I bought this mare at a low end sale that was frequented by what is known as "kill" buyers. She was owned by one of them. He approached me about this little mare and another he had bought from the same place that was in the same condition. They were horribly starved. Almost to death's very door. The kill buyer said they seemed really gentle and he did not have the heart to leave them with the owners that had done this to them. So he bought them ( being skin and bones they had no value to him) so he brought them to the sale in hopes that someone might want to take them on as a project horse.
Knowing my reputation around the sale it wasn't surprising that I was personally hunted down to be asked if I might be interested. One look and I was taking them both home.With in a couple of days we were at the vets office and we got the low down. Ruby ( the bay in the picture) was around 28 yrs old, needed what teeth she had left worked on, and wormed. Other than that she had been starved, and badly needed groceries. The other mare a palomino Saddlebred had a suspicious blood drip coming from one nipple, but was only 17 yrs old. "Music" as the kids named her needed another vets opinion. She too had been very badly starved.
While the Palomino mare dug in and ate like there was no tomorrow, Ruby the little bay did not. I don't know how to explain this to you, but the little mare had completely given up. You could see it in her eyes. She was just waiting to die. My daughter Cody was only six years old at the time and she for whatever reason latched onto this old mare as "hers" right away. Cody spent countless hours with the old horse, talking to her, brushing her, picking out her hooves, all while Cody's long waist length hair drug on the barn floor. Cody gave her shampoo baths, standing on a lawn chair she braided her mane, and brushed out her tail. She even started using up our expensive show grooming products on Ruby on a regular basis. Until you have seen it you wont know how odd it is to see a rack of bones horse with a braided mane and tail, coat covered in show sheen, and hoof black polished hooves.
Now under normal circumstances Cody would have gotten in trouble for wasting expensive show products we needed for the show horses, but the thing was the little mare was perking up from all the attention. You may not believe me and those that know me well know I'm normally on the pessimistic side so this may come as a bit of a shock to hear coming from me, but you could literally see the will to live coming back into the old mares eyes. I kid not. More than all the hay we could keep in front of her, more than the grain she was now receiving on a regular basis, the trips to the vet, or anything else we did for her, the love from that little girl is what gave that old mare back the desire to be alive and her will to live.
Even so, it was a slow recovery. One thing about Cody is once she decides she is going to do something she sinks her teeth into it and like a Pit Bull just doesn't let go. She spent countless hours with the old mare, and for months on end. Keep in mind she was only six years old. She had a regular habit of leading Ruby around the yard and letting her graze. When we asked her about it, she explained to us that yard grass was better than pasture grass and so she was making sure Ruby got plenty of it. Ok...I didn't know that. You learn something new every day.
About five months into this Ruby was looking a whole lot better. She had went from skeletal to just ribby. She still had a ways to go but the old mare was clearly making a come back. Cody for all her efforts was really starting to get vocal about wanting to take "Ruby" to the horse show. ( the rest of us already had horses to show) We had to keep telling her "not yet" as the mare was not yet looking good enough for a public outing. Cody was disappointed, but she understood. That however did not keep her from asking each time there was a show that coming weekend. "Can I take Ruby? pleeeeese mommy."
The "not yet" answer was the same for nine months. After those nine months though the horse looked downright healthy! To be honest nobody would have ever guessed what she had been through. It was late Sept that year and the local club was having their very last show of the season. Cody got to take Ruby. The old horses mane was banded, her body bathed from her nose to her brushed out tail, and of course her hooves polished a shiny black. Cody entered her in the child's walk and trot class, and well... the picture tells the rest of the story. Twelve years later at eighteen years old Cody still has that tiny first place trophy on her shelf. * now at nineteen it resides with her in her dorm room at college.
Ruby has long since passed on to greener pastures, but if I were a betting person I would not be afraid to put a big one down that there is an old horse somewhere over the rainbow bridge that is willing to wait a very long time to see a certain little girl again.
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