Kobi- Memoirs of a Mustang

by Heather Hamel

  I told Mother the mare was back on her feet. Mother stopped and turned, watching the old mare stumbling away from us. “She’s going to find someplace peaceful to lie down forever, son. Come, we must go and rejoin our herd.”

  Thinking back to that day with Mother and the old mare, I got scared. I couldn’t leave Jake behind; he was the only other horse in my herd. He had to get to his feet.

  Once Jake lay down for entirely too long, I got nervous and started screaming at him to make him get back up. I ran over to him to nip him, kick him, whatever it was going to take to get him up. Before I could reach him, Jake got to his feet. Feeling pretty smug that I got him up, I turned my back on him for a few moments. When I looked back to check on him, he was gone. I panicked!

  “Jake! Jake, where are you?” I started running all around the pasture looking for him. I screamed his name the whole time. He wasn’t up front. He wasn’t on the side eating hay. He wasn’t back at the barn. Where was he? He had just disappeared.

  I was running laps around the entire property. I had to find Jake. What if he lay down again and I couldn’t find him to help get him up? As I was rounding the corner by the barn, I spied Daisy leading Jake out of the wooded part of the pasture. Jake never goes in the trees. Why did he go in there? I realized it didn’t matter why he wandered in there. Daisy found him and he was standing up. Jake was okay. Whew! What a scare.

  Before the sun set that night, Daisy and Rex went to spend some extra time with Jake. I tried not to be jealous. I knew Jake wasn’t feeling good, but I was starting to be annoyed with all of the attention he was getting. Daisy hardly spent any time with me since he got sick. It seemed all she thought about was Jake, Jake, and Jake. While he is my friend and brother, Daisy is my human. I needed some time with her too.

  Before I could get too angry with Jake, he yelled to me, “Kobi? Are you there?”

  “Yeah, I’m over here.”

  “I don’t feel so good.”

  That pushed all of my mean thoughts about Jake away and I ran over to him, past a very surprised Daisy, who had wandered away from him and was finally coming to see me. Right now, they were right: Jake is the top priority.

  *****

  Jake stayed like that, not feeling good but not in severe pain either. Until the next day. Then he got worse. The day started well for him, he was even trying to nibble on some grass, when all of a sudden his hooves really started hurting. Now, Jake has always had bad hooves, so hearing him stomp and fuss about them was nothing new. By dinner time, though, Jake couldn’t walk straight. He couldn’t move his back legs in motion with his front legs. It was almost as if someone had stuck two different horses together and they didn’t know what each end was doing.

  Daisy and Rex had to lead him back into the barn. It was painful to watch and I can only imagine how painful it was for poor Jake. He was shuffling like an old horse…a very old horse. He dragged his hooves when he could and hopped on his others when he had to. Hop, drag, hop. They finally made it to Jake’s stall where he could eat his dinner.

  “Kobi, it’s bad. My hooves have never hurt like this before. I don’t know what to do.”

  “Neither do I. Maybe you just have something stuck in them. Once Daisy picks your hooves they’ll feel better.”

  “There’s nothing in my hooves. She looked when we were out in the pasture. They hurt so bad that I didn’t want her picking them up. I’m telling you Kobi. There is something seriously wrong with me.”

  “I’m sure you’re fine.” I told him, trying to make him feel better. “We’ll go for a walk to the front pasture after dinner, and see how you feel then.”

  Daisy didn’t give Jake a chance to walk into the front pasture. She kept him in the back yard, closer to her, closer to the barn, but farther from me. I tried not to panic. I could still see him and smell him. He’d be fine. He had to be.

  When Wendy showed up, I knew I was wrong; Jake wasn’t fine. When Holly, Daisy’s mother showed up, I knew things must be really bad for poor Jake. I had no idea what they were doing when they put Jake’s front hooves in buckets of ice, but I had to trust them that they knew what they were doing. Jake either trusted them or was too sick to care what they did. He didn’t put up a fuss, and allowed them to keep his front hooves in the ice.

