NIGHT WATCH | 14 YEAR OLD THOROUGHBRED GELDING | GEORGETOWN, KY
Night Watch, Nico, is a Thoroughbred gelding. His sire is Bianconi and his dam is My Serve. Nico lives at home at Graystone Stable.
Nico’s story, who is owned by Stephanie, is one of difficulties and one of humor, as many thoroughbreds are obviously proven to have overwhelming personalities most of the time. Stephanie has owned him since he was a 3y/o and it was not entirely love at first sight. To her, he was actually an odd looking horse, with an oddly shaped face. But when she saw him move, the peculiarity of his face faded away. It was like when a young child gives you artwork that is simple and scribbled… and it does not make sense but it is still beautiful. That is how she saw Nico. He was such a lovely moving horse she had to have him. Unfortunately moments after seeing his movement he proceeded to try and eat his handler.
Stephanie tells the story best: “When I first got Nico off the track he would consistently try to kill me when food was involved. I would not let anyone feed him for a long time until I broke him of that bad habit. He would try to run you down if you had food, bite, paw at you etc. Eventually he learned what personal space meant and he would wait in the corner of the stall until the grain was dumped and I left the stall before eating. To this day he will still kick the walls after you leave when he is eating but never when someone is in there with him. He is a grumpy horse for the most part. He does not like to be groomed or loved on. He does not really like much attention unless it involves food. He cannot go out with other horses because he enjoys eating them. I once tried to get him a donkey to keep him company because I thought he was lonely… big mistake.. he chased it until I could get them separated.”
Even though Nico gets “Hangry” it is simply because he has a raging appetite like all thoroughbreds and has a work ethic to match as he is happiest when he gets to go work. He gets very cranky if he misses a day of work, especially if he misses “Jump Day”. He loves to jump all things. We will refrain from asking Stephanie the things he has jumped without being asked. 😉
Though he is described as difficult and does not enjoy hacks or poles(unless jumping them) and eats everything in sight(dead or alive). We give 5 stars to Nico for reminding us that even though challenges come into our lives, it is always good to turn sour lemons into lemonade and in the meantime give your friends a chuckle along the way.
“I can remember getting ready for an event and the day before bathing and braiding Nico. I kept him in that night so he would be clean. At some point he kicked open his stall and freed himself. We had been painting jumps before and he got into the paint covered himself in red and white then rolled in the sand arena. I came into the barn the next morning to find him back in his stall and disgusting. I had to clean him up the best I could and take him to the show. When I got there and tied him to the trailer, like I had a million times before, he broke free and ran around the show grounds biting other people horses for 30 mins. That was our warm-up. After catching him I tacked him up quickly and went directly into the dressage ring where he performed a wonderful test because he was tired. The judge made a comment like “lovely, obedient horse”… Haha! He went on to jump clean and win the show.”
