Today is the anniversary of when Sunny and Beauty went home.
I cannot find the original post of the story, but it is quite a story to tell. Perhaps one of our best.
In early 2015 someone messaged me and told me there was a Thoroughbred in the “pen”. (The kill pen)……and that although he had been left with a blanket, “someone” stole the blanket off of him and left him to standing in the filthy pen without cover. He was very thin, had no coat to speak of……standing on concrete with bits of snow and cold rain coming down.
I looked at a photo of him and thought to myself “this horse looks familiar”….but I didn’t know why.
I made some inquiries for him but nothing panned out quickly and so I called and paid for him over the phone. I then made plans to go and get him. Some other kind folks took him a blanket to wear until I could get there.
So the crew and I go to fetch him from the kill pen.
There he is … a tall older TB gelding, beat up and thin..we halter him….but he has been hanging out with an even older gentleman gelding who would not leave his side… a black Walker cross, white at the temples and sway backed from age.
So we all look at each other. No one speaks for an instant.
I clear my throat. Fold my arms. Kick the pavement.
I say…”well, I am not leaving the Walker cross..because I will go directly to hell if I do”.
No one argues.
We go in and pay for the old black gelding.
We halter him.
except.
Did I mention there was an older pony mare?
When the pony mare is haltered……there are no more horses to be left in the pen…which is a really great feeling if you are the person who might have to leave someone there.
We have a smallish older trailer and I am not sure we can cram all of these guys in.
But as I always say…when it is time to leave the hellish kill pen, the horses know.
We opened the trailer door and it was a stampede……BOOM, BOOM, BOOM…..all huddled and crammed together…..but all in.
We shut the door.
I keep thinking to myself on the way home. I know this horse from somewhere…but I fail to find any memories of him. Perhaps I had seen him at a horse show. He is very striking and memorable…I am sad to see him in such bad shape. He must have been well loved at one point.
Now for the “twilight zone” parts.
A kind lady had donated the money to “bail” him and as I sometimes do, I emailed her and said she should name him…but I was already wanting to call him Sunny. We emailed back and forth. I noticed her farm name had Sundance on it. I emailed her back and said “can we call him Sunny, in honor of your farm?” She said YES! and so.. I was able to call him Sunny.
I let my niece name the black one…and he was christened “Beauty”.
The pony went home with a friend.
We got them home, cleaned them up, got a feed plan together and several days went by.
I get a lot of junk mail and a lot of mail from readers of my blog or followers of our FB page. I was at work, scrolling through HUNDREDS of spam/junk mail messages and spied one that said “my horse”.
Hmmm.
I opened it.
A long message from a woman who thought we might have her horse.
I get those a lot.
A description that was pretty exact.
Some more details.
A picture of him in better years. (it was definitely him)
and at the bottom…….she said…..”his name is Sunny”.
I almost spilled my coffee and went back and read everything again.
I called her.
I told her about the name and about how he was so familiar to me.
We had a moment of tears.
I explained he needed several weeks of rehab as he was in bad shape.
Our vet had looked at him. A heart murmur, anemic, several hundred lbs underweight…damage to his jaw.
Cheryl wanted to take him back home when he was able to travel.
We exchanged emails several times and I explained his bond to Beauty.
I asked her to take them both and she agreed.
In March of 2015, Cheryl came to get them.
Some of these photos are from his previous life with Cheryl…one is at the kill pen, one is the pony mare who came with him, one is him and Beauty in the trailer.
