Poppy [May St Jude Be With You]

[Captain Stumpy]

[first introduction to SSR| Current condition]


Name: Poppy
Age: 7
Breed: 50% Appaloosa 25% Trotter 25% Arab
Height: 15"0
Colour: Black Chestnut (no black gene)
Eye Colour: Dark Brown with white Sclera
Gender: Mare
Markings: Snowflake (reverse Appaloosa)
Narrow Blaze
Star on Nose
Hind Right sock
Physical Condition [Emaciated]-______|___-[Obese]

History:

Poppy was born on the Moors, along with a herd of other half-tamed horses. It was easy living, safe along side her mother and family. But it was all short lived as the horses where round up for auctions. It was a terrifying ordeal for the young filly, but luckily beacuse of her mothers brandings they only spent a night in the corrals.

The memory and emotions of that night still haunt the filly to this day. A year later the same thing happened. Only this time Poppy went into a different coral to her mother.She didn't understand then but that was the start of her unplesent adventure amoung humans.

She was beaten through narrow channels of steal and wood, into a circle yard, looking for the exit she saw countless emotionless faces of people judgeing her. She was paid for in cash and taken out of the corrals that night. She loaded onto a cattle truck with some more horses of her height and breed.

The truck drove for hours, She struggled to stand on verious occasions, and with tiredness and the slippery floor she fell. Under the horses of the other horses Poppy got trampled and was too exausted and beaten to try and get herself up again in the moving truck. She didn't notice when the truck stopped, or when the doors opened, but the others did. She was knocked in the head and back as the others rushed to get off the trailer into another set of corals. She just laid there, enjoying the stillness with her eyes shut. letting her mind flitter.

She jolted awake by the sounds of men and the feeling of ropes going round her neck and legs. She screamed in fear making the men jump as well but as if on cue they pulled on the ropes pulling Poppy off the truck and bumping down the ramp. "How's She look?" one yelled to the other "Jus cut up I recon" he replyed. With the ropes still round her she struggled to stand again, but with earth under her hooves she managed it wobbling slightly at the strain of standing and the bruses she'd recived on the truck. "Chuck her with the others she's fine" a voise over all the men said. Poppy watched the larger man. Another aproched her and she bolted away but then noticed she'd just trapped her-self in a narrowing channel. "git here ya daft filly" he called after her, not that she new what he said. Shaking with fear as she was pinned in the corral the ropes where removed and the door slid open.

She spent afue nights in the corral with the others before she was roughly caught and head-collared then taken to a stable. She still feared humans and didn't alow them to touch her or catch her even with the head-colar. Her box remained uncleaned, She was only given a haynet of hay a day and no water. After 3 days her spirit dulled and she came up to man for the water bucket they held.

Weeks passed and she behaved for the humans and for water. She was lead out okay with a head-collar. But she still didn't let them catch her without showing her fear first and cowering in the cornor of her box. It didn't take long before she was back on a strange horse-box and taken to a new yard with new people. But the same problem always happened she refuced to be caught. Even spent one month out in a large paddock before she was caught again and sold on. She went through 8 dealers Yards, 3 Private Owners and a Teathering Gypsy Camp before she turned 3.

At 3 Years old she had been turned out with a stallion, her fear of people only increaced with the more people she'd met. and dubed 'unbreakable' alot of dealers new about her now, the pretty filly that was worthless, none of them wanter to touch her anymore. The Dealer than owner her now wanted to breed her, for her to earn them money that way. It was nice of her to have company that was always there, through spring till autumn, She had a charming black Gypsy Vannor colt for company. But her bliss was shattered again when winter came round and her company was removed.

She stood in a field surrounded by woods in the middle of no-where. When the snow fell she strugged to find enough food to eat in the already over-grazed paddock. and when the nights froze hard she couldn't get water from the still pond. By the time winter was over she was nothing more than a skelleton, Whatever foal she would have produced was destroyed in her bodys desproation to save itself.

It was a warm spring day when Poppys weak eyes fell on the face of a human ones more. And it wasn'tlong before she was herded onto a horse-box and back into a concrete stable. "We can't keep that here!" "we gotta fix it" "take it back to the paddock and fix it there" "its too far, she needs a vet" "We're not letting a vet see 'That'!" "I'll keep her rugged no-one will no" "Grumble okay, you get one week to fix it, no emprovment I'll get rid of her myself" The two dealers made there desision. But it didn't help Poppy. They tried to feed her all matter of sweat hard feeds. fruit and vegetables Hay and Haylage. But Poppy couldn't stomach much of it. What she did eat made her feel sick. So she hardly ate a thing and in a week she made no emprovment.

8 Days passed and Poppy could feel the tention on the yard though couldn't understand why. A third human came on the yard, one Poppy had seen often but wasn't a dominant human like the other two. Words where discused infront of Poppy's stable and again she was put on a box and left in a tiny yard surrounded by small paddocks only 4 stables and a tiny cottage. A unpleasently smelling man came to visit her that day, She was weak and pinned into the corner of her wooden box while the white coated man stuck 2 needles in her neck. "Nothing serious just malnorished, give her pink powder, water suplement and as much hay and high-fiber feeds"

The first night Poppy ate some of the strange feeds infront of her. before going back to her old habit of box-walking. "Won't you stay still" She heard she poked her head out of the box and saw a huge black shire horse. "w-what?" she said weakly. The huge horse's hooves clattered as she walked onto the yard. "Stay Still, Box walkings a terrible habbit, irritating to for those who have to listen to it." "sorry" she replyed. But the black horse noticed her condidtion and said nothing more. The next day Poppy endured another needle in the neck and then she was turned into a small paddock beside the huge black shire guelding.

While she grazed her hunger heightened by drugs. The shire spoke to her, telling her stories, telling her to keep her feith. and she told him about her youth, about the other dealers and breakers and owners. About the horses she'd met and the foal she would have had. As the day rolled on a storm blew in, the winds ripped though the small stables and out into the small paddock. The raging winds and rain brought down a huge tree at the corner of The Shire and her-own paddock. the fence shattered like twigs. Poppy bolted for the whole in the fence "Wait!" the shire called out in the storm "if you leave you'll get no help!" Poppy smiled weakly "Help?" "They've never helped me and they never will good luck Shire!" she yelled back raising her tail and bolting for the tree's. The Shire came to the broekn fence but never crossed. "May Saint Jude Be With You!" he called out over the grey battering storm ,but Poppy never replyed mainly because she didn't know what a Saint Jude was.

It didn't take her long to find sunshine river, which was a good thing because although she isn't sick anymore she was still physicly poor.