  For the first time in a long time, I was put in my stall without having Jake across the barn aisle in his when the sun went down. I was confused and scared for my friend and brother.

  Once the sun had set and the moon was high in the sky, things really got lively. Another human showed up, one I had never met. She had the smell of sickness and medicine on her. She stepped up and seemed to take charge. She told everyone they had done the right thing by putting Jake’s hooves in ice; hopefully it relieved some of the swelling of laminitis and might have prevented him from foundering.

  I had never heard of ‘laminitis’ or ‘foundering’ before, but it wasn’t long until everyone who was at the barn that night knew what it was. Bad!

  The next day, before I had been given a chance to be turned out to graze for the day, there were even more humans out there. Wendy and Holly had left, but Daisy, Rex and some different humans that smelled like sickness and medicine were out. They made Jake stand on pieces of wood so they could take pictures of his hooves. It hurt Jake to move, but he tried his best to put his hooves where they wanted him to. They also stuck something into Jake’s neck and stitched it into place. The smelly human explained to Daisy that Jake would need to keep the big needle in his neck for three days so he could get medicine to help his hooves. Daisy would need to give him medicine through the needle in his neck four times a day during that time.

  Poor Daisy. She had a smell of sickness about her too. Whenever she would talk, her voice sounded as if she had been eating hay all day without drinking any water. She had a tiredness in her eyes that I had never seen before. Still, I knew that Daisy, being Daisy, would take care of Jake first, before taking care of herself.

  The results of the pictures of Jake’s hooves were done while the sun was still high in the sky. I overheard Daisy talking into that strange box she kept in her pocket. She was crying.

  “Jake’s foundered. The best I can understand from what the vets have told me and what I’ve read is that last night when he couldn’t walk, he had a bad case of laminitis. What’s laminitis? Oh, sorry. There’s something called ‘lamina’ in his hoof. It separates the hoof from the hoof wall. For whatever reason, it swelled. When the swelling went down, the bone in the hoof, called the coffin bone, can rotate and drop. If the coffin bone drops, that’s founder. That’s what happened to poor Jake. The bone can continue to drop for up to a week. In a worst case scenario, the bone can actually penetrate through the bottom of his hoof. If that happens, there’s nothing we can do for him.” Daisy started crying so hard she couldn’t talk anymore. She put the box back in her pocket and went into Jake’s stall, where he was lying down, to give him a hug.

  “Oh, Jakey, what are we going to do?” Daisy sobbed into his thick mane.

  Wait a minute. What do you mean there’s nothing you can do for him? Come on Daisy, think! A bone coming through his hoof? That’s going to hurt him. Think of something!

  *****

  But things seemed to be getting worse for Jake. I started hanging out around the barn to comfort him and to overhear Daisy, either when people came to visit or when she was talking into that box. By hanging out and listening, I learned more than I ever wanted to. The first thing I found out was that the humans who smelled like sickness and medicine were called ‘vets.’

  When another vet came out the next day, he told Daisy that things weren’t looking good for Jake. A horse his size would never fully recover from founder.

  “I personally would never own a draft horse that had foundered,” the vet said. “They have just too much weight on their feet. I’d have him put down.”

  What is that? Put down? Jake lays down all the time, so he’s fine, right?

 
Daisy started crying.

  “Before you do something like that, give him one week. He’s on enough pain medication right now so that he’s not suffering too much. Allow him time to rally and let nature take its course. See what he can do. We’ll come out tomorrow to give him the final IV, and the rest will be up to him.”

  Daisy nodded in agreement, unable to speak through her tears and her still raspy voice.

  “But you have to take care of yourself too. I can tell you’re pretty sick also. Go inside and rest. You’ve done all you can for Jake right now. He needs to rest and so do you.”

  Daisy nodded again, thanked the vet for coming out and, against the vet’s orders, went back to the barn to spend time with Jake.

  By the next week, both Daisy and Jake were recovering. Daisy had lost the smell of sickness around her, and Jake was able to leave his stall for almost an hour a day to come out and graze. All in all, things were looking up.

