A Visit to a Horse Farm

The Barn – Original artwork by Agneya Dutta Pooleery (Watercolor on paper)

My family and I had been invited to a horse farm owned by the director of my guitar school. The farm was in upstate New York in Ellicottville – quite a rural area – so it took us about an hour to drive there from our home in Williamsville, NY.

As I was going there, I expected that there would be a big barn with nothing but horses. On reaching, we parked our car and stepped outside – a small poodle came barking at us and I saw many gardens with pumpkin vines, and poultry. Turkeys and hens were in the coops and of course two horses were in their paddock outside. I assumed the rest of the horses were inside the big red barn that was in front of us. It was surrounded by dense pine forests in a hilly terrain, with trails amidst them traveling all the way down to a small stream and sunlight trickled down through the big branches of the trees and leaves. We thought it would be a good idea to explore the area and go on a short hike.

The director of my guitar school welcomed us in his black bandanna and offered to show us the horses. We obliged, and happily took some pictures of them. Afterwards, he tried to teach me and my mom how to feed the horses. We were nervous every time they tried to take something from our hands and withdrew our hands.

Agneya attempting to feed the horse

One horse was black and the other brown. The brown one was called L’Chaim and the black one was Viola. L’Chaim seemed more frivolous, but both of them were merrily playing around in the paddock. L’Chaim had a net covering his snout to prevent flies from bothering him, while Viola didn’t have one.

Impressions of Viola and L’Chaim. Original artwork by Haimonti Dutta.
Colored charcoal on paper

My dad was more courageous and headed inside and perhaps was even contemplating riding a horse. The horses seemed to like the director and listened attentively to all his commands and directions. We got to see how he got his horses to exercise. He would attach them to his jeep and go riding around the barn. The horses would have to run to keep up with him. He also showed us how to put the bridle on a horse without the bit and they seemed very comfortable with it.

The horses are exercising with their owner at horse farm

We then went inside the barn where we saw even more horses in their stalls. The director called this “their bedroom”, but one of the roosters had gotten into L’Chaim’s stall and was making quite a racket. She was a gorgeous brown color and had dark-blue black color on the tail feathers. She sat on a L’Chaim’s food tub and refused to go even when he needed to rest. The horse and the rooster were friends for a little while, but soon they parted ways.

Agneya petting Viola at the horse farm

Horse saddles hanging in the stables

The director brought Viola back to her stall too and we petted her lovingly but were careful every time we touched her. She seemed to sense we were nervous, but she gracefully accepted us and made our visit pleasurable.

Outside, the hot summer sun beat down on us. My mom and I walked down a stone covered path that connected the barn to the main road. Along the way, we spoke to a neighbor tending to his pumpkins and he told us that his pumpkins grow really large in size. He often sells them, but with the fluctuations in the temperature, the plants have been having some difficulty and it was best to keep them in the green house. We trotted down the road, picking wild flowers along the way – but soon, it was lunchtime and we had to drive to downtown Ellicottville for a sumptuous meal.

It was a day worth remembering!

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About the Author

Agneya Dutta Pooleery ( 4 Posts)

Agneya Dutta Pooleery is a seventh-grade student at Transit Middle School, Williamsville, NY. He loves reading, playing online games (such as Minecraft and Roblox), fencing, and playing western classical music on the guitar, violin and sometimes, the piano.
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