My first Horse rescue

My First Rescue,,,,,,,of the horsey kind

     I recieved a phone call one warmish Spring morning, "You HAVE to come and see
this colt!"  My friend and neighbor, Sue, had been to a farm that had
way too many horses, and not enough pastures to feed them all.  The
man had "no time", he told us, to inlist a vet to visit the farm.  The
horses,for the most part, where thin, even to my little untrained eye. 
The first immpression of the thin, potbellied colt, was of pity.  How
could he be so thin, and have such a big round belly, I thought to
myself?  As I was standing there, wanting to just run back to my place,
where it was safe, and nothing or nobody wanted, for anything, I found myself
wondering just how I was going to do something I had never done before.
My head was spinning, due to the fact the man said, hey if you want him, give me
500 dollars and take him and the bay colt, too.  I didn' t have 500 dollars
just laying around, I had just bought our new house and farm.   I walked right
up to the little guy, and stroked his forlock, and told him I would be back to
visit him.  He was standing inbetween his two brothers, who were
literally holding him up with their bodies.  It was so sad, I couldn't sleep
that night, at all.  I just kept thinking, how can I do something about
that poor skinny colt?  Where would I put him?  How would I get fences
put up in our not yet formed pasture?  Would my wonderful husband, accept
the fact I wanted to bring home a very needy horse, with no training,
whatsoever.  Would he put up a fight?

A little background, of me.  I had been riding since I was 15 years old,
worked at a Arabian horse farm, cleaning stalls, and riding the unvisited
horses that where boarded there.  I had seen one foal born, and been
there from the beginning.  I held the lead rope while the brood mare
was bred, and then held her head, while she gave birth to a beautiful
little filly foal.  I was at that farm, before school, filling water buckets,
 and then after school, throwing hay and dumping grain in grain
buckets.  Everyday, for about forever, it felt to a highschool sophomore.
I mucked out stalls, while my friends went riding around in cars with boys,
went to the movies.  I was reading books about horses, in the hay mow,
while veryone else were no where near a barn.  I got older, and
and the relationship with the farm owner, failed, and we went our
separate ways.   I then started the horseless part of my life, little did
 I know that would not last, forever.

     I met and married my husband, and we had a beautiful baby girl,
Sara Jane.  My life was perfect, had my baby and great husband,
I wanted for nothing.  Then we moved, in 2000, due to a tragic event
that changed our lives for the better.  We bought a little south facing
valley, surrounded by timber.  Our place was awesome, no neighbors
that we could see from our house, but they were there, just on top
of the hill behind us.  So we were not totally alone, out here.  That
is when I met Sue, I had gone up to introduce myself to our new
neighbors.  It wasn't very long after that I recieved that first phone call.

     After seeing the colt with the huge potbelly, I went home and cried.
I couldn't imagine how, a person couldn't see that their horse were very
hungry, and miserable.  I kept seeing that colts eyes in my head, pleading
me to save him.  I begged my husband, please come with me to just
"see" him, for yourself, I told him.  So he went with me, and we were
there only about 10 minutes when my wonderful husband, told me to
ask Sue to borrow her horse trailer.  He saw, what I saw, a starving
colt who needed us to save him.  Now, I didn't pay one cent for him,
the man said if I thought I could save the little colt, I could just have him,
for free!  I asked him what they hd been calling the little colt, and he told
me they called him Scooter.  What? I asked.  Why Scooter, as all the
other horses were named after a booze of some sort  or another.  The
colts dam was named Brandy, and the sires name was Colt 45, a.k.a Cody.
the man, said that Scooter was so weak after he was born, he could only
scoot around dragging his hind legs.  So they called him Scooter. 
That sealed the deal with me, I couldn't understand why, they didn't
at least call a vet to check on the little guy.  Oh, I don't have the time
to, he told me.  I was very upset, over that fact, and at that point, I
couldn't of cared less, if my husband wanted me to bring that colt
home or not, he was NOT staying there another minute.  So we went
and got the trailer, and I rode in the trailer home with the colt.  He
was so scared, he just buried his head in my chest and tremmbled.

    Scooter is now a five year old gelding, and the very best horse.  I
couldn't of went out and bought a better horse.  He is my best buddy,
on his first trail ride, he was perfect.  He did not do anything at all, that
I didn't want him to.  He climbed every hill, crossed every log, and did so
with gusto.  Scooter turned out to be the best horse and still is.  Right now,
he is waiting for me to get off this computer, and feed him.  So my very
first horse rescue went very well, and after I do chores, I will write the story
about my second horse rescue, his name is Sugar.