  As winter turned colder, Jake became stronger. He was able to stay out of his stall almost all day, laying down to rest when he needed to, and before long, he was grazing out in the front pasture with me again. Even so, he was different. He was much slower and acted much older than he had been before he’d gotten sick. He was slow and stiff, like a very old horse. Poor Jake.

  CHAPTER 12 — SHOWING AGAIN

  Once spring came and the new, tender grasses started shooting up all over the pasture, Wendy came out and paid Daisy a visit. The women were sitting on the front porch, enjoying the warm day, when I heard Wendy say the words I never thought I’d hear again: “horse show.”

  That got my attention. Seriously, Daisy? Showing again? Are you out of your mind? You said we were retired!

  “I think Kobi would make a great little western pleasure horse.” Wendy told Daisy.

  Oh, and not even show dressage? Watch it with those “little horse” comments there, too.

  “Riding out here by yourself has made both you and Kobi a little soft.”

  What’s wrong with being soft? Daisy, you’re not saying anything. Are you actually considering this?

  “The next show isn’t until March, so you have plenty of time to get prepared. It will give both of you a goal to work towards. It’ll be good for you guys and will help get your mind off Jake, not to mention how much fun you’ll have.”

  “Hmph! Fun isn’t the first word that pops into my mind when I think of shows. Hard work, long days, stress, but not usually fun. Besides, this time it’s all on me. Bianca’s not around to ride him anymore.”

  You know, now that you mention it, I haven’t seen Bianca since we moved here. Where is she?

  “Her dad wouldn’t have let her ride Kobi anyway. Now that his sights are set on getting her into the Olympics, it’s warmbloods or nothing.” Wendy said.

  Oh, yeah. Her dad – it’s all becoming clear now.

  *****

  After the first lesson with Wendy, I decided I liked western pleasure much better than dressage. It’s slower for one thing. I could jog all day long and not wear myself out. I was surprised such a great idea had come from Wendy, but of course I’ll never let on I was enjoying myself. Daisy and I still spent a lot of time in the woods trail riding, so I never really had a chance to get bored with all the schooling again.

  One afternoon, after a lesson where I had performed spectacularly, Daisy and Wendy were discussing the upcoming show.

  “What classes do you think we should enter? They have classes for novice riders as well as green horses.”

  I’m going to suggest we enter novice rider, since I’m not a green horse; I’m black. I shook my head, laughing a little. I swear Daisy; you see me every day and still don’t know what color I am?

  “You’re not a bad rider. Even though you haven’t shown in years and have never shown Kobi, I think you should go with green horse. He’s still young and doesn’t have any experience with western shows, so the judges will probably be more forgiving if he makes a mistake.”

  Me? Make a mistake? I usually don’t make mistakes; I may make bad decisions, but those are intentional! Mistakes? Never!

  “Green horse it is then,” Daisy answered as she and Wendy made their way out of the barn to finalize the plans for the show.

  *****

  Even though Daisy was keeping things low key, I could tell we were gearing up for a show. Wendy came out several times a week and worked us to a sweat. I enjoyed the times without Wendy much more. Daisy and I would head into the woods, just the two of us. I knew what Daisy was up to. We still practiced our jog and weaved in between trees, yet I think she just enjoyed the change of scenery. I did too.

  I started to get nervous when Daisy gave me a bath. I knew show time was coming close. When Wendy came with a horse trailer loaded up with a mare to stay and keep Jake company, I knew without a doubt that it was show time again.

  I was mad at first. How come Jake got to stay home, eating my hay, with a mare for company, when I had to get cleaned up, and made to perform tricks? It just didn’t seem fair. So I ran from Daisy when she came out with my halter. I couldn’t go far but I wanted her to know I was not happy. I ran, I kicked, and I screamed at her. Then I made a mistake: I turned around and saw the look of disappointment on Daisy’s face. This show meant a lot to her. If she was willing to come out of retirement to show how much we had learned, I guess I could, too. I dropped my head and stopped running to let her walk up to me and catch me. I didn’t even put up a fuss getting on the trailer this time. I had a job to do for Daisy.

