FROM BAD TO WORSE... life in Hades (Part 56h)

It was right after that when Dan had a local veterinarian come to ”worm“ the horses. Because there is no way to treat what horses eat they are plagued with parasites, more commonly called ”worms“. Periodically they are treated for this. It entails having the Vet slide a hose down a nostril and into the horse’s stomach and the medicine to combat the parasite is then fed down the tube. It’s a tricky process and the Vet does it by ”feel“, meaning that the resistance pressure he feels once inserted tells him he’s in the right place. Some horses are calm during the process and others resist making it harder for the Vet to get the hose placed right. Dan had 24 horses treated that day and by the end everyone, including the Vet, was tired. I remember just slumping down in my chair when I got home. I was too tired to eat. I don’t know how long it took me to fall asleep... three, maybe four minutes. The next thing I knew there was a terrible pounding on the side of the trailer. Elle opened the door and there was Dan, bellowing for me to ”get my ass down to the barn!“

By the time I got my coat on and out the door he was gone. When I got to the barn all the men were standing in front of the stall of one of the horses I was caring for. It was a two year old colt that Dan had purchased for his big owner and paid big bucks for. From what I was told it was the most money Dan had ever expended for a yearling. I got to the open stall door and saw the horse was down. Chit told me that he was dead. As soon as he did Dan came roaring into the barn and came right up to me demanding to knowing what I’d fed the horse. Actually, I’d not fed any of the horses as I’d been assisting the Vet. Dan had been gone all afternoon and didn’t even know that the Vet had been there. After knocking on my trailer he’d gone to his house and called the Vet who walked in a few minutes later. He and Dan chatted and then Dan disappeared. The rest of us just stood there and watched as the Vet looked over the horse. About 20 minutes later Dan returned telling us we had to get the horse out of the stall and into the horse trailer. He’d contacted the University of Pennsylvania school of Veterinary Medecine to do an autopsy... that night. It was around 8pm and by the time we’d all tugged, pushed and crammed the dead horse into the trailer it was close to 10pm. By the time we (Dan, Chit and I) got to the campus it was close to 11pm. I didn’t watch the actual autopsy being performed but I got to see the result of what had happened. The Vet had missed putting the tube into the horse’s stomach and put it into the lungs. I was handed a piece of the lung and it was like it was frozen without being cold. The trip back to the farm was quiet but I didn’t sleep. It was 3am when we arrived and I don’t think I slept at all. It was a terrible experience.

By the early part of March the ground started to thaw. That was the next crisis. Once it did the track was muddy but useable. The problem with deep frost is that when it finally thaws it creates what is known as ”frost heaves“. What happens is that the ground will heave upwards making for very soft and muddy conditions. The ”heaves“ made the track totally unusable. Dan made a bad situation worse by ordering a truckload of stone dust to be spread over the track to try and firm it up. The dump truck barely made it out onto the track when it was, for lack of a better description, ”swallowed up“ in the mud. The wheels were buried up to the axels. On top of that the truck was blocking the only entrance to the track. We were dead in the water as far a training was concerned.

I thought it was chaotic when the potato crisis hit but Dan outdid himself in this situation. He had a screaming fit, yelling at everybody in sight but especially at the truck driver. He, in turn, was screaming back at Dan and at one point threatened to sue him. All we could do was to just stand there.

I don’t know how long it was before Dan reappeared. When he did he was in rare form... arms flailing, yelling at all of us to get busy and start packing up. I wasn’t the only one who didn’t have a clue as to just what he wanted us to do. When Dan disappeared again Chit explained that we were probably moving the horses to the ”shore“. That didn’t mean anything to me and most of the others. He went on to explain that the ”shore“ was a race track located in Ocean City Maryland, right on the ocean. I’d heard of it through my friend Eugene who had told me he lived not far from the track. Chit went on to say that even though there was no racing, the track remained open through the Winter as a training facility. I was trying to take it all in when Dan was back screaming at us to get to work. When he calmed down he told Chit and I that a truck would be there to pick up a dozen horses by 10am the next day. Then he told me that I was to load up as much straw as the horse trailer and pick-up truck would hold and to leave at daybreak. I figured out that since he was so cheap he’d already paid for the straw and he wanted to use it. I finished up with packing the stuff for my three horses and set out to load the trailer. Thankfully, some of the other men had finished and joined me in the loading process. My back was in decent shape but I was worried about how it would be when I had to unload at the ”shore“.

Dan still hadn’t told us of his plans. I didn’t know what to tell Elle when I went for supper. She had questions but I had no answers. Her questions made me realize that if we were going to relocate to the ”shore“ that I’d have a lot of expenses that I didn’t have at the farm... rent, electric, gas for the car, additional food expenses. It wasn’t good news. I knew once the racing season started that I’d have to face them but I wasn’t prepared right at the moment.

To be continued...