LOL...I'll tell the story, and I swear to all of it being true!
First, the clydsdale supposedly was a very bad actor. In fact, the story goes that he killed a man on a ranch in Utah somewhere. Apprently noone could even get the thing corralled to get a halter on he was so wild.
An old man named Ham Morris, who lived in my area, had heard about the horse and actually flew out to Utah.
The way he told it was that he simply walked out to the horse and talked to him for a few minutes to see if he was worth saving, and simply got on him and rode him back to the barn with only a handful of mane. He claimed they were gong to kill the horse, but he convinced them to let him keep it. (when the guy told me the story he was about 85 years old and had the horse for about two years)
I know..I know..but bare with me here, it gets much better....LOL
Ham paid a horse van lines to haul Butterscotch back to KY on a 747. Ham said that he hearly tore the plane apart mid air, and that he would never put him back on a plane again.
Which is pertinent to why I got to meet him in the first place...
Anywho,
A buddy of mine told me that Ham was interested in hiring somone to haul Butterscotch to Nevada, and as I had a tall trailer at that time and was hauling horses from a training facility to Churchill Downs for money, he recommended me to Ham.
Apparently Ham and Butterscotch were invited to be in a spot of a movie being shot in Las Vegas, and he was going to van Butterscotch, rather than risk another aircraft.
So, I got an interview with Ham and Butterscotch.
When I arrived on the farm, the first thing I saw was an exersize rider coming out of the woods on a thouroughbred. Fully tacked up and working...but Ham was a trainer of a different color, and his boys worked his horses through single track in the woods to get them fit for the track. Very unconventional to say the least.
I knew this was a different sort of place, run by a different sort of cat, right off the bat.
I met Ham in the shed row of one of his barns. Like I said, he was a very old man, clad in bib overhauls and chewing a big wad of tobacco.
I shook his hand and he asked if I had met Dog and Duck yet?
"I don't think so" I answered...and as I did, here came a little terrier mix of some sort around the corner.
"Say hi to this fella, there dog" Ham said...and the little terrier came over and raised up his paw to me. I kid you not!
Obviously I shook it and said howdy.
Then Ham holleredl "Hey duck!"
And around the corner waddled a white duck.
"Do a lil dance fer our guests, ducky" Ham said. And sure enough, the duck started wobbling from side to side from one leg to the other.
I swear I was stone cold sober...
But I for sure had that twilight zone, deja vu-ish, weird feeling.
But it got better...
It was time to meet Butterscotch.
Butterscotch was in a stall just down the shed row. He was a giant of a horse, with a sort of mixed odd coloring to him, not like the perfect clydsdales you see pulling the beer wagon.
He also had albino eyes. A very paleish blue/pink. Very erie to look at.
It was easy to believe that this horse could easily kill a man by his size and look. However, he seemed to be one of the most gentle creatures.
I had already heard about Butterscotch's driving ability, as he had already been on the TV show, "Thats Incredible". But I sure wanted to see it in person.
And Ham did ask if we wanted to see him drive. And of course we couldn't wait.
Ham just swung the door of his stall open and told Butterscotch: ''mon, Butterscotch lets go for a little ridey..."
Butterscotch came out of his stall and headed down the shedrow to the end of the barn and went out.
We followed him out back where there was a big pink Cadillac setting.
This car had the top and back chopped out of it, and had little pullies and chains with garden hose around them hanging form little pipe stands all over it.
Butterscotch grabbed one of the chains with his teeth and pulled. The back of the car was rigged with a spring-loaded tailgate and it layed down into a ramp out the back.
The horse walked up into the car and pulled on another chain. The rear ramp came back up into close position behind him.
Then Butterscotch grabbed a chain up in front and tugged. The car started to turn over, but wasn't starting.
Ham said: "Choke er a lil bit, Butterscotch!"
The horse grabbed another chain and gave it three short tugs, then went back to the start chain...and Vroooom..it started.
I was certain that someone had slipped LSD into my Choc-o-la at this point...and all I could do was laugh in amazement.
Buttersotch reached over and pulled on a lever, and the car started moving. Now, Butterscotch couldn't really steer the car, and all it did was go around in a big circle at about 10 mph.
After a few laps, Ham hollerd out to Buttescotch that he had been driving long enough and was about to run out of gas.
So, Butterscotch pulled an another chain and the car came to a halt. He then pulled the stop engine chain, and reached around and pulled the tailgate chain, and backed out of the car.
Of course, he pulled the tailgate up chain before he walked back to the barn and into his stall.
Folks...I **** you not!
That is how it happened. It was like one of those dreams you have that feel real, only this WAS real.
Ultimately I didn't get to haul Butterscotch, as the movie line changed and the horse never got the part. But I was sure glad to have had that once in a lifetime experience that I will never forget.
Ham Morris is long gone now. He was a good simple man who had lots of money, and spent most of it on his race horses and farm animals.
Ham was a horse wisperer. A real honest to goodness horse wisperer. He had a very special connection to all animals, and they with him.
He was one of the most interesting people I have ever had the previledge to meet.
Duck, Dog, and Butterscotch were no sloutches themselves!