The Farm - Part Three

When we bought the farm and was ready to bring him to his new home, the woman who was boarding him convinced us that horses aren’t happy to be alone and convinced us to also take a stablemate by the name of Oakey to keep Cisco company. 

Oakey was a 19-year-old thoroughbred who was taller and bigger than Cisco in frame, but leaner.  Horses are measured in “hands” rather than feet and inches.  Horses are measured from the shoulders, where the back and neck meet, down to the ground. Cisco was 16.3 hands, which means he was 5 foot 7 inches at the shoulder while Oakey was about 18 hands or about 6 feet from shoulder to ground, which is a substantial difference while riding.

Oakey had the stride and gait of a runner – he was a dark bay with black mane, long legs like a racehorse and a gentle look about him. Equine people tend to call horses with pleasant eyes “soft”. These were the type of horses you saw young girls hugging in Hallmark movies.

If Oakey had a fault, it was that as he aged, he became swayback – looking at him from the side would show that his backbone sunk in the middle giving him a comical appearance like a horse ready for the proverbial glue factory.  We rode him with a thicker blanket, a pad and a saddle, which shored up his sway back to champion stature. He looked like a million bucks when under saddle and ready for shows.

Oakey was smart – much smarter than Cisco and more spirited.  He loved the cold winters in Pennsylvania and when given the space would run and buck like his younger self.  He had an unnerving habit of running through the snow and sliding on the ice stopping within mere feet of us.  The thought of an 1100-pound horse barreling into you made us duck for cover on more than one occasion.  I often had nightmares of this gangly long-legged beast falling and breaking a leg, but he never faltered once the entire time we owned him.

As much as he loved running in the pasture, he did not enjoy being saddled.  Somewhere along the way, he discovered that if he bloated out his belly when you were putting on the saddle and cinched up the girth, which was the strap that went over the belly, it would cause the saddle to be put on too loosely.  On more than one occasion, one of the kids would be riding along and suddenly find themselves going sideways down the left side of the horse.  We learned to smack Oakey on his rear to make him gasp and suck in as we tightened the girth.

Horses are beautiful and powerful creatures.  Intelligent horses will test your patience and sometimes endanger its owner if given the opportunity.  It wasn’t a case of being vindictive; moreover, it was a show of who was boss. Fortunately, Oakey’s wild spirit was tempered by his love for his owners and eventually he settled down and gave up his alpha status to be part of the family.

Oakey and Cisco each had their own stalls in the barn side by side and seemed content with the arrangement.  They would nicker and neigh to each other in pleasant conversation but when one was out and the other left behind, they would whinny in distress until within eyesight of the other.  The advice given to us about horses being social creatures proved to be correct.  They were friends for years and years.