The Incredible Battersea Tracy

Beloved Battersea Tracy, who brought unbridled joy to the residents and friends of Carpe Diem Farms, is finally at peace.

It is with a very heavy heart that I share with you the final entry in life story of Battersea Tracy, the incredible Morgan mare. She was laid to rest, Saturday, July 1, in our St. Francis Cemetery joining her 14 herd members who have predeceased her. In my mind’s eye I see her running in the clover fields of heaven, kicking, and bucking with all her friends and making new ones. She joins her brother Battersea KnightStar and aunt Battersea Bess. Her bestie on the farm, Promise, is by her side, and she finally gets to meet her mom who died giving birth to her, June 3, 2003. She is in joyful bliss.

Tracy arrived on the farm, March 6, 2006, a sassy, inquisitive, bigger than life personality. I had lost both Charlie Brown and Graceful Command (aka Gracie) in December 2005. My personal sorrow and the shroud of sadness surrounding the farm brought me to the internet in search of another Morgan, one who needed us as much as we needed them to bring joy back to the farm. I discovered East-West Morgans in Blairsville, Georgia. They were helping the Battersea Stud breeders, Carlton Huhn and Frank Calhoun sell some of their young stock and had just brought eight yearlings from Virginia to Blairsville. I made an appointment and off I went. It was a fateful day, one that changed my life and that of the farm for the next eighteen and a half years.

Because Tracy was imprinted on humans first and raised by Carl and Frank on the screened porch of her house for her first three months, she thought herself to be human! Upon arrival at CDF, she would stand at a gate staring at my deck “asking” to move in with me! She became a beacon of joy and excitement, helping to create the bright future we have experienced. She helped me put on demonstrations, had many a child on her back at Gar’s Kids Camps, and showed many how to interact safely with the 1,100-pound horse she grew up to be. She demonstrated the humanhorse connection, touching hearts with everyone she met.

These last four years and seven months of her life, three major hoof surgeries, and a tenotomy have made her my greatest teacher. Every day she greeted me and all her caregivers with anticipation and eager wonder at what we might come up with next to allow her to be out playing in the field with her friends. Because of her we have developed a variety of devices, methods, and protocols that we will share with veterinarians, owners, and farriers around the globe. Her gifts to others will live on.

Several suggested we put her down, before we began and throughout the journey. I promised her from the beginning that the day she “said” she was complete I would honor her request. She made her request when I went down to tuck her in Friday night. Our time together was complete. Her huge presence will be missed always. Namaste my faithful friend.

by Sue Blair, Carpe-Diem Farms