Once upon a time in a land near by there was an old bay mare named “Dolly Can’t Be Caught.” Dolly’s name came from her days on the racetrack when she lived up to her name by winning a huge bundle of money for her owner, Gerry “Slats” Austen. Nowadays however Dolly’s job was to be mother every year to a cocky, pasture struttin, bodacious sonofa super stud. It was a good life, one that Dolly didn’t mind really. She got used to the boastful talk from her foal and all the other mothers and foals that shared their pasture every year. She didn’t even mind the trailer ride down the road once a year to put up with the attentions of a testosterone-laden hotshot, although she really wished they wouldn’t slobber all over her.

One spring day Dolly was lazing about down by the stream when she happened to kick an old coke bottle. All of a sudden to Dolly’s total astonishment an apparition suddenly sprang from the bottle in the form of a wise old black horse with a perfect star on his forehead. (a gelding Dolly was relieved to notice).

I am a horse genie declared the old horse. Because you have freed me from that old bottle I will give you one wish that will come true and make your life truly wonderful.

Dolly only took a minute to shout out her wish. “ Make this lush, tasty, succulent spring grass last all summer long. Don’t let it dry out and disappear so I have to eat dry old hay in late summer.”

“Are you sure this is your only wish? Maybe a date with a Sport Horse or something” replied the apparition. “ Maybe to have an old genie transformed into a magnificent stallion in front of your own eyes” he added.

“No just lush grass all summer long” replied Dolly.

That summer a mysterious weather system sat over Dolly’s land so that it stayed cool and lots of rain fell all summer long. Dolly and her friends had oodles of lush grass to eat and they had tons of milk in their udders for their foals. Because he cared so much for his horses Gerry (Slats) Austen gave them just as much grain as he usually did in dry years. There was so much good food that Dolly couldn’t eat it all so her foal ate and ate and got fatter and fatter.

Dolly was very happy and well fed, but sometime around late August her foal (now called the “Dairy Queen”) started to complain about sore ankles and knees. She stopped running around in the pasture and started to find ways to rest her sore joints. “Slats” became so worried that he called his feed consultant.

After weighing and measuring the “Dairy Queen” it was determined that she had a pretty bad case of physitis or inflammation in the joints. It seems that all that lush pasture and extra feed had put on more weight then her tender young joints could handle.

The wise feed consultant suggested cutting Dolly’s grain back, making sure she had a mineral/vitamin supplement and making sure Dolly ate some hay before tackling the lush pasture.

As for the Dairy Queen, she was weaned earlier than usual and placed on a reduced energy diet, still making sure that she had adequate protein, minerals and vitamins so her frame could continue to grow without extra weight. Fortunately, with time and proper diet she will grow out of the joint problems and maybe even earn a new name.

As for the horse genie, “Slats” frustrated with all the rain and all of the hay that had been ruined because of it found the coke bottle and tossed it deep into the pond as far as he could throw it. No one knew if the genie was in the bottle and drowned or if he had in fact been granted his own wish and had been changed into a magnificent stallion.

Time went by and as legend has it the “Dairy Queen” recovered and Dolly slimmed down to the point that as was the custom, the next spring she took the trailer ride for a date with another sex crazed suitor.

That day Dolly had a date with a magnificent black stallion with a perfect star and a huge smile on his face.