Dark Powder Room

Dark Powder Room...now isn't that about the worst name you have ever heard for a horse? Better known as DP, Deepers, affectionately as Simba, and sometimes not so affectionately as Alpo. She was 18 months old when my cousin John purchased her with the intent of training and selling her. And that is just what he did, trained her and sold her. The people that bought her changed her name to Pepper and over the course of the next six months undid all the work that had been put into her. I won't go into the details of the mistreatment they put her through, but I will tell you it was bad enough that she had started to defend herself. Many offers were made to buy her back all of which they refused. With a lot of perseverance and a bit of slight of hand we got her back. She had lost several hundred pounds and had rope burns across her back side. She was damaged and I was hoping her spirit wasn't broken. It was time to take her home. She had other ideas. When I went to load her in the trailer you could see the worry in her eyes and she would not budge. It did not matter how much we pushed, pulled or tried to bribe her with food, she was not getting in that trailer. With mounting frustration we kept trying and more and more people joined the effort. She was thinking she had won this battle of wills. That was until with great team effort she was lifted into that horse trailer. She then proceeded to try and kick her way out of that trailer the whole way home. She exploded out of the trailer the second I unsecured the door. She stopped, looked around, and nickered. She was answered by Oakie and Cody. Her ears flicked forward and she let out what I can only describe as scream. DP was home. Now it was not all sunshine and rainbows after that. DP had become a nasty, obstinate little bitch. She was pissed off and rightfully so. And she let me know every chance she got by biting or kicking me when I least expected it. Now I don't know if you have ever been bitten by a horse...but let me tell you it is about the worst pain I have ever felt. "My what big teeth you have". "The better to take a huge chuck of flesh off your hip with my dear". That first year was hard on both of us. She tested me in more ways than I can list. She didn't do anything without first putting up a fight. With time and patience came trust, for her in me and me in her. Once I gained that trust we started to work as a team and she became very much my horse. That is not to say that she did not have her quirks. My least favorite, other than biting, was when she would fake lameness to get out of a class and once we were excused from the arena she was magically healed. I do however have to give her credit for being so sneaky. DP was also a huge ham. I soon learned that if I made a huge deal over the smallest thing that she was more likely to do, especially if it garnered applause. All my favorite memories were on the back of a horse. I think back to how I used to ride my DP to my friend Liz's house and we would invite boys we like over to ride. How we would set out in a field and let the horses run until tears came to our eyes. No matter how down I was I knew that DP was going to nicker when she saw me and it never failed to make me smile. I miss all of that. I lost DP unexpectedly when I was 19. I felt as if a huge part of me was torn away. I wasn't there and did not get the cahnce to say goodbye. Even now 14 years later my chest gets tight and a lump rises in my throat when I think about her. I miss her so much and it makes me sad that she never had the chance to grow old. It does give me comfort to know that I was able to give her the best life possible. I know she knew how happy she made me.