09/01/2025
One if the best men I knew my friend Eddie Sweat!
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One farmworker recalled that simply walking the young c**t from the barn to the paddock required alertness, because Secretariat would make a dash for the grass the second his handler stopped paying attention. He knew from the get-go, the worker said, he was different.
Secretariat’s dam, meanwhile, continued to baby him and attend to him for several days longer than normal. Maybe Somethingroyal was just that good a mother, or maybe she, too, realized he was a special horse destined for greatness. He was bright, he could be easy-going, but he had a temper, too. A complicated creature.
In October of that year, Meadow staff separated the foals from their mares. It was time for the foals to settle into a diet of hay and grain, time to end their reliance on their mothers’ milk. This act marks the end of the bond between mare and foal, and there’s nothing easy about it. It’s a little like ripping off a bandage: you can go slowly, but that just prolongs the pain. The quick way is the best way, and grooms at the Meadow knew it. They took Somethingroyal and the other mares to a paddock about a mile down the road, so their foals could neither see them nor hear them. Back at the Meadow, Secretariat and the other foals were each put in a stall, a precaution in case they panicked. Some did, and tried climbing the walls. Some fools clued in, and accepted the loss of their dams.
But every foal called to his or her mare, hoping for a reply. And down the road, the mares did the same. And so it went all through that first night.
The young Secretariat pawed the ground in his stall and called out to Somethingroyal. No reply. You may wonder what he thought and felt about this sudden and awful turn of events. Can a foal who has lost his mother feel sorrow and sadness or fury? Does he keep the memory of her in his head, and, if so, for how long? Did Secretariat mourn the mysterious disappearance of Somethingroyal? Did Somethingroyal grieve for her loss, and would she remember that spirited foal all her days? We know only that the bond between them was special.
In the morning, all the Meadow foals – for the first time in their lives – were turned out in the paddock without the security and comfort of their dams. The foals looked everywhere for their mothers, calling out and circling the paddock crazily. Still no reply. After several days and nights of calling and searching, Secretariat and the other foals swallowed the hard truth. They were on their own now.
A young Thoroughbred horse – even though he has known human touch since being a foal- Is afraid of all new things, he may always be afraid of particular things that have frightened him in the past. Maybe a garbage bag blowing, twisting and circling in the wind that scared him half to death one time. Maybe a green garden hose, so like a snake and not to be trusted. Maybe a starting gate, with its harsh smell of metal, its cold touch, its loud bell.
In the spring of 1972, Secretariat was only a few months past two years old. In human terms, he was the equivalent of a young teenager – easily distracted, full of energy, a little undisciplined.
👑♥️🐎👑♥️🐎👑♥️🐎
Edward “Shorty” Sweat.“Talk to them, always. Love them, always.”
Eddie loved every horse he ever groomed, even the ones who turned on him. Eddie had a simple philosophy when it came to horses. He believed that horses were intelligent and sensitive creatures and that whatever love you gave them was returned.
They called him “Shortly” because he was, in fact, short. But he was not, in any sense of the word, little. He had powerfully built arms, especially his forearms, and he was immensely strong. The amazing thing about Shorty Sweat is that he never had to use strength with his horses, and he treated them as if they truly were “his”horses. He had what few people have: a natural gift around horses, A Touch.
-From the book;
THE BIG RED HORSE-
THE STORY OF SECRETARIAT AND THE LOYAL GROOM WHO LOVED HIM👑👑👑
BY LAWRENCE SCANLAN
