Happily living single

I saw the cover of your October issue (EQUUS 469) and was already reading “The Power of One” before I reached our house. I, too, kept a single horse at home for 20 years. We brought Jessie Rose, our 7-year-old Quarter Horse, home to a brand-new barn in 1984. When she left the barn where she was boarded, I remember mentioning that this would be the first time she was ever by herself, and the barn owner said, “She will be fine.” And she was from the very start.

Jessie had her feed divided up into four meals each day, and when she wasn’t out in the pasture, we played the radio in the barn. Over the years, we had several barn cats. One seriously took Jessie on as her responsibility. When it was suppertime, Fluffy would come to the house to tell me that Jessie wanted to eat. If I’d see Jessie running around with her head down, I knew she was chasing Fluffy. In this game they played she never hurt her.

One of the more interesting points of Jessie’s single living was that she definitely lost interest in other horses. She basically ignored them. Several times we trailered her to clinics, and she would pay no attention to the horses around her. Some neighbors up through the woods kept horses but they weren’t visible from our property. I can remember one of those horses calling out over and over again in our direction. Jessie stood at the far end of the fence and listened, but she never answered. Once I told our veterinarian that in all the years I owned her, Jessie never whinnied aloud; she only nickered. He said, “That’s because she doesn’t want anything.” What more could a horse owner want to hear?

If you would like to have your horse at home with you, under your own care, my opinion is: Don’t hesitate! Do it! I never regretted building a barn at home and I don’t think my horse minded having the place to herself. Dawne Sohn Moon Township, Pennsylvania