Jet's Independent Folly

I'm going to jump ahead because we have a baby on the ground and I don't want to forget anything. I will continue Kirwan's story soon.

Friday May 9, 2008 a baby girl was born to Kirwan and our family. Kevin and the girls were at a play in Telluride but Kirwan had been acting annoyed all day so I really thought she would go into labor soon. At 8:25 her water broke and as I was thinking "I think her water broke", she turned around, laid down and pushed her baby out in 5 minutes! When she laid down I looked at her bottom and saw a little white bubble, about the size of a softball.

My mind raced, if the baby's stuck, what to do, if Kirwan was in trouble, what to do...then I saw a tiny white foot, then a tiny black foot, followed by a pink and brown (looked black all wet) nose, a small sigh of relief, the baby is in the correct position. Kirwan wasn't even sweating! Then the baby's neck was out, another small push and the shoulders were out!! Oh my God, she made it look easy! The sack was still covering the baby and she wasn't moving at all, little panic set in, I pulled the sack off her front feet and nose, still nothing, I stuck my pinky up each nostril and she blinked and took a small breath, her back legs were still in Kirwan so I gently pulled them out and cleared the rest of the sack off of her so I could get a good look at her, what a beauty!! Kirwan was looking at her and making little "momma" nickers to her, OH I wanted to melt, but since I was all alone I had to make sure everything was OK. I went through a check list in my head and so far so good. Then Kirwan stood up and broke the umbilical cord so I grabbed the iodine and dipped the stump. Sortly after Kirwan stood up the baby gave it a try also, it only took a few tries and she was on her feet, only a half hour after birth. I had been sending texts to Kevin and the girls as it was happening, they arrived just after 9:00, just as the baby had stood up. What a miracle! I feel so fortunate to have been there and seen the whole thing, this will be her only foal so I didn't want to miss it.

Our First Spring

Finally spring arrived, we called the vet out to do spring vaccines and to check Kirwan's back. She had been sound all winter and gotten so friendly she didn't seem like the same horse.
When the vet did his exam he made a few adjustments but said she had healed well just by having some time off. He said go ahead and start riding her. I said, "YOU get on her!" He smiled and went on his way.
From the first time I got on her she never bucked and acted like she had always been ridden. She had a lot to learn but always tried to understand what I was asking, the first time I cued her to canter she picked up the correct lead and has always done so.
Apparently when Standardbreds are raced they have a check strap to keep their nose in the air and some have straps to keep their heads straight, Kirwan seemed to have had both on her as a race horse because when I started riding her she would stretch her head out and twist it side to side looking for the support of those straps. It was funny to watch her moving her head around but also sad to think she didn't know how to hold her head when she had her bridle on. The first time I got on her was in May of 2000 and by August I decided she was ready for her first show, it was a three phase show (dressage, cross country jumping and stadium jumping) I knew she wasn't ready for dressage and this farm (The Eddy Farm- Middlebury, Vt) is such a friendly place to show you can do which ever phases you want. We did both jumping phases at 18", there were 21 cross country jumps and 16 stadium jumps, she cleared them all and never even blinked at all the "scary" cross country jumps!! I was so proud of her, we got a blue ribbon!!

First Hoof Trim

So my friend Randi called her farrier to trim her horses and we made an appointment to get Kirwan's back racing shoes off, they had managed to remove her front shoes before I got her. When the farrier arrived he did Randi's horses first and then said he would take on the new horse. He had a sedative in case she was too crazy and upset. He put his hand on her hip to start down her rear leg and she kicked out at him so fast we barely saw it! He threw his hands in the air and said "THAT'S IT!! I'M DOPING HER!!" Randi said hold on a minute, try it again, she had known this farrier for years and had a good relationship with him. He took a "moment", big breath, and started at her withers pressing on her spine as he moved toward her hip, when he got to the point of her croup, between her hips, she nearly fell. She was so sore, she had been raced 35 times that year and wasn't winning (no surprise) but they kept racing her and making her so painful. The previous owner told me no one at the track would work with her anymore because she had become so difficult.

So the farrier just bent her foot enough to remove the shoes and we put her back out in the pasture. I called my vet to ask what we should do and he said to let her rest and keep an eye on her and then when she settled down we could do some chiropractic work on her. So for the whole winter I just brushed her, gave her treats, let her know humans aren't all bad and waited for spring....

The First Meeting

My family was getting our hair cut at our friend Wendy's shop and she asked if I wanted to go riding with her the next day. And she said "oh there is a horse for sale at my barn." We were living in a small apartment at the time but of course I said I would check her out.
I had always wanted to get a mare so I could have my own baby, I had helped friends with their babies and worked at a Morgan breeding farm, so I wanted my own baby someday.
So on Sunday, I met Wendy at the barn where she kept her horse and she said, "Come see Emily (my daughter's name) she's around back." And when we walked around the barn there was a gorgeous solid black horse with a light breeze tossing her long mane. I thought I was on candid camera! I asked Wendy, "THAT'S the horse?" She said, "Yeah isn't she cute?" Emily walked over to the gate (brownie points) and we put a halter on her and brought her in the barn, then the fireworks started...she didn't want you near her front end, her back end or in the middle. She would kick and/or bite at you as you got to her. She had a very kind eye though, which my husband would later ask how can you see her eye with her teeth flying at you!!!
Well a few days later I was talking to my friend Randi and she finally said, "get her and you can put her at my house." So we paid $500.00 for her and moved her to Randi's house with her three Arabians.
All my friends thought I was crazy for buying a Standardbred, I was told things like she'll never canter, Standardbreds can't jump (I had started doing three phase schooling shows) So I told my friends not to tell Kirwan that and we will be fine! They rolled their eyes and figured I would be selling her in the near future...

Kirwan's Folly

My horse, Kirwan's Folly was raced under the name Emily Mac. She is a 1994 Standardbred, bred in New Hampshire and raced in Saratoga New York. Since my daughter's name is Emily we decided to change Emily Mac's name. We named her after my Great Grandfather Thomas Kirwan who is the only Equine link on either side of my family, he was a mounted policeman in Boston during the depression. He also competed in dressage on the weekends with his police mount and won many silver cups. And Folly comes from my favorite movie, National Velvet. When I looked it up in Webster's the meaning of the word was perfect "any foolish action, any foolish and useless but expensive undertaking, action that ends or can end in disaster" And that's why we named our farm Folly Farm.