Sue's name stitched across the brow band. It wasn't long afterward that Sue became her mount of choice to do the trails. Now that alone was worth a story or two. A good quarter horse can cross a three acre field at a full gallop in a very short time, but at the other end of the field we meaning myself and who ever else chose to ride with me on a quick mounted Arabian would have to wait a matter of minutes for Alexandra and Sue to come running over the fields. We would just sit, watching and laughing at the scene of this little girl yelling at the top of her lungs yahhhh yahhhh, her little feet kicking the sides of the pony to a full gallop and gallop she did. Sue would be the first without hesitation to go into the ditches, ponds or wooded area, thus making her in Alexandra's eyes the best of all the horses. I could not argue with that. It wasn't long before the day came that Alexandra wanted to take Sue to a competition show. Oh my god I thought to my self, standing on all fours was one thing but her cannons were calloused and raw of hair, her face was marked white where the chemical left damaged effects on her skin, she had lost the sight in one eye and she was now pushing if not already 30 years old, there was no way I was taking this pony out in the public. People might assume I was responsible for her condition. My granddaughter did not understand the term no way. After two bathes, clipping and a big heart shaved in the butt of this hairy Shetland rescue case we loaded her into the trailer along with two horses we are planning on schooling, destination a fuzzy wuzzy warm up show. Sue got to ride in the dressing booth, with none other than sawdust spread in my trailer. Sue even came fitted with ribbons for her long shaggy braids. Oh my what a site we made. Now mind you this was a fun and games show along with a few walk, trot and canter classes. There was the egg and spoon, the water in the glass and the down and back and barrels. The egg and spoon, hehe you know what happen there almost before they said walk, then the water class it lasted until the trot and there oops went the water. Alexandra cried so bad tilting her glass to the side showing she still had a drop of water there they let her stay the duration of the ride. Each event she cried because Sue was not getting her so warranted ribbons according to my granddaughter. The barrels were hideous, the down and back hilarious, she got Sue going and made it down but on the way back Sue decided to exit under the gate, Alexandra on cue laid down on her back and under the gate they flew with the crowd roaring in laughter. Catching the pony and leading her back into the arena explaining she had to pass the finish line to qualify, Alexandra was overwhelmed at the explanation of why a horse that did the down and back at such a low score 9.2 seconds which also happen to be one of our schooling horses won and Sue that made it in a much higher score of 131seconds had lost. It made no sense to Alexandra at all, just caused the tears to roll. The end of the show to my surprise they called Alexandra and her pony Sue by name up to the front of the announcers booth and awarded her with a 3 foot trophy, for Sues efforts and Alexandra's ability to sit and stay on such a fine horse as Sue. They called it the booby prize for Sue being the best booby they ever saw. I hung my head in amusement but Alexandra held her head way up high and got off Sue to carry that trophy all by herself. She had to drag it a bit in order to hang on to Sue and drag her also, but all three made it back to the trailer with the crowd clapping. Alexandra handed me that trophy and in her eyes she deserved it. It was the biggest of the day, the prettiest and much better than any blue ribbon, so they all knew like she did that Sue was the bestest pony as she put it, the bestest pony in the world. That was 1994, Sue lived until the winter of 1996 where she died in a back field out in the open among her friends and fellow equines. She somehow managed to get respect from the head, all including the head mare. Sue was a light on a dark night, came into our lives and shined so bright that she will always be remembered. It's fun to watch old videos or come across a photo of Alexandra and Sue. The saying one mans junk is another mans gold is so right. I suppose Sue was my guide to the path that lead me to rescuing horses there are many stars out there just waiting for the right moment to shine. by Joanna A Photo of Sue