That Liam Horse - Chapter Five....Super glue....for your very broken heart

The morning sky was ominous: black and blue, as if the sun and the moon conducted a predawn brawl for dominance.

The owners called down to my barn and asked me to come up to speak with them. After my barn was finished, I started my walk up to the house.

I knew this could not be good. My suspicions were only confirmed when I sat down at the kitchen table, and one of the owners averted her gaze.

The air was thick, and the room seemed motionless. She kept her gaze affixed to a point just past my right shoulder for the duration of this significant life lesson concerning man's ability to have a beating heart in the midst of being a heartless man.

The words finally came forth from her forked tongue, "We have to talk to you, about Liam."

I swallowed, and it felt as if I was trying to gulp down shards of glass mixed with sand.

I was informed that like any good horse, Liam was obligated to earn his keep around the place.

That Liam horse would be put into rotation as a lesson horse. He would be an advanced lesson horse, since he had already proven his outstanding dressage capabilities with his previous owner.

The part of me that showed signs of a fracture when the beginning of the lies became apparent.........simply shattered under the enormous weight of her words.

The other owner reached over and placed her hand over mine. I quickly pulled it away, as if my flesh had been touched by red hot coals.

I tried taking a breath, but it wouldn't come. I placed my hand over my chest as if I was trying to feel if the piercing pain from the flying soul shrapnel did enough damage to cross over into physical realm and cause bleeding. I could feel my heart beating in my ears and there was a sound of faint ringing as well.

Nothing I could say, would change their minds. I wasn't skilled enough to handle him. Though our bond was very evident to them, I had to realize that he needed an advanced rider to "own" him.

I pleaded with them to just give me more time. I would pay any amount to buy him, just a little more time. I explained that he was still healing. That though his physical wounds were fading, his emotional emaciation had not yet been cured.

The owners' scoff told me everything I needed to know, in an instant. I ran from the house to the upper barn.

As if my emotions controlled the weather, the rain clouds finally let loose, and the tin roof on the upper barn sounded as if tomorrow we would see dents in it. I went to his stall.

Liam looked confused. I remember I couldn't look him in the face. He pushed his nose through the bars, just like he had done so many times before. 

Through tears and choking on my words, I apologized to him, "I'm so sorry my love....that I can't save you from this fate, and I need to learn to not love you."

The whinny he let out as I ran as fast as I could out of that barn was enough to break any heart.

I got in my truck and drove forever. I cried, and I screamed, until there was nothing left to come out.

Why did I do this to myself? Why did I allow myself to fall in love with this creature? How did I trick myself into thinking that our time together was never ending?

My feelings confused me immensely, because I didn't want to own him. I never wanted to "own" him. My heart's desire was to let him know that undoubtedly there was another soul floating around in this dark and dank world that only wanted him to be happy. That there was another soul who truly loved him as the horse he was, as the horse he is, and as the horse he had yet to become......

Going to watch some dog fights this weekend

Mad???? …..….What if I said I was going to watch the horse races……would you be mad then??? Probably not.

Why??? Oh because you throw the argument that horses love and live to race around????........Horses love to run. They enjoy being with other horses......the herd represents security. There’s a big difference. I cannot convince myself that they enjoy any part of being whipped and forced to outrun other horses on a man-made track.

What if I told you that in some dark dank place in the world……children were being bred to become fighters? Taken away before their teeth had even fully come in. They were not allowed to socialize with other children out of fear they would become unmanageable and not allowed out of their room to do anything but train. They were not allowed to go and even play alone out of fear that they would get hurt or that they would waste the energy that could be used in a fight…but they love to fight….they have two fists so they live to fight……..fast forward a couple of years. They’re winners. Many belts… many prizes…. and oh so much money…….they sustain injuries but it’s ok because their trainers give them drugs…..fast forward a couple more years…..they are winning less and less and the drugs their trainers gave them only masked the bigger problems and the money it takes to keep their crumbling bodies in the fights is more than they are bringing in. They are now auctioned off. Their future however dark or bright it may be is no concern of yours because there’s a brand new batch of fighters coming in as the old ones are being trailered away to an unknown future.....I cannot imagine the uproar.

As humans…..we DECIDE to become athletes we DECIDE to become running and fighting machines. We train hard and if we become injured we DECIDE if we can handle the pain. We TALK to our doctors and trainers. We DECIDE if an injury is career ending and how to adjust into life after being an athlete…..

When Cass tracked down Liam’s racing videos……we couldn’t even watch his last race. He was so lame it hurt to watch. I know for a fact that there are good trainers out there. Good men and women that really do care for the horses that they train…………

IT’S THE BAD ONES I WISH I COULD GET MY HANDS ON………

If I should never say another thing.....

The very sad, painful, and bizarre events that have unfolded this week compel me to make sure that if I should never say another thing......

I want you to know my friend

I love you

My hearts desire is that we should graze beside each other until you can graze no more

My wish is that we walk together in this new freedom and peace that both of us never felt before

If the time comes when you can walk no further with me

I will let you rest my friend while I carry your memory with me until we can walk together again

At the very beginning I felt as if I was saving your life.....

