A tribute to Casey Jones a/k/a Casey the wonder horse.
Yes, Casey died today. He was a good friend, a confidante and a member of the family. He was kind, generous, demanding and a great deal of fun. I learned much about working with horses from him and became a far better rider under his tutelage. I gained confidence and did some things I never thought I would be good enough to do in this lifetime. I will miss his quiet, alpha presence.
I bought him from a horse dealer when Josh was beginning his senior year at Upper Perk and Chris was off to his first year at Juniata – a lifetime ago. Horses are so big and strong that we think of them as invincible. Of course they are not and he was 27 (I think). Horses with very good care early in their lives tend to live longer than those without. I bought Casey when he was 9 or so and felt he may have had some tough early times.
When I started looking for a horse 18 years ago I wanted one that could help me achieve greater horsemanship and be fun to ride. He gave me both of those gifts. I had him at Pleasant Hollow for several years, learned to jump well, competed in 2 baby novice events, competed in hunter and jumper schooling shows and a couple of dressage shows. I gained confidence, learned to trust him and had a wonderful time.
I have loads of favorite stories but to enjoy most you probably had to be there. Once when I was preparing for an event I needed to trim the mane just behind his ears so the bridle would lie flat. Casey, being Casey wouldn’t put his head down for me so I climbed up on the feed bin and proceeded to trim away. People and horses walked past us, cars drove up to the barn and there was a lot of other activity. Finally someone came up to me and with great envy mentioned she had to twitch her horse to clip around his ears and wanted to know how I got him to just stand there. The answer of course was that I didn’t “do” anything. He chose to allow me to do that because he was such a great horse.
He loved to compete. While living at Pleasant Hollow if something was going on he would quietly wait to be saddled. He would figure out the “game” and go for it. In the Jumper schooling shows, which were held during the winter in the indoor arena Casey, had a real advantage over the Thoroughbreds because he was a compact quarter horse (I actually think he was either part Appaloosa or an App with no color). He could speed around those jumps and he was very handy.
When I got him he was clearly western trained and knew nothing about jumping and dressage. He never enjoyed dressage (except in competition) but once he figured out the jumping he loved it. The first time I evented him we started galloping the cross-country course. I could see him looking at every jump (there are many jumps and the course is only over a few of them) asking that one? How about that one? He would have jumped them all. He was game for anything.
After I brought Casey home for good a friend, Janice Silfies, started sharing him with me. One summer her daughter Emily (10 years old?) was also taking some lessons on him from Sue Weirback who planned on having Emily compete in a small local show. As it happened my niece Sam (also 10) arrived for a visit and Sue decided both would compete on Casey. Janice, Emily and Sam prepared him for the big event. As Janice tells the story it was a lovely warm summer day and Emily and Sam bathed him in front of the barn while Janice watched. They had a wonderful time talking and ended up covering him from head to toe in suds. He loved having the girls fuss over him. They both did well in the show.
He has given countless pony rides, taken care of innumerable friends, and tolerated all kinds of activity. One year we had a tremendous number of wild turkeys around. This was back in the days when we mostly trotted and cantered. He had several fly up in his face during that season and he barely broke stride. He took very good care of me. He was always trustworthy on the trail and loved to go places in the trailer. When Janice, Tasha and I would ride together he always wanted to go on the road. He was a nosy neighbor.
He went out the way he wanted. Up until the last hour of his life he was in charge of his barn and pasture mates – and then he was gone. He is now grazing with Shinda, Willy, Alla Ward and Kima while my mother looks on.
Barb
