Jodee

     The name on her registration papers stated: April Star Jodee.  She was the best horse anyone could want.  Her glossy coat shone a dark chocolate brown, with a black mane and tale, and a white star on her forehead.  Jodee was a Quarter Horse.  She had the kindest brown eyes that were mirrors to her gentle, ageless soul.

 

    Steve Mark, and I felt privileged to have her come into our lives.

 

    To a small extent, I believe she has come back to us, even though it is about 15 years since she crossed the rainbow bridge.  I'll get back to why I feel that way. 

 

     Jodee came into our lives because Steve and I decided it was time we acquired horses.  Steve had recently survived a life-threatening accident, when a slash from Devil's Club on his arm became infected.  There is nothing like a stint in the hospital to remind you that life is finite.  What we had intended to do "someday" became "today."

                                                                     Jodee

 

    I began a search for horses.  I think I found the number in The Little Nickel classified ads.  Does anyone else remember that ubiquitous little yellow paper that was stacked for free at every retail outlet?  The paper predated the internet.  Is it still published?  I believe it is online now.

 

    I called local phone numbers and landed on an extension and an address close to us in Kent.  Steve and I, along with a very young Mark, headed out to find a horse, and at the same time we met new friends.  For the purposes of privacy, I won't mention their names, but I will say we met a wonderful couple with children close to Mark's age.  They were life-long riders, and they competed in barrel racing.  Jodee was for sale because her peak racing days were over.  Also on the market was a young Paint palomino filly.  We made arrangements to bring both equines home to Auburn.

 

    I can't remember what we paid for the pair, but whatever it was, it was a bargain.

 

    Even though Splash, the filly, wasn't a year old, she settled into her new home as comfortably and quickly as Jodee who was an old pro at accepting new situations.  Jodee, we quickly realized, was a natural mother.  She had had foals, and although Splash was not her own, Jodee's maternal nature kicked in.  It made the new environment an easy adjustment for both equines.

 

    I promptly began to enjoy Jodee under saddle.  Steve and Mark climbed on in turn.  At first I restricted myself to a sedate walk with an occasional trot, but Jodee, as she would with all her riders, determined when it was time to increase the pace.  She had, after all, been a racer.  However, she was always careful to keep her riders seated. 

 

    Given the many years we partnered with her, I don't ever remember Jodee losing a rider - except once, and that time she lost three in one go.  Jodee had been in her pasture that afternoon when Mark was entertaining a couple of his elementary school friends.  My son coaxed a willing Jodee to the fence, carefully avoiding the top rail where an electric wire ran.  Mark swung himself up on the horse and urged a second boy to follow.  Both boys waved over the third.  That child clambered the fence, the same as the others, but Jodee, without any physical restraints, had angled her hind end away from the fence.  The third youngster had more of a stretch.  As he did the splits to land behind the other two boys, his foot touched the wire. 

 

     Poor Jodee!  The jolt sent her spinning, and three boys unceremoniously hit the dirt.  No one was hurt, but the gentle mare seemed genuinely upset that her patient tolerance had been rewarded with a burst of electricity.

 

    Years Passed.  Jodee became a lesson mount for us.

 

    She would have two foals of her own, but she mothered every foal on the property.  When a young, first-time mother was uncertain of the the procedure with a new baby, Jodee stepped in.

 

    The only creature Jodee mistrusted was dogs.  Probably she had cause.  As a mother, she didn't want those "wolves" messing with her precious babies.

 

    As she aged, and her health deteriorated, Jodee still was a treasure.  At some point we stopped riding her, but her human friends realized she still liked to get out and about.  Most evenings, someone would come to take her on a walk in the neighborhood.  Although we had a halter on her, the rope usually remained in our pocket.

 

    Our veterinarian, at the time, was a crusty chap who had put down many equines.  He knew the drill.  Yet, he fought to keep Jodee alive because he admired the mare.  When the day came to let her go he, too, had tears.

 

    We all knew one of the great ones had left us.

                                                            Jodee

 

    Now, to explain why I think a part of Jodee has come back.

 

    Two new horses are in our pasture.  One is a red roan pinto pony.  The other is a glorious golden gaited mare, only slightly older than Jodee was when she came into our lives.

 

    The reason the palomino girl reminds me of Jodee..? 

 

    It is because a couple of months ago we got a phone call.  The woman on the recording called herself, "a voice from the past."  Indeed.  It was the woman who had sold us Jodee over 30 years ago.  We had lost touch as she and her husband left the state, then returned without our knowledge.  Now a widow, she was back, located only an hour from us, and she thought of us, and took a chance on our old phone number.

 

    We reconnected.  We felt as close as we had when we first met her.  Weeks later she confided that her health was slipping Tentatively, she asked it we would be interested in buying her horses.  We knew her.  We knew any animal of hers would be stellar, and spectacularly well-trained.

 

    So, once again, we have a new brilliant mare, and an adorable pinto pony.  The personalities are not the same; the old pony is not my Splash, and the palomino is not Jodee.

 

    Yet, when I look at the golden mare, and she stares with her remarkable amber eyes, somehow I feel as if a part of Jodee has returned.