Iceman: 18-year-old golden flaxen chestnut Belgian gelding

Iceman is our supermodel blonde Belgian. He's an enormous, nearly 19hh, Belgian gelding with a career as a show horse in a team with a hitch wagon and a companion to his teammate, Tony B.

As a young horse, Iceman belonged to the Rocking Horse Ranch in Highland, NY. The Rocking Horse Ranch owned and showed a six-horse Belgian show hitch for twelve years. As part of the Rocking Horse Ranch hitch, Iceman participated in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City and in the celebrations surrounding the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.

In 1998, when he was six, Rocking Horse Ranch decided to sell Iceman. He was such a desirable show horse that a bidding war raged over him for hours. He was finally purchased by the Conkeys of Belchertown. Iceman went to live with Tony B., thirteen years his senior, and himself an accomplished show hitch horse.

Iceman immediately paired up with Tony B., to the point that it soon became impossible to take Tony B. out without also taking Iceman. He would panic without his teammate.

Tony B. and Iceman lived on John Conkey, Sr.'s farm in Belchertown. John Sr.'s wife needed a liver transplant and was (and is) very ill, and John Sr. hurt his back and was no longer able to take care of Tony B. and Iceman as he once was. They never went without, but they were not able to be worked with. Their beautiful show harness sat moldering, unused, in the barn. Iceman, although only 17, had not been worked in about 4 years. He had been prematurely and temporarily retired at the age of 13!

While they sat on the farm doing nothing, Tony B. and Iceman got to be more and more unruly to work with when it came time to have their feet trimmed. The two horses just weren't being handled at all. Our farrier, Tony Diamond, who was also Tony B. and Iceman's farrier, contacted Blue Star Equiculture, once the Conkeys started expressing interest in our retirement facility as an alternative to sending the pair of Belgians to the New Holland auction.

We went to see Tony B. and Iceman and instantly fell in love with their gentle, awesome presence. Tony B. and Iceman moved to Burgundy Brook Farm in July of 2009. Trainer Sally Sorel and Justin restored their harness and hooked them up as a team a few times, but it quickly became obvious that, although he clearly remembered how to do everything, the years had caught up with Tony B. and he no longer wanted to work, as it had become difficult for him. Meanwhile, Iceman was acting up in ways that Sally found abnormal. She asked Pam to have his eyes checked. Sure enough, our vet discovered that Iceman had lost approximately fifty percent of his eyesight. We still do not know if the disease is progressive or for how long he has been without some of his sight, nor do we know if his poor sight is the cause of his anxiety.

Because of Tony B.'s advanced age (he's 13 years older than Iceman), we were concerned about what would happen to Ice if Tony B. were no longer with us. The solution, it seems, is to find Ice a new teammate. Fortunately, we happen to have another 19hh Belgian of approximately the same age--Tom!

Iceman and Tom began working together in early October 2009. Once they established their working relationship (Tom is in charge!), they've been great together. After 4 years of doing nothing, Iceman was rather out of shape, but he's growing stronger by the day and gaining weight.

We look forward to Iceman, with Tom by his side, exploring a new career as a haywagon--instead of a hitch wagon--horse.