Hi-Ho Smokey...Away!

So, for those who don't know me, I volunteer with two charities. One is called Equine Assisted Therapy, or EAT...which given my battle of the bulge, I hate telling people I am going to EAT, but what can I do?

EAT puts kids with various disabilities, and some adults, too, on horseback. It improves their core muscle strength, balance, builds up their feeling of power to control this big animal, and for some, it is the only thing that makes them mobile, and for those in a wheelchair, a different perspective rather than always sitting the same level in a wheelchair.

So, the group is doing so well, they started a second stable in a wealthy area. The houses in this area are over $1 million--which in St. Louis means HUGE! We had a lot of red tape to go through and rich people to schmooze in order to get it all set up and ready to go. They were a little worried about having horses in the middle of their beautiful park, but, unfortunately for them, it was grandfathered in to be a stable AND to be for a nonprofit organization. We won the battle but have worked very, very hard to get everything beyond code and up to gorgeous to make nice with the neighbors who could also be EXTREMELY helpful in donating money and products to us.

This morning was the first day the Town and Country stable was opened. I normally work at the other stable, but I volunteered to help out at the new one on Saturdays during the summer. While driving there, I see the woman who runs the program walking with one of the horses from quite a long distance away from the stable. I meet her at the stable, and she is red-in-the face, sweaty and out of breath. Smokey, who I have worked with at the other stable, had managed to open the "human" door, squeezed through, got out of the stables and ran down the street. The richy-rich street. He ran for miles...with no saddle or halter. He had bicyclists, 3 police cars and several motorists following him. The officers had their lights on. They couldn't catch Smokey. He went through subdivisions, across lawns and on sidewalks. And it rained last night, so there were many divots and hoof prints left in these previously pristine yards.

Finally, Smokey ran all the way to a major highway, and I guess he didn't know how to merge, because this is where he was apprehended by the police, and a kind motorist who saw the woman who runs the program running down the street after the horse drove her to the end of the road, so to speak, and someone else had a length of rope to tie around him to lead him back to the stable.

You would have thought that this outing tired Smokey and he would have been lazy for his rider who was about 15 minutes away from arriving for his session. Quite the opposite happened, though. Smokey, a 16 year old gelding, was wired and I had a tough time keeping him from trotting off with his ride. I kept putting my body in front of this huge horse to slow him down--and he only ran me over twice--once knocking me to the ground. The rider never knew differently, though, because while Smokey was feeling his oats, so to speak, he is still a gentle soul to those kids on his back and seems to know they are not seasoned riders.

This entire story may or may not be humorous to you. If you personally knew Smokey, it would be even funnier. Smokey is the laziest horse I have ever met. At the other stable, he has been known to fall asleep while walking and trip over his own feet. He is fairly tubby, and we have difficulty getting the girth around him, but he is also so lazy, he will go without his food if it is too far away from him.

But I guess this just goes to show, even older, lazy horses have their wild oats to sow. Or he prefers the stables in the "country" and was trying to get back there. Whichever.