Paradigm Farms Horse Retirement: Amish Visitor

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Amish Visitor

When I came rushing out of the house Monday afternoon to pick Carter up from school I stopped dead in my tracks when I realized an Amish buggy was parked behind my truck. The driver was walking toward me and a very polite Amish man introduced himself and asked if any of our horses were for sale. I attempted to explain to him that all of the horses were retired and were not for sale. I apologized profusely as I explained to him that I was running a few minutes late to pick up my son and that unfortunately I had to go. I told him he was welcome to wait until I got home and I could answer more of his questions. I assumed he would be gone when I got home with Carter 20 minutes later, thus I was very surprised to see his buggy still sitting in our driveway.

We had a nice conversation about some of the horses on our farm. He had a great eye and picked out some specific horses to ask about. His buggy horse, Rex, was in good weight, had excellent hooves, the check rein was loose and overall he looked like a well cared for horse. In talking with him it was clear that he really liked his horses and saw them as both working partners and family members. He was telling me about his working horses, his buggy horse, and his riding horses. He was looking for another horse that could double as both a riding horse and a back-up to his buggy horse, and was hoping to find one at our farm. We discussed some potential places he could look for a suitable horse. Unfortunately, when your mode of transportation is a horse and buggy, location is everything so I wasn't very helpful.

After about 25 minutes of very pleasant conversation he had to go. He told me it would take him about two hours to drive home. Oh, and the main reason he was near our farm was to drop off his recycling. There is a drop off location for recycling about a mile up the road from our farm and he said he had brought several glass containers they were no longer going to use. When it takes you a four hour round trip to drop off your recycling that is dedication to planet earth. It drives me crazy when people label all Amish as animal abusers and puppy mill factories. Like any other group of people, there are Amish who are great to their animals and those who are not. It was a pleasure to talk horses with him as he clearly was a horse guy and adored his horses. I of course didn't ask him if I could take his picture, but I did take this stealth picture of his buggy as he was heading down the driveway. I thought since neither his horse nor himself were in the picture it would be ok.

In the meantime, every horse on the farm lost their respective minds as they watched the Amish horse and buggy go down our driveway. Even if they weren't retired, I told him I really didn't think most of our residents had the proper temperament for the job. The horses proved me right as his buggy horse quietly walked down the driveway ignoring the mayhem that followed him.