Clydesdale foal brings happiness to Milton family

The Carpenter family’s newest addition is a long-legged boy with a lot of energy.

Born March 25, Asher came into the world at 100 pounds with all the love and attention he needed from his mother, Peggy – a black Clydesdale owned by Tammy Carpenter and her family.

“I‘ve always wanted horses, and when I went to Busch Gardens and saw the black Clydesdales there, that was my dream,” she said.

For the entire week before Asher was born, Tammy slept in the barn every night so she wouldn’t miss anything. 

“She slept out here because the delivery is fast,” said Jessica, Tammy’s daughter.

Despite the love of his mother who never let him out of her sight, and kept her feet three inches from him the whole time, Asher’s immune system struggled. He’d be up and nursing one day, and unable to stand the next. “It was so scary because he would be fine one day, and the next day he’d be sick,” Jessica said.

A month after he was born, the family took him to the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center, a renowned equestrian veterinary facility, where the foal received a blood transfusion and other IV treatment.

At nearly 5 months old now, Asher has gained 300 pounds and is playful as a pup.

“He’s out of the woods now,” said Jessica. “He’s big energy and strong.”

Asher spends his time at the Carpenters’ 500-acre Milton farm with his mother, who will nurse him until he’s 6 months old. He also has a stablemate named Bo, a registered Clydesdale gelding, who at 3 1/2 years old is also a youngster. Tammy said she plans on registering Asher in June 2022, and he’ll end up with a fancy name like his mother’s, Battle River Hightower’s Peggy, or Bo’s, Boulder Bluff Bodacious. Both of them have prefixes indicating the farm where they were born, she said.

“Asher is Hebrew for blessing from God,” Tammy said, and he has been that for the Carpenter family.

Her son, Jeremy, has been working with Asher, teaching him ground rules and manners. Asher leads, trots and stands nicely when asked. He recently had his first hoof trimming.

When Jeremy goes off to college this month, Tammy said she is ready to step in with Asher’s training.

She has detailed Asher’s progress on her Facebook page The Farmer’s Porch, and said she appreciates the outpouring of support from the community she has received regarding the foal.

Last Christmas, she said, hundreds of people stopped by their Milton farm to see Asher during an open house.

“One of them even cried and said they had always wanted to see a Clydesdale,” she said.

This Christmas, she said, she hopes to have another open house so the community can stop by and visit Asher. Eventually, she said, she would like to train Asher to pull a cart or use him as a therapy horse. “He’s got a lot of potential,” Jeremy said.

For now, Tammy is thrilled that Asher’s story has become a happy one.

“We did everything we could, and God did the rest,” she said.