  *****

  Our first class was Showmanship. I thought it was a bit silly, walking around leading Daisy, but it seemed important to her. Daisy cleaned up nicely too. If she weren’t my human and I didn’t know her smell above all others, I may not have recognized her. She sparkled from head to toe. From the waist down, she wore all black, to match my coat. From the waist up, she wore red, to match my saddle pad. We were a fine looking pair.

  Before we went in, Wendy coached Daisy and me on our pattern. “Above all, look at the judge.”

  Got it. I can drill holes in him with my eyes.

  “And don’t forget to smile. Remember you’re proud to be here.”

  Smile? How in the world do you expect me to smile? I’m a horse. We can’t smile. Oh, you must mean Daisy. She does have a nice smile.

  Lost in my thoughts, I didn’t realize it was time to go in the arena until I felt Daisy tugging on my halter. We jogged down to where the judge was standing and Daisy froze. I could tell she was nervous.

  Come on, Daisy. Snap out of it.

  I tried to nudge her. She dodged my snout and turned to face the judge, smiling all the while. That was all she did. In her nervousness she had forgotten our pattern. It was up to me to save this class. I tried to make our turn, but with Daisy frozen to the spot, she didn’t remember that’s what we were supposed to do. So I backed up. That did the trick. Daisy remembered we were supposed to turn, and then the rest of our pattern went smoothly.

  We lined up to watch the rest of the horses and their humans; their humans did better than mine. It was Daisy’s first show, so I’m sure her nerves had something to do with it. I understand. I was nervous during my first show, too. It seemed like a lifetime ago.

  When the horses were done, the voice in the sky started talking. I perked up when I heard Daisy’s name, but the horse they announced was ‘Cobby’, so at first I figured there was another human called Daisy. Then the voice in the sky corrected the name, ‘Kobi’.

  Cobby? Really? At least they finally figured it out. Sheesh - Cobby.

  Shaking my head in disbelief, I led Daisy out of the arena to get our ribbon.

  Our next class was a trail class. I figured we would do pretty well since Daisy and I go trail riding all the time together. Boy, was I wrong! It was nothing like what we do in the woods. The gate was the most difficult thing to do. First of all, it wasn’t a real gate. A real gate we could have handled, no problem. This one looked like a green snake draped ac
ross two posts. Daisy was to lift one end of the snake, hold on to it as we walked between the posts, and then place the snake back in its original spot. The only thing no one counted on was whether or not horses wanted the green snake coming over their heads. I guess other horses were okay with it; I was not. Anytime that snake would come close, I would throw myself in reverse, backing up until Daisy let go of it.

  Daisy, what are you thinking? I don’t want anything coming up over my head. I never would have survived in the wild if I did. Remember, I’m not your average horse, I’m a mustang! Come on, drop it, and let’s move on to the rest of the course.

  Daisy has a stubborn streak. As long as the judge would allow her to try it, she did. I could have just done the right thing, and let her hook the snake on the post, but then again I didn’t want anyone thinking it would be alright to always bring something strange up and over my head. I had to make a stand, so after ten minutes of backing up, I convinced all humans present it was time to move on. We did the rest of the course perfectly, but Daisy was exhausted after that and we still had two more classes to go.

  Next up was our pleasure class. Daisy had to show the world, or at least everyone at the show grounds, what a pleasure I was to ride. Now, that should have been easy. We’ve been working for years together, and I knew exactly what jog rhythm she likes the best: slow and easy. What we never saw coming were the other seven horses in this class. And at least five of them weren’t what Wendy or Daisy would consider “green.” Even though I gave it my best, we didn’t place. The other horses and their humans were just a bit better than we were. It didn’t seem fair. Those other horses seemed to have much more experience than we did. After that ride I was exhausted from showing off all day. I was ready to go home.