Poco Hijack

After I'd had Frosty a couple years, the family that sold her to me wanted her back. They wanted to trade me a nice young 3 year old gelding Registered Quarter Horse. Which was a huge decision. So big that I burst into tears when I considered it.

Trading Frosty in seemed like something a traitor would do. I'm from the pets for life school of life. But the good thing was she was going back to a loving fam. And ooh that hunky sorrel with the blaze of white a a couple white socks. I couldn't pass it up.

So we got Jack, and my folks invested in a month of training for him at Les Walker's in Bondurant. Les taught Jack a few things about gait and put him on a tie down. He had a tenancy to rear up. Jack had a great temperament, but he was after all just a baby in horse years. He had energy, and was nothing like Frosty, a good 'ol gal.

Once I got Jack back from the trainer, I had lots of work to do. And I had a brand new barn to do it in. A group of us horsey types invested in a horse condominium on Guttenfelder property. It was a steel building with 6 stalls with outdoor runs and 5 without. Jack had a nice middle one with a run and an electric heated waterer. The best thing was the nice indoor arena with several inches of sand to work out on. There was a nice tack room and a hayloft above the stall area for nice small bales of alfalfa. We kept a manure spreader out back for cleaning out stalls.

I had Jack throughout high school, and he turned out to be a wonderful guy - calm but not boring. He let me slide off his butt, and on hot days I could feed him ice cubes. The outdoor arena at "the barn" as we called the facility was surrounded by fence and we could turn horses out to graze. Sometimes I liked to lay on his back as he grazed - on my stomach with my head on his back. One time when I was in this position, he was startled and began to canter - and when I sat up I was pointing backwards and was in no position to control a 1500 pound horse! I ended up rolling off him onto the ground.

Sal's dad Wayne was a good mentor for me and helped me arrange for shoeing and worming my horses. He helped me figure out what to feed them. Wayne had a nice horse trailer with a changing room on the front. He used it to haul Sal and me to horse shows in southwest Iowa, as well as to the Cass County Fair. Yep I was a 4-Her, forced into baking and doing artsy things in order to show my horse. Our group was named "The Glad Girls of Grove", for Grove Township in Cass County. Hell, at least I wasn't a "Gay Grant Gal".

I was not the most successful horse shower. Jack, though a good horse with good confirmation, was not a typical winner with a nice rocking horse gait. Nope he had a very rough (think Jackhammer) trot and a fast canter that caused me to have to pass people when showing - not a good thing in judge's eyes. Sally's horse Vissy was much more successful, and Jennifer ended up buying an expensive shower later, after her starter horse Drifter.

But I loved it! Hanging out with horse peeps in places like Anita and Audubon. Who could regret meeting people like the Campbell Soup Twins - twin girls from Exira who looked just like that little nerd that used to be on the soup commercials - reddish hair with very short nerdy bangs. And the Souths. Some people were in it for the speed - pole and barrel racing. Sometimes I'd participate in the egg race, fun stuff like that. Horse shows always had the best sloppy joes.

I sold Jack to a local family when I went to college. It was tough, but had to be done, since I wouldn't be around to take care of him. Later he was sold to some family friends and he lived at their farm. I took Paul to meet him once. When Jack was 16, he escaped from his fence and was hit on the highway and killed. So long old friend.