The life of my boy "STORMY"

By Lisa
Irish Hills Farm
IrishHillsFarm@aol.com

Here is a timeline of my colt Stormy from when I had him as a weanling. There was a woman who bought three million dollars worth of race stock, only to put them in a field to die and she never paid for them. I drove out to Kentucky and brought seven of them home with me.

Of the seven, two did not make it. Teddy had a broken clavicle; he never had a fighting chance. He never even got to make the trip home. He died at nine months old in Kentucky on Valentine’s Day. Marky was such a great foal. I just adored him and had high hopes for him in the hunter ring. He was a walking accident waiting to happen - you know the type who always gets into things. Mark (Jessica’s Prince) was put down for slab fractures in both knees. One in-foal mare was given to a friend. My Farmaway mare (FarmAlarm) lost her foal, and had a guttural pouch infection and colic surgery within two days. But she made it. She is 17.2 now and a show horse in Pennsylvania. My Marfa mare (Belle) is now in North Carolina as a paint broodmare. Her foal (Farm Account) is at the track, and Sonny (Bobski) is a Western play day horse. THEN THERE WAS STORMY, the one in the worse shape. He is coming home. Here is his story.

The first set of pictures are of Stormy as a weanling when I rescued him from Kentucky – the veterinarian in Lexington told me DON’T load him and DON’T bring him home; he would die before I got him home, which was a 14 hour trip. But as all of you know, and can understand, I did it anyway - there was NO WAY I was going to leave him. So I WAY overpaid for him out of pity and loaded him up. I couldn’t leave him for dead there. He had a look in his eyes; I could feel him looking into my soul asking for help. I knew he had something special about him - I knew he was coming home with me at ANY price. I didn't care what they wanted for him - this was the first meal he was eating on his own. He is 9-10 months old in these photos.

So for a month we stayed up with him 24/7, slept in the barn, only going home to shower. My husband and I took rotation watching him; keep in mind we have two kids, twelve and three years old. At first we had to hold his head to eat and did a lot of lying with him and massaging to keep his circulation going. There were a few times we thought he had died - eyes rolled, stopped breathing, etc. The vet or an assistant was out to the farm every three hours or so for the first two weeks. They had me do IV fluids to him every two hours. It was so horrible. It makes me sick what this poor boy went through. So the nursing and the long hard road back to health began. The next set of photos is from six weeks later. He was doing great (it’s amazing what food can do), slowly gaining weight, getting strong enough to go out. He wasn’t running or anything yet, and was out alone because he was still too weak to be out with others, but was happy to just walk about the fields. Three more weeks later, so I had him about two months in this next of photos.

This is another month later - almost a full three months with us. He is doing even better. Now he goes out with a buddy (Mark, described above). Now we have SOME fat starting but lots of muscle that still needs to come along.

This is another few weeks later. Wow, he is looking amazing! It’s been almost four months. Fat is coming back and now we have SOME muscle starting.

These photos I can’t believe myself. These are taken 5 1/2 months after he arrived home. He doesn’t even look like the same horse! Now he runs and plays and shows very little sign of the neglect and abuse he suffered other than still becoming somewhat weak or tired at times. STILL A COLT, he is the kindest most loving horse. Now, he is about 15.3 or so.

OK WOW!! These are the last photos from when I had him, taken October 4th, eight months from his arrival, MY STORMY STORMY STORMY CAT!  He was happy and healthy and ready to move on to a new owner who would give him the life of luxury! He now shows no more signs of neglect: his coat is shiny and he has no scars - amazing. He stayed kind hearted and loving the entire time, never showing any signs of meanness, never doing anything other than trust us 100%.

We’ve kept in touch with his owner over the years. She took such great care of him! The below pictures are from Devon 2005 - YES IT IS THE SAME HORSE! He showed at HITS, Culpepper, Warrenton - all the top zone 2 shows and is pinning and doing very well in the hunter ring. Stormy is now six years old, and because of personal reasons of his current owner, HE IS COMING HOME and WILL BE HOME WITHIN THE NEXT TWO WEEKS! WOOHOO! I am SO excited to see him! I really have a connection with this horse. Maybe because we nursed him, who knows, but I promised him as a baby I would take care of him forever and NEVER let anything like this ever happen to him again.
I am SO proud of Stormy to have the life filled with love and kindness he always deserved. I am so proud of Stormy to have stayed so sweet and loving towards humans, when he had every right to really be a mean nasty horse.
BUT MOST OF ALL, I AM SO PROUD OF STORMY FOR NEVER GIVING UP and TRUSTING US. He NEVER gave up when four vets confirmed that by all rights he never should have lived.

So after he comes home, if you have time, come by and visit Stormy. He is an amazing horse with a heart of gold. Bring him a carrot. He deserves it. He deserves the rest of his life to be happy and loved.