Pretty Ava Crowder

Tonight it is time for a horse story…..no rugs or wool or dogs……a HORSE story.

Carl and I love to ride. We are HORSE people.  Of course, you know my beautiful black and white paint gelding, Hairy.  He is the best, most solid, and well mannered horse on the planet.   We have been looking for a new horse for Carl.  His horse Sunnee is 23 years old and starting to be a little arthritic,  he needs a replacement, so he can retire from his riding duties.  

I located this absolutely adorable 15 year old crop out Paint mare near Austin Minnesota.  She has a bunch of western pleasure and horsemanship points and has a heart of gold.  I had her vetted and when she passed the vet exam, Carl and Blue and I drove to Minnesota to try her out.

It was love at first sight and after Carl rode her, we loaded her in the trailer and brought her home.  Her barn name was Lollipop, but Carl could not see himself calling her that, so we are calling her Ava Crowder after the heroine on "Justified".  Our vet calls his calf roping horse Raylon, after the hero on that show.  We all decided she was just as pretty as Ava Crowder, and had a little starch when she needed it.  Perfect, Ava Crowder it is.

So we brought Ava Crowder home and she needed to have her teeth done.   She had only been here for 4 days and had been from the pasture to her stall only 4 times.  Well.....I hate to admit this part of the  story because it makes me look like an idiot.  In 16 years here at the farm, I have only had 2 occasions where a horse snuck past me at the gate and got loose, but this is what happened.  The vet was coming to do her teeth on Monday morning, so I thought I would bring her pasture mate Tooey in also, so Tooey would not stand outside and scream for Ava Crowder.  So, I brought Tooey out of the gate and little Ms Crowder....leaked out behind her.  I mean just slipped out of that gate so slick that she got right past me.  Now I am thinking, OH SHIT, loose horse, new horse, vet will be driving in at any minute and he has been my friend for 40 years and loves nothing more than to give me CRAP!!!!  It could not be worse timing.  At this point, my paint gelding Hairy races up to the gate of his pasture and calls to her and I think, Oh, Good, she will go visit Hairy while I get Tooey put away.  But NOOOOOO, she trots off toward the barn.   Our barn is a little different configuration, it has an 8 stall barn, a connector barn that attaches to the indoor arena.  She trotted into the connector barn, where she could then go into the arena or out the door on the other side of the connector barn to get to the hay barn, pallets, equipment etc.   I could just picture her out picking her way thru the bad stuff as I raced Tooey to the barn into her stall.  I ran toward the arena, expecting to see our little chestnut darling somewhere she should not be, and did a quick double take at her stall.  She had gone into the connector barn, made a right turn into the stall barn and then another right turn and put herself away into the right stall, with all the other stall doors open.   I could have kissed her.  I could not believe that after only 4 days of being here, she put herself away in that manner.  We used to have a Fjord mare that would put herself away, but have never had another horse that would.  She is a sweet genius!!!!!

So Ava Crowder is a big hit around here.  She is sweet and kind to Carl and he is loving riding her.  The other horses all think she is just fine too.  Even Tooey, who usually has a gripe with her pasture mate, thinks Ava is a fine friend.  So far, so good.  There is peace in our horse kingdom.  Bless you, Ava Crowder.

Til next time,

Janice