But you wasted no time in showing what saving a life really was

To those of us who have lost...

those of us who are losing...

and to those of us who have yet to receive....

I pray peace 

For those who have hurt

I offer forgiveness 

For those who have been hurt

I offer my apology 

what if you're making me....all I was meant to be????

So I take just a brief break from That Liam Horse story ( Chapter 5 will be up soon) to thank everyone that has been there for me.

I hit one year clean from hard drugs and alcohol.

Herbal drugs I'm only at 8 months but I'll get there.

I missed the date because....it just wasn't important anymore. I haven't been counting down the days in amazement like every other time I've tried to clean up my act.

I've always had a praying family....I'm pretty sure that's the only reason the suicide attempts were.....only attempts. The only reason I never seriously overdosed on the massive amount of Meth I was putting in my body........but sobriety never seemed to come.......

what was different about this time????? 

What 

if

you're 

making

me

all

that

I

was meant to be

That Liam Horse - Chapter Four - Liam gets a big brother

My three weeks of recovery was….books. A lot of reading. I was trying to give myself a crash course on horses. Not only to make my work life better but to show the owners I could care for the Liam horse.

I read up on everything from how to care for them and treat them to how to ride them in the discipline that the stables specialized in.

I would set up a chair outside his stall and just stay.

 I above anything else just enjoyed his company.

It was four weeks total before I could get back to work full time. The Liam horse and I seemed to pick up right where we left off. 

He was entered into a sort of racehorse big brother program. He was partnered up with another off the track thoroughbred whose reputation proceeded him.....

Stalwart Member (Stally) shown in the lead of course was going to be Liam's big brother. Stally retired as one of the state's top New York bred earners with earning in excess of $780,000. Stally had a troubled life as well. He was given another chance at life and was loved immensely by the woman who owned and boarded him at the stables. 

Before we get too far.....please take the time to click on Stally and read a little about the horse that would help shape Liam into the horse he is today.....STALLY

In the barn that I was responsible for taking care of......I only knew Stally as the "Protector" I learned after only one short week that life as a stable hand/stall mucker would go a lot smoother if I put this big brown horse out first. I wasn't too sure why. I really had no concept of what the horses were thinking. But my days only got better after realizing this fact.

 Once I turned Stally out in the pasture he would turn and face the gate and watch me walk all the other horses out. They would all call to him as they all entered their separate paddocks and he would only low grumble and watch the back woods and up towards the road.....and the back woods again. The other horses would go about their horsie paddock business while Stally the Protector stood watch for the last horse and then a little longer....then he would start grazing.

The one day I did not go in this order...........chaos ensued. 

I noticed that when these big creatures would spook.....they would run and it was a chain reaction. Almost every paddock could see the back woods and in the mind of the horses the deer that would graze along the woodline.....were not only vicious creatures with sharp pointy teeth......but they also had a taste for horse blood......sigh.

It only took one deer........half the size of the smallest horse to start the running cycle.

The horses would then look to the lead horse to find out if the threat was gone and....should I stop running???????

Stally was that horse for me. Little by little I realized as long as the big brown horse was standing guard the mares and gelding had nothing to fear. 

I would go to the upper barn and grab the Liam horse so he could go out with the big brown horse. 

Their relationship was very odd. Once all the lessons were done for the day I'd put them in the indoor arena or back outside so they could do horse things.

The big brown horse was always patient with the Liam horse....but I quickly dubbed them the Bruiser Brothers.

 They were always getting into something.

If one wanted to lick and eat the wall......

The other one wanted to know what was so tasty








They would take turns being the instigator.... 
Halter tag was the name of the game.....

First one to let go is the loser

 Poor Stally only wanted to groom Liam and.....well Liam didn't understand the concept and would just end up biting Stally.

Late at night my roommate would setup an obstacle course purely created to be destroyed.........

Stally preferred the cones

Liam was partial to the poles

It was a match made in heaven.

Stally looked after the Liam horse. You could only assume that they were having deep spiritual and theological discussions at times. Those times were often followed up by running buck farts that the other one had to try and top which would make laughter uncontrollable. 

The horse can be taken out of the race......but the race is never taken out of the horse. If one ran.....it was on. They would go laps around the outdoor arena that would only make you stand back in pure amazement. I had never seen the Liam horse move like that.......

It was in these moments that life seemed perfect.

 Liam's young rider would ride him a couple times a week. She was always very good to me and came and found wherever I was working to tell me so I could watch. I was so very proud/happy/sad...... 

Two more weeks went by and then I was hit with another blow...... 

That Liam Horse - Chapter Three

Despite being in no condition to move thanks to Vicodin and an extreme amount of anger......... the next day came with me waiting by the front door ready to move at turtle speed down to the barn to go see that Liam horse get ridden.

The young college student that they had chosen to ride him was the girl that used to ride him before he left the stables the first time. She was a boarder that had just come back with her horse from her summer break. 

She had a gentle spirit. Her love for him was transparent there was no hidden agenda. No harsh touch and no ill spoken words. 

