Chapter 4

Chapter 4
A few days later, as Willie and I walked home from school, I began asking again, about her sister’s horse.

“Does she ever ride her?” I asked.

“No, not any more. She’s more interested in boys and being a teenager, to care about Winnie, any more.”

“Well, why don’t we take her out? Would she care?” It seemed such a waste to leave any animal just standing around all day, every day. Especially when it was obvious, the horse was bored out of its mind, and wanted to go.

Willie stopped walking, took on a serious frown and said, “You don’t know what you’re asking. That’s a crazy horse.”

“What? Crazy? She looks fine to me!” I chirped back, giving her a look that said “You’re nuts”.

Willie then explained to me who Winnie was and where she came from.

“ You ever hear of Man O’ War?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, Winnie is the grand-daughter of Man O’ War. She has his same temperament but this isn’t a racetrack and we hardly have the facilities to accommodate a crazy racing attitude. ”

Rumor had it that Man O’War had a strange temperament. According to the stories handed down, he couldn’t stand to see another horse ahead of him. He would bust his heart, before he would let any other horse stay out ahead and just had to pass into the lead.

I began talking before what she had said, truly sunk in.

“But Willie…….I can’t stand seeing her …..Wait a sec! Man O’ War? How is that possible? Winnie is a paint! She has more quarter horse in her than any possible thoroughbred blood. How does that happen?”

“I didn’t say she was sanctioned. Just that she was his blood. But she is his granddaughter. If not for illness, when she was born, she’d have the papers to prove it.”

“Illness?” Now I was more curious than ever.

Willie explained, “My folks are friends of the breeder. They happened to go see him when they decided to get a horse for Charlotte. That’s when they witnessed this poor little filly, dying of pneumonia. The breeder was going to put her down but my parents told him they wanted her. So he sold Winnie to us for $30, as is. Nobody expected her to make it. She was only 3 months old and suffering with pneumonia and just about dead. We didn’t want to see her die, so we decided to fight for her and try to save her. And guess what? She made it!”

Willie’s story about how Winnie was nursed back to health was almost riveting. The family spent day and night, rubbing her down and tending to her medicine, keeping her warm and hand feeding her. According to Willie, it took almost 3 months of her short life, to overcome this devastating condition. To look at her now, you’d never guess she had such a feeble start in life. I couldn’t even draw a picture in my mind, of this frail little filly, after having seen Winnie all grown up.

I just stared, like a bumbling fool and finally said, “Well……”

Charlotte was reading my mind and said, “No papers. The reason being, keeping the bloodline clean and the breeder didn’t think she would ever be strong enough to continue the bloodline. That was the deal. If we wanted her, we could take her but without papers. So…well….that’s that!”

“Wow”, I thought. The bloodline of Man O’ War and no papers..… All I could do was blink. This was mind-blowing news.

That still didn’t explain why we couldn’t take the horse out and let her see the world. From my point of view, Willie was just a wilting flower, afraid of her own shadow. What could be so crazy about riding a horse?

Race enthusiasts consider Man O’War to be the greatest racehorse who ever lived, winning 20 out of 21 races. He was born to race. After having seen Winnie, it all made sense. This too, seemed to be a horse born to run. Considering her situation, she would never be tested.