Friday Rescue - Queen

Today's Friday Feature Rescue is Queen. She came to live with at Borderlands in October 2007. When we bought the acreage back in 2005, our neighbor had four horses. One of which was Queen.

I'd spent two years watching Queen out my kitchen window. The first winter at our place I didn't have any of the horses on the acreage. So I lived vicariously through my neighbors horses, just watching them walk around their pasture.

Then, in the summer of 2007 my neighbor decided that he needed to get rid of the mares, meaning Queen and another horse. He said he was planning on taking them to Kramers Auction. I was too timid at the time to ask how much he wanted for Queen. After he told me he wanted to get rid of the mares, I began fantisising about Queen and how in a short time she would be mine.

Then the first Saturday in October came and I saw a trailer pull in to my neighbor's place. I knew then that I'd lost my chance to get Queen before she headed to the auction. So that afternoon, some friends and I headed to Kramers to see if I could get Queen back.

We showed up at the scary auction. It always feels like a death trap. Mike was sick but lucky for me I had friends that aren't afraid to go to horse auctions. We sat through the tack portion. My friends bought some goats and then came the horses. And who should come down the auction isle into the ring first, but good ol' Queen.

There was no information on her. I was the only one in the entire place that new where she recently came from. The bidding began. Luckily my friends bid for me. I have such a hard time at auctions knowing where the price is and who's bidding when. The price got up to $100 and I GOT HER! She was my first auction save (thanks to my friends doing the bidding for me).

I wasn't sure if she'd even load, having never handled her before. I didn't even have a horse trailer but my friends had come with their trailer. I threw a halter on and she hopped into the trailer like a pro. She still trailers very well.

When I unloaded her back at home, the other neighbor horses whinnied so at least she hopefully knew she wasn't too far from her past home. I felt so bad. She was exhausted. They'd hauled her to the auction at 10 am and I didn't get her home until 8pm. No food, no water, no nothing. Poor ol' girl.

We unloaded her in the roundpen so she could relax and rest. I wanted to do a slow introduction of her into the main herd. I prefer to do slow introductions. She hung out with Rain for a couple of weeks. And then I think I threw Chaos in with her just to see. She's fairly mellow and didn't seem to care. I now have to keep her separate from Dude and King since they harrass her and beat her up. Poor girl.

At one point my neighbor saw Queen standing in the roundpen and stopped over. He said they had called her Girl. I couldn't handle calling her girl. It wasn't refined enough. I thought about calling her Lady but there had already been a Lady in the family (Grandma Roling's dog). So the next best thing was Queen. That's how she got her name.

The real kicker of talking with the neighbor. He said he would have given me Queen for free. He ended up not getting any money back after sending both the mares to the auction. I was disappointed. I should have asked sooner. Instead I forced Queen to endure the auction. You could tell she couldn't handle the auction and simply shut down and did only what she was told. Poor thing. I promised I would never let that happen again. Now she's living the life of luxury.

She's taught me many things since coming to live with us. She absolutely LOVES her grain and alfalfa. And is actually an escape artist when she wants to. Last summer/fall I had her in a poorly fenced in pasture. When I woke up that morning, there she was standing in the front lawn munching on the good lush grass. She's my "go to horse" when I need a shoulder to cry on. She's very dear to my heart.

I'd taken her to the vet after I got her just to see how old she was. Unfortunately the vet didn't know how to read horse teeth very well. (Least to say, we no longer use that vet.) So this fall, I took Queen and Babe to a different vet. My vet wanted to know how old I thought she was. I said I was told between 20 and 25. My vet looked at her teeth, walked over to his wall chart, and asked if I was sure. He guestimates her at closer to 30+ years old. I guess we'll never really know how old she is or any more about her history. Some girls just don't like talking about their age or their past.

Queen is currently in Madison until the pastures green up. It was easier to have mom and dad care for the mares. That way they have easy and direct access to the barn and don't have to be pushed out of the barn early in the morning on cold days. I do believe the mares are pretty spoiled these days.

Queen is such an awesome ol' girl. I love her to pieces.