Ebony, the Jinxed Horse

Getting Ebony home turned into a far grander adventure than I had ever planned. When last we left you, Ebony was loaded in the trailer and we were headed for home. The street that we were driving down has a few hills in it resulting in limited sight lines and it was late in the day so the sun was low on the horizon.

As I cam over a hill there was a car in front of me. My brain said something is not right with this picture but it wasn't sure what so it took my foot of the gas. The sun was shinning brightly on the back of the car and the tail lights were totally washed out. And then it rolled forward and I saw it - a left turn signal and the car was starting its turn. And I was too close.

Your mind speeds way way up in situations like this. It will take far far longer to describe what happened than the actual events.

• The car is starting to turn left.
• Hand jams on the horn
  
• Foot goes to the break and stomps on it (Thank God for trailer breaks!)
• Eyes scan the scene in front of me: Horses on narrow shoulder to the right - no going there, Left lane (on-coming traffic) lanes are open
• Gently turn wheel to left and move into south-bound lanes (No sudden movements on the steering wheel)
  
• Still stepping hard on the breaks with the horn blasting head for the opposite shoulder
  
• Truck clears the car
• Trailer hits the car (Actually it was the fender)
• Plastic flies
• Everything stops.

The good news, absolutely nobody was hurt. The lady, her son and dog in the car I hit were fine, not a scratch or a bump. Kumi and I were fine and Ebony was fine as well. I thank God for that blessing. The left front of the car from the drivers door forward was fairly torn up but drivable. The only damage to the trailer was the right fender. In the end, I got a ticket for following to closely. My first ticket in some 32 years. Sigh. The cop actually did me a favor (at least according to him) as he claimed he could have written me for any number of things. I wasn't going to argue with him but he did argue with me over one point.

He walked up to me after the accident and said, "I don't normally argue with people but I don't see how you can be traveling north with the sun in the west and claim the sun got in your eyes." I have no idea where he got that idea from. I told him that I never said the sun was in me eyes, that the sun had been shining on the other cars taillights and washed them out. He looked at the cars taillights lights and said, "Well, I suppose the sun shining in the side of the light could have reflected back into your eyes." I chose not to argue the point any further. It wouldn't have changed anything anyhow and sometimes arguing the finer points of something with a police officer ends badly. Leave well enough alone and go home.

The whole traffic thing took about an hour and poor Ebony got bored and started pawing at the floor. Kumi tried to keep her calm by giving her a few treats and once the driver information and reports were done we headed for home.


When we pulled up and parked Kira was home and she was not expecting to see her horse in the trailer but there she was. Boy was Kira excited! She went and pulled Ebony out of the trailer (Ebony came out very calmly) and lead her towards the back yard. I needed to change out halters so we stopped at the gate and I stepped up next to Ebony. Ebony promptly stepped on my foot. Did I mention Ebony had shoes on? I have had Beamer step on my foot once or twice and than hurts. Those steel shoes hurt worse. It took a few seconds before I could convince Ebony that moving her foot was in her best interest. I limped through the gate and we introduced Ebony to Beamer and Mariah.

The first introduction went much better than expected. Kumi and Kira were watching the horses to make sure they didn't start any major fights. I told them to go get three flakes of hay and spread them around the pasture while I set up some panels in front of one of the stalls. Our plan was to but Ebony into that pen while the horses got used to each other. I finished setting up the panels and looked at the horses. They were each munching quietly at a flake of hay. Hmm.

As the fates would have it, Carly called at about that time to see how things were going. Since my toes were hurting and I was still ticked about the accident, I told her that Ebony was jinxed and that we wern't keeping her. Man did I catch Carly off-guard with that one! When I told her what happened she laughed a little. I then told her about the horses all eating quietly together and asked her if she thought we should put Ebony in a pen. She recommended watching them a bit to see how they reacted. The long and short of it, Ebony never spent any time in the pen. The horses figured out their pecking order very quickly and I only ever saw a couple of kicks. Ebony had one bad bite the drew blood and then she had a few hair-bites. That is what I call it when one horse bites another and only hair is pulled out. It was kind of interesting. The hair-bites on Ebony's flank reveal white skin while the hair-bite on her shoulder reveals black skin. She IS a paint. Pretty cool.