He Arrives

 

We thought he would be here on Tuesday, but that was changed to Wednesday because a Canadian holiday messed up their schedule.  Then, they called me and said it have to be Thursday.  There was another horse that they were shipping whose papers to get across the border expired, and they had to be renewed.  So, when Thursday arrived, I was expecting a phone call saying it would be Friday.  Well, I got the phone call, but this time they said he would be there between 7:00 and 9:00 that evening.  It was happening!

 

I waited at home for the next update.  At 7:45, I got the call that they were about an hour away.  I called Kevin, and he rushed out to the barn right away—he was so excited.  I left a message for Ellen.  She was working until 9:00, so it looked like she might be lucky.  I really wanted her to see him when he arrived, too.  I had told the shipper to call again when they got off the highway.

 

I drove out.  When I passed the highway exit, I timed how long it would be to get to the barn from there—8 minutes.  I was surprised to see John, Ellen’s boyfriend, was there.  He is a terrific photographer, and all the photos you see are from him.

 

To kill time, I cleaned the stalls and brushed Ranger.  They were eating their evening hay.  Cole did take a break from it to show John how he can bow.  John took a bunch of pictures of him. There were some other boarders there, and we let them know what was happening.  The excitement was building for all of us—but mostly for me. 

 

They called!  Kevin and I slowly wandered down the driveway to flag them down when they arrived.  I expected them in 8 minutes.  I didn’t know if Ellen would get there in time.  Eight minutes passed—still no truck.  Suddenly, Kevin blurts out, “I think that is it—I can hear it.”  (How did he hear the truck before me?  Why doesn’t he hear me when I talk?)  Sure enough, I saw headlights, and now I could hear a diesel engine, too.

They saw us waving, and stopped in front of the barn.  The driver told me that it looks like I got a Roy Rogers horse, Trigger.  My heart was beating so fast.  Remember, I hadn’t seen him before.  All I saw was some pictures.  They opened the side door, and started to move things around to get to him.  I walked to the side of the truck and peered in. I could only see a little of him—some of his neck and his shoulder, but I told everyone I thought he was beautiful.  I noticed there was now quite a crowd, now, waiting for him.  Even Marty, the owner of the stables was out there. 

 

They dropped the ramp, put sides up on it and then they rolled out the red carpet.  Well, maybe it was brown, but it was dark—I like to think it was red.  They led him to the ramp, and he saw the carpet, planted his feet and bowed way back like Cole Train.  They let him reconnoiter and then asked him to proceed.  He carefully stepped down the ramp and stepped on the driveway.  As he strolled down the red carpet and through the crowd at the end of the driveway, I couldn’t help but think that he was getting a movie star welcome.  Maybe he is Trigger?

 

He had arrived at his new home, but he didn’t know where he was at.  So much had happened to him in the last week that he didn’t know what to think.

 

And then I saw Ellen!  She made it in time!  I was thrilled that she was there to share the moment, too.

 

The assistant led him down the long driveway.  His head was way up in the air, he was walking fast and was looking all over the place. 

 

(The assistant commented that when they got off the highway, he couldn’t believe he was delivering a horse to such a Metropolis.  They passed stores, restaurants, a shopping center, movie theater, hospital and even a college on the way.  And then he turned down our street, saw the horse sign for the bridle path and passed up a bunch of stables and then it made sense.)

 

When we got to our barn, I remembered we had a very difficult time leading Cole through the door when I got him.  That time, he was going from a bright, sunny day into a dark barn  This time, MerryLegs was going from a dark night into a bright barn.  Sure enough, MerryLegs said he didn’t want anything to do with it.  I pushed the door open further, and then he said he could do it.  We brought him to the stall, turned him loose and I went to take care of the details.  I had to sign for him, get his paperwork and the leftover hay.

 

When I got back to the barn, so many people were clustered around his stall that I could barely see him.  And there was Kevin, in the middle of the stall, giving him carrot after carrot.  I could see he was nervous about the new surroundings.  He visited with Ranger—who couldn’t keep his eyes off of him.  He looked at the mule, and didn’t seem very impressed with her.  We gave him hay to munch, and as he settled down, he started to eat it.  Kevin, Ellen and I were petting him and talking to him.  Whenever we stopped, he would look up from the hay and wonder what happened. When we petted him again, he would go back to the hay.

 

Then, I remembered—I have to call Mrs. Shoes!  She is the most wonderful woman who gave me MerryLegs.  I knew she was waiting for the call to know he made it safely and to find out my reaction when I saw what a beautiful horse he is, because, wow, he really is.  Not a single one of the pictures that she sent me prepared me for what I saw coming out of that trailer.  It was a combination of bad photography (because horses really are hard to take good pictures of) and a very thick Canadian winter coat.  It wouldn’t be hard to convince me that all the pictures I saw were taken of a different horse, and she did  this just to surprise me.  And surprised I was.  MerryLegs is one drop-dead gorgeous horse.

 

I ran to the car to get her phone number and placed the call to about a million miles away in Canada.  I must have sounded like a nut—going on about how beautiful he is—she was telling the truth to me—with no exaggerating—no mother’s vision that her baby is perfect—he really is just that beautiful.  Finally, I told her I had to go because I wanted to go back and be with him, again.  By now, Ellen had told Kevin that he probably had enough carrots.  But that didn’t mean that we couldn’t still pet him and talk to him.

 

Kevin wanted to know if she had any other horses she wanted to give away.  Ellen was quiet and in awe.  I was in dream land.  Ranger just kept looking at him.  Starry was jealous that Kevin was ignoring him—even kicking his stall to get attention.  It didn’t work.  Kevin laughed at Starry and kept petting MerryLegs.  Cole and Dante were finishing their evening hay. I was still walking on clouds.

 

Finally, it was getting late, and we knew we had to leave.  When I got home, I called Ellen to talk about how pretty he is and then called Kevin.  Kevin just kept going on about how he was “Blown away.”  I then had to settle down and get some sleep because I needed to go to work in the morning.  I tried reading, but I kept having to reread the pages because my mind would wander.  Still, it was enough to get me relaxed, and I was able to sleep.  

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Comment by Jackie Cochran on May 23, 2015 at 10:15am

I am glad your new horse is so wonderful!

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