It hurt to breathe. It hurt to be up and moving around. It hurt immensely that they had rushed this day by three months............but in the midst of all this hurt......there was comfort. Knowing he was in the hands of someone who obviously loved him dearly was.....a relief.

He was still grossly underweight. To protect his spine a gel pad was required as well as pads to bump up the front and back of the saddle. 

He seemed worried and confused. He and his young rider obviously had history. It seemed to be nothing but good history.....But he was still a monster as usual on the crossties. 

With the barn buzzing with anxious energy I was so relieved to see his young rider was not swayed by his vicious threats to kick and bite.

I gimped my way into the indoor arena and took my seat. I was glad to be alone for a moment because the wide array of emotions brought on by happiness/anger/the feeling of injustice/happy pills was more than I could stand. 

What would happen to this Liam horse??? I felt as if this was indeed the beginning of the end. Somehow I had tricked myself into thinking that our time together had no ending. But this was the harsh wakeup call I needed. He would be transformed into a lesson horse.....or even worse still.....the Liam horse would be sold and taken somewhere far from here where I would never again lay eyes on him......

I could feel the tears forming.....but when the gate to the indoor arena swung open and she walked him in the ring all dressed up.......the movement of my cheeks caused by the huge smile forced those tears to fall out.

That Liam horse was......stunning. 

The boarders and owners and young kids were all watching to see him go

He wasn't very patient at the mounting block. His young rider had mounted and was going to put her right foot in the stirrup when he decided it was time to go.

He had this weird head bob thing going on which was very odd to me because I had never seen another horse do it. With every step he took he nodded....very odd. 

The warm up and ride lasted less than thirty minutes. With tears in my eyes and emotions that to this day I can never explain in words I recorded the ride. 

She was so gentle with him my heart soared. He was so gentle with her my heart swelled…..when the saddle and all the pads came off and I still saw all those ribs my heart broke again.

The love she had for him was evident. She took everything off of him and thanked him for being such a good boy and then walked him to the upper barn…..oh by the way we forgot to tell you he was moved out of your barn because that’s for boarders. He now lives with the lesson horses in the upper barn….....</3

That Liam horse - Chapter Two - Peace....be still

It had been three months this way. Everyday we’d walk and talk and groom and eat. My main focus was on giving him space to heal but never so much space he ever felt alone. He was spending less and less time facing the back of the stall.

He put on so much 
weight.

It was so good to 
see him really start 
to fill out

Life was GOOD!

Horses are prey animals. In their natural

 environment (open plains) their hearing 

acuity is needed for their survival.

 Other animals and weather are the only other 

things generating noise. Predators generally 

don't vocalize when stalking so these 

creatures are hard-wired to listen for sounds

 of stealth such as the snapping of a twig and 

rustling of grass from the weight of a 

predators paw. It's ALWAYS safer to run first 

and ask questions later and if another horse starts 

running.......you better run too.

Super quick anatomy lesson

 In comparison to our small flat ears horses 

have cuplike shaped ears. Very little sound

 spills out of them.....so they can capture 

noises we might miss. In addition horses can 

detect sounds we cannot. They have an ability 

to hear a wider range of high-frequency tones.

They can also hear things a very far distance 

away and when you add wind it becomes very 

confusing for them. 

Something ¼ of a mile away can sound 

like it’s coming right up on them. So 

naturally being a flight animal rather than 

fight this can cause their reaction to be to 

bolt. 

Now that we understand why horses are so spooky.

As I was taking out the horses in the lower barn. This very very large horse got spooked on the walk out to the pasture and made me the center point of his spastic circle. 

I went with him at first. I thought we made it through the bad part and his mind had come back to me. This big creature seemed to realize that monsters were not very fond of Lipizzan flavored treats. 

Then it happened again but this time that very fine line holding the insanity at bay......snapped. 

He frantically circled me. He tried to cut right across but just ended up ramming his left shoulder into my right and knocking me down to the ground. I let go of the lead rope once I hit. He did everything in his power to not step on my head and chest. 

My life flew in front of my eyes in an instant. Heaven and hell and everything in between seemed to pause for a second to allow me to examine it all. 

Instead of crushing me he jumped over my limp body. He hit my back and side with his hind legs with such force it knocked the wind out of me. This creature was so terrified of the wind and noises that he did this……..but was concerned enough to see that I was hurt and never leave me. 

I was not holding his lead rope. He could have run off but he kept watch for monsters while standing over me. I was having such a terrible time trying to breathe. 

Time....which had been so patient in allowing my moments of reflection had now sped up and it seemed as if I had not taken a breath in minutes. When I was able to work up the strength to try and get up he put his head down and gave me his halter. I grabbed on and he helped me up. That gesture made time once again stand still. What a beautiful painful moment.

Enlarged liver some bruises and cracked ribs meant bed rest……I stayed up at the house because I couldn’t make it up the stairs to the apartment. I didn’t see Liam for days. It broke my heart but what hurt even more was the news that my six months of having Liam all to myself was...no longer the truth. 

I was informed that since I was injured the stable owners would have someone start riding Liam...that pain was some of the worst I have ever felt. I begged them to wait until I was able to make it to the barn to at least see it happen......All they said is that it would happen the next day......