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By Carey King
Though David Higgins has volunteered at Oconaluftee's Mountain
Farm Museum for more than 10 years, he had a difficult time returning
to the barn after Dec. 12.
That was the day that Brent, the farm's beloved horse, had to
be put down.
"It was hard having to go back down there," Higgins
said.
Brent, who would have been 32 years old this April, spent 28 years
at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, with the last 13 at the
museum.
Park
Ranger Tom Robbins leads Brent as he guides two children though
the ins and outs of plowing. In the 13 years Brent lived at the
Mountain Farm Museum, he became a star to the thousands of North
Carolina history students who visited on field trips, as shown
in this National Park Service photo.
Each spring and summer, Brent helped Higgins and
volunteer Wendell Wisener plant fields of cane and corn.
He also made friends with tourists and thousands of fourth-graders
who visited the museum on North Carolina history field trips.
Those children and their families would return year after year
just to visit Brent.
"We still have people come in the visitor center asking for
him, to take their annual picture with him. When some of (the
visitors) found out that he'd died, they started bawling right
there," Higgins said.
"There are going to be a lot of disappointed people this
summer," said Park Ranger Tom Robbins, who oversees the day-to-day
operations of the museum.
Brent
takes a break in this National Park Service photo. After working
for 15 years on Great Smoky National Park trails, the horse spent
a "working retirement" plowing cane and corn fields and powering
the mill for molasses-making, Ranger Robbins said.
"Brent had a very good disposition. You could
work around him. He never had problems with kicking. He was a
good all-around horse," Robbins said.
Born in Georgia in 1972 at the Andersonville National Historic
Site, Brent was transferred in 1975 to the GSNP when Andersonville
decided to do away with their horse program.
He worked for 15 years in trail maintenance and law enforcement,
first as a saddle and pack horse and then as part of the back-country
patrol.
When it was decided Brent was too old for the trails, he moved
to the museum for what Robbins called a "working retirement."
He was used to plow, pull the hay rake and wagon, power the cane
mill for making molasses, and pull the wagon in the Christmas
parade. When children from elementary schools visited, Brent would
pull a farm sled or plow while students held the reins.
"He was a very busy horse," Higgins said.
In the two years since Brent started slowing down, he did a bit
of cane and corn cultivating and worked as a saddle horse to do
traffic control with one of the museum's employees.
"He was still pulling his weight and earning his keep, but
we babied him," Robbins said.
Higgins and Wisener took to working the fields with a rotor tiller
while Brent looked over the fence and watched.
"I think he missed his work on the farm," Wisener said.
"He was a very gentle, proud horse. When he was working the
fields at the farm, he would look as if he was enjoying pulling
the plow. He would arch his neck and strut as he walked, just
as he did when someone was riding him."
Brent was always a saddle horse at heart, never learning what
it meant to "gee" or "haw," Wisener said.
"He was not a perfect plow horse. For plowing, you want a
plain old horse that moves kind of slow and takes direction. That's
not what he was raised to do," Robbins recalled.
A registered Morgan, Brent's full name was Brentwoods Diplomat.
Many Morgans - one of the first breeds of horses developed in
the United States - are today bred for show, Robbins said.
Known historically for their versatility, Morgans were used by
early Americans to ride, pull wagons and plow fields. The museum
kept Brent doing that traditional work.
One element of Brent's life was untraditional, however - the
snacks visitors would sneak in to supplement his diet of grass
and hay.
"You don't know what they'd feed him. All kinds of candy.
Things that weren't real good for him," Robbins said.
Since the Oconaluftee River Trail winds it way past Brent's old
fence, passers-by would stop to share goodies with him, everything
from entire boxes of sugar cubes to 6-inch lollipops to trails
of Tic-Tacs they'd leave on the rails.
"One time, a van pulled up, fed him some carrots and drove
off. They never brought anything for us," Higgins said.
In recent years, museum staff switched Brent's diet to pellet
feed, which was easier for his old teeth to chew.
"We'd mix it with water and make a soup. In the winter, we'd
mix it with hot water," Robbins said.
Brent got a check-up each year by two Canton-based veterinarians,
who said "he was in better shape than horses half his age,"
Robbins said.
However, in December, Brent's intestines shut down and he was
too old to be put under anaesthesia for an operation.
"We decided to have him put down. It was a tough decision,
but it was better in the long run," Robbins said.
Though the museum is now horseless, Robbins said he probably won't
get a new horse until spring.
"There's a possibility we may get a local horse, but it's
hard to find one that's that good with the public," Higgins
said.
"(Brent) sure did enjoy his visitors," said Wisener,
an Alabama native. "I plan on being back in the mountains
in March to raise another crop of cane and corn and another heirloom
garden on the farm. It will not be the same without Brent."
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