Fred and his wife Darla are boarders at the same barn where I board Shiloh. The other day when I pulled in, Fred told me this story, and later sent me an email. With Fred’s permission, I’m sharing the story with you. For some of you, this may be difficult to read, but rest assured, that at this moment in time, Classic Maverick is receiving the best care possible.
To learn more about Classic Maverick, check out his MySpace page.
“Darla and I had been planning maybe a couple of years from now after the kids are done with school, to rehab some horses and have a ranch for the future grandkids to visit.
“We have our horses at a thoroughbred training facility. There are very few boarders there and it is a great place for us few boarders. We have Moses, a retired race quarter horse, Dolly, a paint, and take care of Buzz, an old quarter horse.
“Canterbury Downs is a racetrack a few miles up the road from there. There is at any given time about many race horses around the barn we are at. We, of course, go through the big blue barn and make friends with the race horses, give them treats and try to make their life a little more enjoyable. It is a rough life for them except when we boarders are around. One of those horses, a VERY sweet one is Classic Maverick, a three year old.
“Sunday afternoon, a woman pulls up in a big truck and a huge trailer asking me where Classic Maverick is. I showed her which stall he lives in and she took him away. I asked Emily, she works there and boards her two horses there and another boarder, a lady who has her horses there and comes EVERY night to feed the cats, sheep and takes care of a lot of things, where the horse was headed. I wasn’t prepared for the answer. They told me that I don’t want to know. I said I wanted to know. Well in a few days he would be dead meat up in Canada because he had recently hurt a tendon in his front leg. The tendon would heal in time, but the owner didn’t want to pay board anymore for a horse that would not race again.
“I walked back up to our white barn and told Darla. We saw Classic Maverick getting loaded into the trailer. It was not pretty. The horse fell down getting into the trailer and the woman didn’t even bother to put the ramp down for the guy. Darla started crying because Classic Maverick had been one of her favorites. We decided Sunday night that one day we would start a non profit and name it in memory to Classic Maverick.
“Today I got a phone call from Darla and she said she found a donor to pay for his rehab and board for a year. She told me to find the dang horse. I call the guy who runs the place we board at and left him a message. Not good enough. I called a horse auction I had heard someone mention before. The lady that answered told me that no females would have been driving a truck to pickup horses, but gave me the owner’s cell number. I called him and left a message. He called right back and told me it may have been his brother’s wife and gave me his number. I called and the guy said that yes it was them and his wife was down at the barn right now loading the horses to haul up to Canada today.
“I told him I wanted Classic Maverick back. He said I had to come down today by 6 P.M. with $500 to pick him up. Well, I don’t have a truck or horse trailer. I asked if he could hold onto him until I could arrange to pick him up. He told me he could deliver the horse back to the barn at 6:30 for $50. Deal done. He mentioned before I hung up that it was my lucky day because the horse was being loaded as I called.”
Come back tomorrow to learn the rest of Classic Maverick’s story.
Harmony,
Janet Roper
