MORE SUMMER... and my new life (Part 34a)

It was after the 4th of July when, in my early morning rounds checking to see that the men were up and the horses had been fed, that I saw we had a ‘neighbor. As I’d mentioned earlier AJ’s stable had anywhere from 18 to 21 hoses at any given time. There had always been at least three empty stalls at the one end of the barn. But on this morning I saw an old pick up truck with a two horse trailer attached to it as I walked down the shedrow. When I got to the end of our horses I could see horse heads protruding from the last two stalls. I took a look in and saw just a bare covering of straw and a water bucket in each. I took a look into the tack room and saw only the spare things we’d stored in there. I wondered where the person responsible for these horses was.

I went back to the other side of the barn and started getting my horses ready for their morning activities. Just as I was about to hitch one of them up for the morning jog, George, one of the grooms came around the end of the barn to say he couldn’t get by the pick up to get his horse to the track. When I got there I saw the trailer had been moved to the grassy area between the barns and the pick up was backed in under the shedrow. I still didn’t see anyone but as I approached the truck I heard a ‘husky“ voice bark out an order... ”Grab the other end of the trunk!“. I’m not sure why I did it but I grabbed the trunk that was sitting on the tailgate. (The trunks are approximately 4’ by 3’ and contain all the peripheral equipment that race horses need). When I tried to lift it I struggled. But, the person on the other side seemed to have no problem. As we got the trunk off the truck I could see the other person. At first I wasn’t sure weather it was male or female. Once on the ground I heard another order barked out to move it between the occupied stalls. I decided that it was a female but dressed in a very masculine way. She was wearing a baseball cap and had on an oversized western style shirt with the sleeves cut or ripped off. She was wearing what I called ”driving pants” (gabardine with western style pockets) that were very dirty. Before I could say anything she got into the pick up and drove off. I was stunned. No “Thank you”... no “I’m so and so and who are you?” Nothing! I decided I pretty much didn’t really want to know this person.

I actually tried to avoid her the rest of the week. I did learn that her name was Alida and she was the owner, trainer and driver of the two horses. It was about a week after she arrived that I saw she had one of her horses in to race. Curiosity made me go up to the club house to watch. One of the things that I’d been doing was watching races trying to see what successful drivers did. In her case, even though I was hardly in a position to criticize, I felt she drove a horrible race and she ended up last. When I made my last check of the barn before going to bed that night I saw the glow of a cigarette out in the area in front of the southeast end of the barn. Because of the dry hay and straw stored throughout the whole barn area, smoking wasn’t allowed. I knew a few of the men working for AJ smoked but I’d never seen them do it in the barn area. I was concerned and walked towards the glow. I was about 10 feet away when I recognized that it was Alida. She was sitting in a folding chair and when she saw me she called me over. I didn’t want to go but curiosity made me walk towards her. When I did I saw that she also had a pint bottle of whiskey in her lap and, when she spoke, it told me she’d been sipping at it for a while. We ended up introducing ourselves and I got most of her life story before she fell asleep. She was a 40 something widow who had taken over her husband’s stable about 3 years earlier. They had around 8 horses but she was now down to just the two. She’d had to sell the others off to pay the bills. When I realized that she'd fallen asleep I got her up and into her cot in the tack room. I just left her there, still in her clothes. I noted that, basically, they were the same as when I’d helped her with her trunk a week earlier.

A few nights later I saw one of her stall doors open when I was making my final check for the night. The only lights on were the ones that were never turned off and were hung in the rafters for security purposes. I knew that an open door wasn’t good so I headed towards it. About halfway there I saw this body backing out of the stall. To me, it looked like all it had on was a shirt. As the person backed out of the stall they never turned towards me. As I watched the person disappear into the tack room I could see something light colored under the shirt. It had to have been Alida.

There was nothing feminine about Alida when you saw her working around the barn. The oversized shirt hid any semblance of her breasts and with her baseball cap constantly on her head, one would never have known. I think it was the second Sunday she was there that I found her waiting for me to make my “rounds”. She asked if I could do her a favor. She claimed that she was still owed some of her winnings from the last track she been at but was now broke and had no money for feed for her horses. She asked if I could “loan” her some for her two horses. By then I’d accepted her and her curt, bossy ways. At that moment I felt sorry for her, so said “yes”. I knew if AJ found out about it he’d have my hide but did it anyway. I took it one step further and asked if she wanted to go to breakfast with me.

One of the benefits of being with a larger stable is that they have some extra amenities. In our case it was in having a wringer washing machine. It’s purpose was to wash the bandages that we had to wrap the horses legs with. But, the grooms (and me) also used it to wash our own clothes. There were T pole washlines in all the areas between the barns for us to hand our things out to dry. At breakfast, Alida asked if there was any way to sneak some of her clothes in. I remember feeling that she was really “pushing” things at that point but, reluctantly, I said yes.

To be continued...