Star the buddy

So. Tiki lived in this teeny little hole in the wall barn within walking distance of my house. I was doing 100% full self care, and ignored the BM's horses, for the most part. She had 5 when Tiki arrived, and I lost a bit of respect for her when one of her horses (a TB no less) got cornered in the barbed wire in the back pasture (I had no idea at that time there was ANY wire on the property). That poor little mare got TORN up; she had blood all over all 4 legs, down her neck, and all over her chest. The BM hosed her off for a minute, then proceeded to smear Swat all over the bloody gashes. It was at that moment I thanked God I was laying eyes on my horse twice a day so that I could care for him, should something happen.

Anyway, she kind of got snippy about the fact that my horse had access to the stall on the back of the barn, because I was only paying for pasture board. Well ... he WAS boarded in the pasture; the stall happened to be the ONLY thing resembling shelter. Also, that was the only pasture he could be in, because the back pasture was lined with barbed wire, and i put in his boarding contract that he was NOT to be in any pasture with barbed wire unless she held up her end of the deal and put in hotwire to keep the horses away from it. I had nothing to do with the fact that the boy spent so much time in there; besides, it didn't cost her a penny because the dirt floor stalls had no shavings, and I cleaned the stall.

So, the buddy. I was feeling a little guilty about the stall since she'd mentioned it, and tried to appease her by suggesting she put Star out with him. Star was the sweetest one. The other 3 had all tried to kill poor Tiki already; my little guy just had not been turned out with other horses ... he didn't know what it was all about. I put the little chestnut and white paint mare out there with him, and he attached himself to her like white on rice. It was so sweet. Suddenly, he was out of the stall, he was eating grass, and he followed her around with his head on her butt.

A day later, I pulled him out to groom and longe him. He turned into a screaming, raging maniac. He hollered for her, wouldn't stand still, and turned all together frantic. I turned her back out with the others, and waited on Tiki to calm down. He did, finally, but now my new problem was what do do with them so that I wouldn't create a totally buddy sour horse.

The flaky BM saved me once again. Less than a week after I'd turned them out together, she sold that one and another one at auction. Poor Tiki seemed a bit depressed, but luckily he didn't so much as go off his feed. I was grateful that little problem had been solved, but felt sorry my guy had lost his buddy. It had been about 2 weeks since he came home to me. It was time to ride!