The Stories of

Bruce

Bruce’s journey began with a phone call about a one-eyed Thoroughbred looking for a second chance. Little did I know, that call would change both our lives.

The Stories of bruCE

In the beginning

Yvonne, a woman who sold me my first eventing horse Walker, called me to ask me if I knew anyone interested in a big strapping young Thoroughbred. She said that one of the large Thoroughbred breeding farms was rehoming some of their non performing race horses. This particular horse was blind in one eye and any potential new owner would need to personally interview with the farm owner/manager. I knew of a friend who was looking for his next low level eventing mount and I arranged an introduction for him and his wife to see this horse.

Tamme and Harvey asked that I accompany them. Even though this horse named Bruce was part of Longfield farm he was coming down after his brief racing career at River Bend farm off Meades Landing Rd in Oldham county. When we got to the farm, there were a couple horses in a pasture. As soon as I saw him, I loved him. But we were there for Harvey to check out. To my surprise they quickly said that they didn’t think Bruce was for them. I kept thinking how can you not see how magnificent he is! I didn’t want to leave him. When I touched him, he felt like joy. He had the energy of a Labrador dog and just so happy

I was boarding one horse and boarding a second horse was going to be financially tough but I could not stop thinking about him. Since I was boarding Walker with Tamme and Harvey they said that they would be happy to board a second horse for me. Longfield would sell him to me for $1 with the promise that I be responsible for Bruce for the rest of his life. If I ever wanted to sell or re-home him I would need to find someone who would take the same level of responsibility as I was undertaking.

I arranged to have my vet do a quick once over on Bruce before I agreeing to take him and proceeding with the interview process. Dr Jack Easley had been Walker’s vet for several years and I trusted him. I mostly wanted him to look at Bruce so that I didn’t have the potentially awkward moment of Dr Easley meeting Bruce after bringing him home and Jack asking me ‘what the hell was I thinking and why hadn’t I consulted with him first’.

I also wanted to get an educated opinion on Bruce’s blind left eye. It’s my understanding that as a yearling Bruce developed an eye infection that progressed too far and too quickly. Though he still had the eye it was most definitely without sight and was significantly atrophied. It is believed that the infection might have been caused by MRLS (Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome). During 2001 Kentucky had all the right conditions for a massive infestation of tent caterpillars. It caused late term abortions and a host of other conditions including unilateral uveitis. It’s believed that the tent caterpillars in the cherry trees would excrete cyanide as a byproduct of digesting the cherry tree bark and due to the large numbers of caterpillars it was effectively poisoning the ground under these trees. As horses would graze around these trees, usually along fence lines, they would become infected/ill. This phenomenon caused a tremendous loss to the Thoroughbred industry that year.

But I digress, when Jack was doing his vet check of Bruce he felt that Bruce was a big, happy and healthy horse and he should be fine for my use as a low level eventing / dressage mount. He said that the eye was fine, no sight but no need to do anything at that time. I might want at some point to have eye removed but otherwise clean bill of health. Then I made the mistake of saying something about myself being blind in my right eye. Apparently I had never mentioned that to Jack. I had a freak tack cleaning accident when I was thirteen between me and a Phillips head screw driver and the screwdriver won. I was in the hospital for three days and was only given 5% chance of keeping the eye. I’m happy to say that the eye is still in tact but I have very limited vision.

When Jack heard about this he quickly changed his tune and was like NOPE, you can not take this horse, a one eyed girl and a giant one eyed horse is NOT a good match. This means that when I lead Bruce on his near side, we don’t see one another. I understand Jack’s concern. I told him that I had worked with several semi blind horses during my time working at a Saddlebred breeding farm throughout high school and college. I was insistent and Jack relented with the caveat that I ask Longfield farm that should I pass the interview process, that I take him on a 30 day trial period to make sure that Bruce and I could tolerate each others deficiencies in vision.

The day I arrived at Longfield for the interview I was nervous and intimidated as this was such a large farm with a big presence in the local thoroughbred industry. I couldn’t imagine why they would need to talk with me. Allen Lavin, one of the owners and managers of the farm, asked me what my intentions were with Bruce. I think he wanted to make sure I wasn’t planning on turning around and selling him. As Bruce was such a big horse it would’ve been easy for him to find his way to a kill pen auction. I told him about my philosophy of care, plans for him as my eventing/dressage horse and my promise to care for him with the intention of it being to the end of his days.

