Babe… Our First Family Equine

Time for another "Tuesdays' Show & Tail" hosted by Angela over at West Virginia Treasures! It is a meme to share about past or present pets or furry friends we’ve known. If you’d like to join, here is the link to the Guidelines. Angela, we appreciate the opportunity to share some of our treasured friends or other interesting animals we’ve seen!

Today, I want to share a bit about our first family equine, a little black Shetland, named Babe. I’d had a horse when I was young that my dad had gotten me, and I’d loved them totally since I was very little, so when we got to the point when we could afford one, we started praying. We put our names on the list for a corral at the local Horseman’s Association, and after a few months we got one. (This picture was taken about 1988, after we’d gotten several horses. L – R = Tai Pan, Peppy, Cory, Babe)

A week or so later, my prayers were answered, when one of my best friends called me. She worked at the local vet’s office and they had been called in by the Humane Society to put down a little starved Shetland pony, named Babe. When she and one of her friends saw the little guy, who had been kept in a back bedroom and only taken out at night for a few minutes to the park to graze, he was to weak to stand. She talked it over with her friend, and they asked the vet to give them a chance to save the little pitch black gelding.

He was so weak and little, that they could hold him up for several minutes at a time… and they did for four days, feeding him and paying for him to get shots and food IV’s and hand feeding him. Finally, he was able to get up and stand on his own, and they continued to feed him and care for him, but she really didn’t want another horse or pony, so a couple of weeks later, when she found out I’d gotten a corral, she offered to sell him to us for $50 (enough to cover some of the vet bills she’d paid) and we were able to get him for our kids.

My oldest son was 5 (the same age as Babe) and my daughter was 4. I was pregnant with my next son. We had Babe for 20 years, and he taught all of my kids how to ride. He was an ornery little thing, like most Shetlands, but a bit worse because he was “Proud cut.” His “gelding” wasn’t done properly and he thought he was a stud. By the time each of our kids were able to ride him, they could ride ANYTHING!!! They won many Gymkhana, Horse Show, and Parade ribbons on him.

Babe was a beautiful little thing when he was shed out in the summer, and looked like “Little Black” in the children’s books by Walter Farley, the author of the Black Stallion series. During the winter, he looked like a black furry bear. He was also VERY smart and learned many tricks. He could shake his head “no,” or “yes,” and “count.” He could shake hands and bow, and he could carry a buggy whip in his mouth and switch it up and down to “chase” you with it. He could also open gates…

He was 25 years old when he got cancer that went into his brain and one day, he started having seizures, so we had to send him over the Rainbow Bridge. He was a very special part of our lives for so many years, and brought a lot of joy, and fun into all of our lives. I wish I had more pictures of him…