And photographs, if you have any.
Horseytalk.net Special Interview
Polly Thompson
THE DAY COTTON SAVED US - AND THE BARN
High winds and driving snow pierced my muffler's breathing hole as I crossed
from our snug Minnesota farmhouse to the people-door of our barn. Plastic
sheets barricaded the big sliding door; newspaper was stuffed around the
windows and hay stacked in the loft, hopefully to preserve what heat the
animals generated. As many as nine horses at a time occupied this big old
refurbished cow barn, but the scary episode that faced me this stormy
morning occurred when my bunch of homebreds had narrowed to two:
thirteen-year-old, Anglo-Holsteiner Cottonwood and eleven-year-old,
Anglo-App Peaceful Viking.
PT's Cottonwood viewing his realm from his stall >>
Once inside, I Immediately sensed trouble. My generally gentle, staid warmblood was clearly upset. An overflexed dressage-type passage shot Cottonwood from one end of the twenty-five-foot length of his double stall to the other end. The wind raged, the hulking barn creaked, and Cotton stomped nonstop, except to deliver eardrum-shattering kicks against the wood siding. What was he thinking, what was he saying!? The Holsteiner genes had this horse bred to withstand cannon-fire; whatever was going on here must be even more terrifying.
I tossed in some hay, which he ignored, stomping about and kicking out while
I frantically searched for the problem. Viking in the front stall calmly
went on eating his breakfast. Over the blustery noise from outdoors, I
caught occasional small popping, spitting noises indoors. Whatever it was
had turned Cotton into a raging beast that needed out of its cage.
I entered with the usual soft thick rope Cotton heeds perfectly, ordinarily. This morning he backed off to the far corner. He cocked a hind and eyed me. I walked up to this big wonderful guy I helped bring into the world with some trepidation. Surely, he trusted me.
<< Sally Thompson saddling Pet at Round Hill Stable, Greenwich, Connecticut, an establishment similar to the boarding and training stable in the novel
When I came close, yes! Hastily he snaked his head into the rope--like, "Save me, Mom!"
I managed to stay forward from the churning shoulder as the unnerved beast charged across the aisle and into the single, sunnier stall he likes on days too nasty for turn-out. As soon as that door got latched, I heard the unidentifiable noise again, and Cotton's big flat hoof slam into that door's thick plywood. The latch strained to hold as he kicked out again and again.
The day before, I had shoveled two wheelbarrow-loads of snow down from the
drafty loft. Now the madness in my head could only guess more snow had blown
in and was leaking through the ceiling. But that wouldn't be enough to drive
this horse crazy. At my wit's end, I flew up the ladder, shouting back
reassuringly, and dashed about with my broom whisking at the new snow like
a crazy witch. Still, Cotton kept up his horrendous racket.
PT's Cottonwood delighting in the blizzard's bounty >>
Downstairs again, fresh spitting noises penetrated my thick stocking cap, directing my eye overhead, toward the two porcelain light fixtures on Cotton's end of the aisle. Hastily, while enduring increasingly desperate snorts and stomps, I unscrewed both bulbs. The confounding noise happened again and, out of the corner of my eye, this time I spied a flame shoot out of the fixture directly in front of Cotton's stall.
Three-month-old PT’s Cottonwood makes friends, 1980
Immediately I turned out the lights. I rushed the horse back across the aisle before the latch cracked. The kicking abated into grumpy complaints that made it hard to hear when I called my husband on the barn phone.
"There's something wrong with the electricity," I inanely said in a
shaky voice. Peter reminded his addled wife to shut off the intake box. I did
and closed up the barn and straggled back to the house.
Not until the electrician left at 5:15 p.m. did my nerves settle. Moisture in the fixture had caused the arcing. Peter and I took it down but couldn't find the problem. Cotton fired a few warning kicks when Peter stepped up the ladder to get at it. The infernal interference made Peter bark, "Let him out so I can think!"
<< Homebreds Peaceful Viking, PT’s Classmate, and PT’s Cottonwood
So, that day two pampered horses went out the paddock door and into thirty below wind-chill. Poor Viking had to baby-sit, the two so used to being together. Rescued ten minutes later, Cotton was considerably subdued. He had saved the barn--home of our last two homebreds and a dozen indulged cats. The snow-clogged roads ruled out help to fight a barn fire.
See more about Polly's horses and about her recently published novel,
Horses
and Heartbeats, on www.horsesandheartbeats.com
Horses
and Heartbeats shows the pluses and minuses of horse ownership.
The
engaging characters, the subtle yet effective introduction of horse management
skills.
Polly Thompson’s stories are concerned with the wellbeing of our long standing friends, the horses.
She yearned for a horse and, asked what she'd like for Christmas or birthday, always said, "A Horse, please!" Not till married with two children, was Thompson at last a horse owner. Introducing her four-year-old dark bay TB mare, Teacher's Pet, to the joys of trail riding, jumping, and dressage was an exciting challenge.
She and her family lived in Rye, New York then, and Pet was stabled in Greenwich, Connecticut. Thompson enrolled in horsemastership courses, and soon found herself coaching riders in dressage, jumping, and hunt seat equitation.
Her husband Peter bought a farm in Southwest Minnesota and, at last, she had a barn and the opportunity to raise horses. Out of Thoroughbred mares bred to Thoroughbreds and Holsteiners, she produced, raised and trained nine sporthorses of good temperament, size, and way of going. Thompson relishes her years spent with horses.
" Horses and Heartbeats is a story I would have enjoyed reading during my years of yearning," she says.
Polly Thompson lives with her husband in Mountain Lake, Minnesota, and Palm Desert, California.
In Horses and Heartbeats, Polly Thompson brings you into the lives of the elegant contestants at a hunter-jumper show; the schooling mounts at a boarding stable; and the horses in various states of conditioning that come through a Connecticut auction. One of these, a young mare fresh off the Dakota plains, is destined for Bailey Mason, a green but gutsy teenager. In a summer filled with upsets and success, Bailey and her friends cope with each other’s and the horse’s idiosyncrasies and pool their resources to make ready for a challenging gymkhana. The practical details of horse-handling woven into this story give it the realism that will appeal to who ever has wished for a horse. www.horsesandheartbeats.com
Reviews:
"A captivating picture of the horse scene, Horses and Heartbeats shows the pluses and minuses of horse ownership. The engaging characters, the subtle yet effective introduction of horse management skills, had my fourteen-year-old daughter unwilling to put it down."
Maryland horseman Robert Taylor—3-Day Eventer, Educator, Pony Club International Games Coach, MFH Goshen Hounds.
"The journey of heart warming experiences in Polly Thompson's Horses and Heartbeats takes in the many aspects involved in one’s love of horses, the pursuit of ownership despite difficulties along the way. The path is not always straight but it does reward those who really want something and are willing to work for it. Consider this easy, most interesting read a ‘must’ for any horse lover on your list, and they won't be disappointed!"
International 3-Day Eventer Gretchen Butts—Administrator of Maryland's Waredaca Pony Club Riding Center; past US Eventing Association board member and Educational Consultant, current national & international judge and technical delegate, USEA Governors Cup recipient.
"A great one for the kids, and this old barn-bum enjoyed it, too. Ever as entertaining as educational, the story sets out comparisons between the advantages of taking lessons on horses cared for by experienced grooms to keeping a horse in your own back yard and learning by trial and error. The gymkhana at the end is terrific, and our Bailey knows enough to do the right thing."
Amazon post by Downtoearth, Butterfield, MN