Allen agreed to the thirty day trial period and we agreed to a date for me to pick Bruce up. As I was leaving, I asked Allen why he needed to interview me when it was my understanding that not all the other horses that were being re-homed were required to go through this process. He said that any given time they may have 20+ employees and if he was to line them all up and ask them who their favorite horse on the farm is, most would answer Bruce. He needed to be able to look his employees in the eye and tell them that he spoke to Bruce’s new owner personally and feels confident that he is going to a good home. I was already deeply committed to Bruce and his future care but in that moment I realized that this responsibility goes beyond me and Bruce. My promise was to Bruce and to the owners and employees of Longfield. I’ve never forgotten that promise. I also appreciated that Longfield was committed to aftercare once their horses are not suited for racing.

A Bumpy Start

Now it was time to get Bruce home. I didn’t have a trailer of my own so I reached out to my friend Dee Thornton to help me haul him from Riverbend farm to Tamme and Harvey’s farm about 10 miles down the road. We thought it was a little bit unusual that the farm workers had us pull the truck and trailer through the center aisle of the barn. We dropped the trailer ramp in the aisle and the farm guys, about four of them, pulled Bruce out of a stall, surrounded him, locked arms behind his rump and essentially shoved him up into the trailer. Not eloquent but effective. We were in the barn about a whole 90 seconds before we were loaded and ready to head to Bruce’s next home.

When we got to Tamme and Harvey’s I was careful to introduce Bruce through the stall doors to his new pasture mates. I also explained to my bestest horse Walker that he would need to be in charge, that Bruce was blind in one eye and delicate and that I needed Walker to take care of Bruce and to do his best to keep him out of trouble. I walked Bruce and Walker around the pasture introducing Bruce to the new digs and then turned them loose together. They were settling in fine, just a little trotting around.

Then for some completely unknown reason, Tamme turned her very old Paint horse, Oreo, out with Bruce and Walker without proper introduction. I don’t know if Bruce had not seen a Paint horse before or if his limited vision gave a distorted view of this brown and white beast moving towards him but it scared him to death! He started running away from Oreo at which Oreo thought was the most fun game and began to chase him. There was no maliciousness in Oreo he just wanted to join in the fun. However Bruce was truly in a blind panic. Before I could catch him or Oreo and deescalate the situation, Bruce ran straight through the four board wooden fence just splintering it and running down Hwy 42. My heart stopped. I got Tamme to stand at the broken fence to keep Walker or Oreo going through while I ran as fast as I could down the road. What the hell was I thinking, I can’t catch a racehorse (even if he was retired for being slow). Clearly they had never had a Paint horse run behind him because let me tell you, he was bookin it now!

As I’m running down the road yelling his name, it occurs to me ‘does he even know his name?’ I’m also thinking to myself that I promised to take care of this horse for the rest of his life and little did I know that may be for only 15 minutes! Bruce veers off the road and I hear people screaming in the distance. I follow the screams. Then I see Bruce about 200 yards away on the other side of a pasture. He stops and I call his name again. He looks at me and nickers loudly as if to say ‘ help me, I’m scared!’ He starts running straight towards me but in the process, he runs through the electric fence that was the perimeter fence for a half a dozen of another neighbor’s horses. He runs through that fence on the far side of that field and the near side and in doing so sends a whole herd of horses galloping free! He did run straight over to me and I grabbed his halter. We were now surrounded by all these very excited horses and it took everything I had to keep ahold of him. The neighbor had seen this whole melee go down and so she was able to gather her horses and secure them quickly. I got Bruce into the barn and then went about helping neighbors repair fences. I found that the source of the screams I had heard was the one neighbor who had just built their new house and had fresh sod planted that day just hours before Bruce did his top gun flyby through their yard.

Amazingly everybody, Tamme and Harvey included, were good-natured about the whole thing and any damage was quickly repaired or restored. That was Bruce’s welcome to the neighborhood. He’s always known how to make an impression.

One decision, new path

Choosing to take Bruce set off a course of events that forever altered my life. I had been thinking about a buying a small mini farm but now having two horses in full board, financially it made more sense to have a place of our own. One thing led to another and instead of buying a house on 5 acres, we ended up buying a thirty acre farm that required full development. Of course this wasn’t all about Bruce but more about realizing a life long dream of a farm of my own.

We were going to build a main house first and a large run-in shed for the horses until a more proper center aisle barn could be built. There was a change in the terms of the construction financing, the final quote for construction was much higher than expected and the manufactured home on the property that we intended to live in while doing construction was not suitable for habitation. Every direction seemed to be an obstacle, we had to keep pivoting our plans. We decided that we would build the barn with a upper level apartment and then build the main house. This would allow us and the horses to get on the property sooner and then live on site to oversee construction of the house.

