Beau

If you have taken a carriage ride in Vevay or Madison Indiana, you may have already met Beau.  He is a beautiful black standardbred who stands sixteen and a half hands tall. (He is very large for a standardbred!) He has two white socks one front and one back- a leftie like me! Beau is a mature horse who could probably write a book similar to Black Beauty’s.  Many chapters of his life will never be known, and others I can only make foggy guesses about.   Sometimes, in his own way, Beau will tell me a part of his story…

For example- When Beau had first come to live at our farm I took him for a jog in a cart down a country lane.  Of course this was a road he had never traveled before.  During our jaunt, we passed several horse farms and were greeted by excited horses galloping along the roadside fence.  We passed farmsteads and gravel drives, mailboxes and tobacco barns.  Beau did not break stride but continued along straight forward down the road at a businesslike working trot as Standardbreds are bred to do.  Suddenly out of the blue, Beau tried to turn into the driveway on our right.  His deviant inspiration was that we had arrived at an Amish farm.  What was curious was that Beau had never been here before, in fact the Amish family living there had only just moved into the neighborhood! Their home was still under construction and without any siding.  There were no people outside, no buggies in the driveway and no wood-smoke coming from the chimney!  It was obvious to me then, that Beau used to belong to an Amish family. It must have been routine for him to pass the homes of the non-Amish farmers, but to anticipate pulling in an Amish drive for a visit.  How he could tell that was an Amish house remains a mystery but I think if he is such a smart horse, he must think I am a very naughty lady to have gone out  for a drive without my shawl or bonnet.