Registered AQHA Mare

Foaled 1986

(pic of star)

When I was 10 Star came into my life.

At this time, she was only 6 years old, and not fully trained. We taught each other what to do, and that's how I learned to ride. I mainly had to stay on her back as she took me on her adventures, then over time we became ONE and we wanted the same things.

Star had a good life with us. Although sometimes she was not in good health, we did all we could to keep her happy, so she could get well.

It was a nice warm day, beginning of summer, a few days left of school. I got off the bus and called to her as I walked up the drive. She did not come to the corner this day, like she always does. I got worried that maybe she broke the fence again and toured the neighborhood. So I continued to the house to drop off my book bag. I walked out to her pasture. Her area was not huge, but there was a big hill in the center that blocked me from seeing her entire pasture. As I topped the hill, I looked down on the other side, I called to her, and she answered with a worn out knicker that could barely be heard. That's when I saw her, laying down at the fence line, with her head down. I ran down the hill, then stopped short as to not spook her. I called to her again in a soft voice, she knickered again. I put my hand on her neck and leaned over her. I almost fainted! She was tangled in the fence. She had been grazing through the fence again. But this time, the lower stran of wire was close to the ground and she had stepped over it, and into her broken halter that she must have tried to get off while through the fence. Knowing that she was stuck, she just layed down and waited for me. I tried to pick up her tangled foot to release it, and she stood up. Not what I wanted her to do. This action caused her to be suddenly pulled back down, and she did a flip and landed again. I told her to stay still while I went for tools. Then I noticed that she was bleeding, her single white foot was now red. I started to panic. I ran as fast as I could back to the house and grabbed the phone, I called my Mom who was at work, and told her the bad news. She in turn called my brother, and he then called the Vet. I grabbed the tools and ran back to Star. She was still laying there helpless, and I took the wire cutters and clipped the fence. It would be hard to fix, but I did not care. Star, knowing she was free, instantly stood again, this time she did  not fall. But her front foot was still in her broken halter. So I cut what was left, and she was free. Now with out the halter I was worried she would run. But as I walked to the barn to get some rope to hold her, but she just followed me, slowly. I opened the gate and she continued to stay at my heels. We walked to the house instead, and waited in the yard. I sang to her as I usually did when she was not feeling well. But I could see she was in pain. A short time later, the Vet arrived with my brother right behind him. They looked her over, and found that she just had surface scratches from the wires, and gave her a tetnus shot and some penecillin to kill infection. She also got some Bute, which is like an asperin for horses. The rest of that summer, we only rode bareback, as her scratches were on her belly and sides where the saddle would rub. But it was still a nice summer.

This particular summer the lawn mower was broken. Our yard looked like a jungle, the grass was almost as tall as I was. Star had not been feeling well the past 2 days or so, and today she didn't eat any of her grain. I didn't know what was wrong with her. I called my brother and he came out to look at her. He then called the Vet. When the Vet had looked her over, he said she had a case of Worms. My brother told him that we had just wormed her, and we do it on schedule, so how could that be? The Vet said it looked as though she was having an allergic reaction to the worm meds, and that we should start using cattle wormer. We waited a few days, and she just got worse. She started loosing weight quickly, and she still would not eat. Then one day a farmer that lived down the road , came to ask about my Dad's Hay Field. He saw Star standing her favorite place at the corner of her pasture. He asked if she had worms, and we told him what the Vet said. He said that he had some extra cattle wormer, as he is a dairy farmer, and said that it would be good for her. He later brought some over and gave it to her. Then he commented on our yard. He suggested turning Star loose on the green grass. Said it would help flush the worms from her system. So, we took the rope from Dad's boat, for his anker. It was aprox. 100 foot long, and we tied her to a tree. The next day we noticed that some of the grass around her tree had been ate. We took her off the grain for a while, and let her eat the grass. Within 2 weeks she had started eating so much grass we had to move her to a new tree every few days.