So I’d been in contact with the owner of Howdy, who lives offsite from where his horses live.  The horses are managed by a person who lives onsite.  The owner said he couldn’t be there to meet us today when we went to pick him up in the early afternoon, and he advised us by text to go to the house and get the manager when we got there.  So we got there, I went and knocked on the door and got a yippy corgi to respond, which I took as a good sign, because no one could sleep through that.  I waited a few minutes and no response.  Then I RAPPED on the door, got the yippy app refreshed, but no human response.

Jay and I had a quick conversation about how to proceed from there and we decided that since we had it in a text that we could take the horse, we’d, well, take the horse!

So, we went to the paddock, and by this time all the horses had come over.  There were about 8 of them, some still racing next year and some yet to race, but Howdy was easy to spot because he did this  (again):

So, feeling like old time horse thieves, we snapped a lead rope on his halter and got him out of the paddock.  Jay trotted him for a soundness check for me, and Howdy trotted like a giraffe, but a sound giraffe anyway.  Howdy’s head was what seemed like 4 feet above Jay’s head, and Jay is about 6’3″.

So, what were we to do but load the horse on the trailer?  He loaded right on with no hesitation and stood there like an old pro.  We closed the slant load dividers and shut the back door, giggling a little at the sheer thrill of being maybe a little bad.

We got him home and offloaded him (ho hum) and let him loose in the indoor just for fun.  The wind was up and the curtains on the arena were snapping occasionally, which was exciting for him, and mirrors are fascinating:

I turned him out in a paddock where he could see the other horses and he was pretty sedate.  Some trotting about, but not craziness, and he likes our hay.  He’s in good weight.  I brought him in and put him in the cross ties to look at his eye, which is a little cloudy on the bottom side, which is worrying to be sure.   It was fine when I saw him in September, but I noticed that he was holding it a little funny in December, and now we seem to have an infection.  Of course he is going to ISU tomorrow, so I am hopeful that they can help us get him back on track.

I will try not to worry about that tonight because worry is an abuse of God’s gift of imagination.  He settled in to his stall, and in keeping with the giraffe theme, he ate the hay out of the TOP of the feeder rather than pulling it out the sides.

Tomorrow’s the pre-purchase exam.  Wish us luck!