Florence and the machine
Florence and the Machine, our thoroughbred
horse.
My introduction to the horse world
has been a journey of understanding, and the realization of what an incredible
animal horses are in their abilities and connections to humans. I never would
have guessed or thought I would learn so much from a four-legged creature.
Florence or Flo as we all called
her was magnificent, she had the ability to turn heads as she pranced into any
arena. Florence was my second seed in the horse world. Her inspiration took some time for me to
understand. The seed, understanding how a horse can fill your heart and replace
pain from the outside to warmth and bring you courage. Sara, my wife,
introduced me to trail riding with her horse Rhythm. She taught me how to tack up the horse, and
the basics of riding. Rhythm was a part
of our family, and he gave us many years of riding, camping, and
skijoring. When we lost Rhythm, it was
heartbreaking, something I did not expect to be so difficult.
Flo came into our lives when Sara
found Flo, we never could have guessed how that horse would literally save her
life. Flo, like a seed, was planted into Sara's life at one of the most
difficult times in her life. In the ten years that Flo and Sara trained
together they bonded, worked, and competed in the jumper ring. Sara has stated Flo gave her wings; literally
and metaphorically! It was an ironic statement as Sara's dad was a pilot. Flo
was an off-track thoroughbred or also known as OTTB. When her racing days ended her life changed
and she began her career as a jumper with Sara.
We drove down to the border of
Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky where we picked up the thoroughbred, soon to be Florence and the
Machine. Our drive was with our Jeep Commander and the old rickety horse trailer. When we arrived we met the owners and had our first introduction to a horse named ShariBomb, as you probably know by now, Sara would soon change the name of this former race horse to Florence and the Machine; jumping a horse with the word bomb in the name wasn't going to work. Flo's lineage came from Seattle Slew, not that it meant much but fun to share! As I recall, our drive back was a little nerve wracking, not knowing if our old horse trailer was going to hold up; we ended up having to tie one of the gates shut with baling twine! Our journey back, after the baler twine incident was, thankfully uneventful and we drove back to a barn called
Timeless, her first barn in Wisconsin. For your convenience, I have posted the link in the word Timeless. You can check out this very cool farm!
Sara spent a lot of time working with
Flo and eventually moved her to another barn to further her training. During
this time, we had been working as caretakers for her mom. The situation became
toxic for us as dementia moved into her mom's brain. Her mother treated Sara
very poorly and would verbally assault her on a regular basis. Having time with Flo was actually therapy for Sara and I could always tell, when she had time with that horse, she was much more calmer and despite her mother's best efforts she was able to get on with her own life.
Flo was the type of horse who
understood her job, and when she was loaded up to go to a show, I am sure she
loved it. Sara thought of it as a spa
day for the horse, showered, shampooed, groomed, and primed for her entrance
into the jumper ring. Think about this, winter
in our neck of the woods means it is going to be below zero and more on some
days, what horse wouldn’t love a weekend away from that! The second benefit, was for Sara, she got away and had the opportunity to enjoy her passion, jumping with Flo.
In one of the years Flo contracted cellulitis and her leg flared up to almost double in size!
Sara spent hours cold hosing, wrapping, and walking that horse back to health!
It was scary to watch but thankfully Flo pulled through! What you must understand is that by that time
we had fully invested our lives into Flo’s life and any thought of losing her
was horrible in thought and definitely not something we would want to
experience.
Not long after that episode with Flo, the barn where Sara and Flo were at, was not
going well, the owner was a bit of a jerk, with an inflamed ego of himself. I never understood how anyone could run a
business and treat their customers like crap.
It would explain why many left his barn.
It was time to move and so they moved back to the Timeless barn, located
in Arena Wisconsin. Best move they ever
made, just saying.
While at Timeless Sara and Flo really flourished and the jump heights started getting higher along with Sara’s confidence. It was great to watch and amazing to realize how tough the two of them were! Sara would share with me that they had jumped 4 ft. in their practice sessions! I think it is this, that makes it so difficult, the horse was jumping 4 ft. in the air not just once but several times on a course! In my world that sounds invincible. Sadly, it is not.
There are so many more tales I
could share in this blog, but the truth is, typing every key is a struggle as I
realize how touched we all were by a horse that looked invincible. These creatures stand above our heads, with
just a simple kick they can send us dangerously propelling into a wall or
worse. Despite all of that greatness,
cancer is still more powerful than the almighty horse.
Someone stated in their sorrow for Sara's loss, "Flo has gone over the rainbow bridge" oh dear god! It hurts to think of how it came down to such terrible thing. We always talked about her last job coming home to the farm and spending those years, trail riding through our woods and experience a true retirement. Flo is gone and will be memorialized on the farm as best as we can.
Thank you to all that understood this pain, thank you all that helped us when were struggling to figure out what was wrong with Flo and most of all thank you Flo for giving us something we will never have again, you.
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