A Story about “Billy”
Pat Williams

A few months ago, I purchased a registered 3 year old light colored dun horse
for less than the price I would pay if I bought his weight in canned dog
food. I was told that he, along with others in the herd must be sold quickly
to relieve an owners financial burden.

I guess I bought him thinking he would someday look like something although he was pretty ugly at the time. His head was long & narrow with little width between his eyes. Due to this narrow brow, I entertained the thought that he could be retarded. His registration papers showed a decent pedigree, but being a gelding, it was not an important issue. He was long legged, wormy-looking and had bad feet.

I said to a trainer acquaintance, “please take him right to your place & don’t send him back to me ‘till he’s pretty!” His barn name became Billy, and I added the word, “Ugly”. Whenever I referred to him he was, “Billy Ugly”. After a couple months of ownership, I learned that I had purchased the same horse that had been previously purchased by someone who had written an article which appeared in our state’s Horsemen’s News. The article in the issue was entitled “Sam”. The author felt he was misrepresented when he purchased “Sam”, and after a few days of working with the untamed, obstinate animal returned the horse to the original owner. By all descriptions in the article, the author’s “Sam”, and my “Billy Ugly” were one and the same. Billy did not like cross-ties, nor did he like his feet worked on were among the many matching descriptions. I, too, was beginning to feel the horse had been misrepresented to me.

It takes someone to understand each horse as an individual. I felt my trainer understood Billy from the get-go. Almost daily, I was kept informed of Billy’s training progress; his idiosyncrasies, his fears and anxieties and what he was doing to help the horse overcome these. Some parts of Billy’s progress was not that of a normal 3-year old, but some parts of his training was overwhelmingly accepted by him.

I watched the trainer as he worked with and around Billy. I saw the calmness, the execution of orderly, consistent movements and quiet demeanor he had with Billy. It reflected in Billy and he became a responsive animal. Billy’s respect and willing attitude around the trainer became very obvious within a couple weeks. After bringing Billy home and continuing to work with him, I dropped the word “Ugly” from Billy’s name. Actually, I don’t see him as ugly anymore. The trainer told me he never saw him as ugly and that I too would see the beauty in him. I am glad I put Billy in the hands of a professional first. The trainer instilled a good mind in this horse as well as a responsive, trusting attitude. To this day, I am pleased.

Six months after the sad story about “Sam”, we had a beautiful story about “Billy”. It kinda takes me back to the fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson concerning “The Ugly Duckling”. The story’s last sentence reads, "But now that he was appreciated at last, he rustled his wings, lifted his slender neck, and sighed happily, 'To think that this joy should come to one who has always been considered an ugly duckling! It's almost too good to be true.' " The longer I have owned Billy, the more I learned about his background. He was considered an “outlaw” when the rumor finally surfaced to me. He had more than one previous owner, and was returned to the original owner each time because of his refusal to be trained. The original owner was considering putting him down. In hind sight, I feel I was “talked into” buying him probably to prevent him from going to the killers.

During the following months of ownership, I have realized new things about Billy and have noted that he is a very special case. He has some vision problems. No wonder he was scared by all that happened to him before. No one took the time to observe him.

He is still growing, but should level off now at 16 hands. He is trusting and requires patience and peace that he was never familiar with in his growing up years. He can’t see another horse reach out to bite him, but his senses have improved and he shows love to me more than any other horse I have known. He knows my voice, my touch and my smell … and he is lovingly called “Billy”.