The very first night we moved into the apartment (barndominium) I knew that I would never build the main house. Even before the horses were brought home, I felt such a peace in this place. The barn was on the hill with views for miles. There were large windows in every room that allowed one to see every inch of the property. I was a bird in a beautiful nest. Once the horses arrived, not only Walker and Bruce but I also boarded retirees and lay-ups, the deep sense of safety and home was solidified.

People would ask what it was like living above the horses, were the smells, flys and noises from the barn bad? Not at all, it was designed with minimizing those things in mind. The only time we heard the horses were if there was a particularly loud noise or if I had the windows in the apartment open. An unexpected surprise was how much the horses loved this place and felt safe as well. During mild summer days when the horses would be in their stalls and if I had the windows open, frequently I would hear a chorus of horse snores. I would go down stairs and tip toe through the barn aisle to find most of the horses laying down in their stalls snoring loudly. Knowing they felt safe and comfortable enough to sleep like that was profoundly comforting to me.

Living in such close proximity and being able to watch them from the windows gave me great insight on herd dynamics and how the herd wanted to live. When they wanted to be in the barn and when they wanted to be out. Because I was right upstairs it allowed me to interact with them nearly instantly and consistently. I felt like part of the herd.

I became even more connected to the horses and them to me. My husband began to think that the horses and I were psychically connected. This became obvious when the horses were on a day turn out schedule and were stalled in the evening as was the case during the colder months. When I would wake up in the morning, no matter the time and before I could even move from my bed, Bruce would start loudly nickering from his stall. His whinnying was so loud that we could hear him through the walls. My husband was not amused. Bruce loves his stall, until he thinks it’s time to go out. Then he must let everyone know that outside is the good side and it’s no longer time for him to be inside! IYKYK

Bruce would also have different vocalizations for different situations. I developed an ear and translation for the tone and volume of his calls. I think he was training me. He announced when a horse was colicing, another time when a horse had choke, when the neighbor’s horses were loose and when he accidentally stepped on his pet cat Spike (more about her later). I learned to pay attention when Bruce had something to say.

Sadder than a scene from a Walt Disney movie

Not only was Bruce a self described announcer of all threats around the farm but I asked that he help with one of our resident senior citizens, Cracker. My friend Dee (who helped that eventful initial first day of Bruce’s new home) had evented Cracker for several years and when my barn opened for boarders she brought him to me for retirement care.

As some older horses do, Cracker would occasionally check out of his body. I had not experienced this before. The only way I can describe it as he would become vacant in his eyes and completely unaware of anything around him. His body was there but “he” was not. These spells would not usually last very long but occasionally the herd would move to another pasture or come inside the barn and Cracker would eventually come to and have a little panic.

Just as i had asked Walker to protect Bruce, I asked Bruce to keep an eye on Cracker. If Cracker was in lala land or off with the fairies as I would say, I would ask Bruce to gently go get him and he would. Bruce took this responsibility very seriously. I know this sounds silly or improbable but I assure you it is completely true, and there were witnesses.

Sadly Cracker injured his hind leg with a puncture wound while turned out in the field one day. It was an odd injury that would cause him to pull his hind leg up suddenly. The vet said that the feeling he was getting was probably similar to what it feels like to hit your funny bone. I had been treating him for several days and then Dee came out to wash and medicate the wound.

I had left to go to an appointment when Dee arrived but my client canceled shortly thereafter so I returned to the farm. I spoke to Dee before going upstairs to my home office. Only minutes had gone by before I heard a terrible crash in the barn aisle and Dee screaming. When I entered the aisle, both her and Cracker were on the aisle floor. Dee was pinned under his neck and Cracker was unresponsive.

I was able to get her out from underneath Cracker’s neck but she could not bear weight on her leg. Cracker came to after a few minutes and eventually was able to stand up. Because of Dee’s injuries I had to call EMS. As she was loaded into the ambulance she instructed me to have Cracker put down. She said that she couldn’t bear the thought of him falling and hurting himself in a pasture or possibly injuring someone else.

I called Dr Easley and the backhoe operator and within a couple hours of the accident Cracker was laid to rest next to the front pond on my farm. All the other horses had been in the back field and didn’t see what had happened. They had no idea Cracker was gone. I was heartsick and exhausted and needed a shower to wash away the pain and fear of that day.

You know when you’ve had a really bad day and you think to yourself, this day can’t get any worse? And then it does. When I got in the shower it was a hot and sunny day. When I got out I could see an ominous shelf cloud rolling in in the distance. It looked like armageddon was coming! My brain was shouting to run and get the horses in immediately, DANGER is
approaching.

I ran out the barn in nothing but a bathrobe and my hair wrapped in a towel and throwing on a pair of tennis shoes as I stumbled out the door. The wind had picked up so quickly and it was blowing towards me so as I was calling to the horses, it was carrying my voice in the opposite direction. They couldn’t hear me so I kept running through the field towards them. The wind was whipping around my robe and towel on my head like a flag. It was actually blowing everything upwards and that is what caught the horses attention. As soon as they saw me they started running towards me. I turned back to the barn and we were all running for cover.

I had taught the horses to line up and load into their stalls when I open the barn doors. All were loading into their stalls but Bruce was last. As soon as he stepped into the aisleway he saw Cracker’s empty stall and he turned back to go find him. The others were secured in their stalls and Bruce was running all over the fields calling out as loud as he could. I knew he was trying to find Cracker. It was now raining torrentially. I kept calling Bruce’s name and he finally came running to me but only after he had covered all the fields. I got him inside the barn and he insisted on looking inside Cracker’s stall before I put him in his. I told him that Cracker was gone. I’m not certain that they fully understand what we say or not but that’s all I could offer him at that moment. Bruce was so distraught. I kept thinking to myself this is sadder than a scene from a Disney movie. I know it will get better but right then, it fucking sucks.

With everyone safely secured, the weather was intensifying. I turn to secure the large doors at the end of the aisle and watch as a funnel cloud forms in the distance. Clearly I must be more than just a little red neck because after first thinking TAKE COVER, I grabbed my phone and took a picture of the funnel winding towards the ground before taking shelter. The storm passed fairly quickly. A tornado did touch down that day and took out several barns less than a mile away from my place. Bruce and the herd adjusted to Cracker being gone, Dee made a full recovery, we didn’t blow away and the world continued to circle but that was a hard day.

From heartbreak to sublimely ridiculous: The red balloons story

I was working late one day and came home to find my husband clearly very annoyed with a look of exasperation, mixed with exhaustion. I asked him what was wrong. He said I’ve got something to show you and took me to the barn. He pulled a wad of nylon streamers attached to what appeared to be a handful of popped red balloons out of the trash. He said that when he got home there was commotion in the fields. Bruce had these streamers in his mouth and was shaking his head, causing the attached balloons to bop around all the while chasing the other horses with them. Jon thought it was the funniest thing he had ever seen and was contemplating trying to get a video of it. He then thought “what if one of the horses gets hurt and I didn’t try to stop it. What would Jennifer say about this.”

He said he chased Bruce around for over a half an hour, trying to get the balloons away from him. We lived fairly far out in the country, and could not imagine where these balloons came from. So that’s an odd story … but it doesn’t end there. Over the next few weeks we kept finding the carcasses of single dead red balloons, in Bruce’s stall (not any other stalls), in the run-in shed and the fields. Zero idea how they got there. Again we were surrounded by large farms and lived miles outside of Shelbyville. It made no sense.

Shortly thereafter I was given a gift certificate to have a reading with an animal communicator, Latifa Meena, by a friend. The process was that I would email photos of the animals that I wanted to communicate with to her and then we would have a phone consultation. During the session with Bruce she asked, what’s the deal with the red balloons! She said that she was seeing these red balloons. Outside of Jon, nobody knew about the balloons. I told her what I knew and she asked Bruce. She said that he LOVES the balloons. He loves the bopping noise they make when he shakes them and he especially loves the noise when they pop and it scares the other horses. Remember I said Bruce has the energy of a Labrador, mischief and all, this kind of hits.

I asked where do they come from. OK, every aspect of this is absurd but not nearly as absurd as her answer.and she said… Bruce told her the fairies bring them to him. Wow, OK! What do you even do with that tidbit. I told her that I was concerned that he might get injured or injury another horse. She told him that he can’t play with balloons because he could get hurt and potentially ingest the balloon, choke or cause intestinal problems. She said that made him sad but he understood and wouldn’t play with anymore balloons. Never saw an explained balloon again. Once when he got injured a brought him a red balloon to hang outside of his stall and it made him very excited. Again imagine showing a Labrador a ball, that was his reaction. Joy comes in many different forms, sometimes in the form of a red balloon.