So how did last week go for you?

Most horses that board here usually stay until they cross the Rainbow Bridge.  But sometimes their owners have to move to a different part of Florida, or even a different state.  I have had several over the years, and it really wasn’t a big deal.  I pack them off with their health records, some grain for the transition, and a little blurb about the horses habits.  Give the horses their last carrots from me, a hug to the owners and they are gone.

The two that moved last week seem to be a whole different ball game.  I feel like a parent that is sending their kids off to college in another state.  It’s not just packing their lunch, giving them their book bag and putting them on the bus.  It’s organizing all the paperwork to get them out of the state plus.

The one horse came in with many health issues.  It’s like an onion.  We’re still pealing back the layers.  The young college student who owns them is a very hands on owner, but has so much going on in her life right now that I’m trying to cover her with the horses while she deals with a boyfriend who just had surgery the week before.  She is tying up loosed ends with the teaching job she is leaving here, graduating college, being very excited about her new career at a very prestigious college in Nashville, and the “big move” itself.

Her parents live in Alabama and are not here to help her.  Her father is going to come down and drive a rental truck with all her personal belongings.  She and a girlfriend are moving the horses.  The boyfriend will be coming up the following week after he has his last doctors visit.  He’s totally enjoying the loving care he is getting, which is usually reserved for the horses.  (I think he’s milking it)

So where did that leave me.  Well the normal paperwork for the Ag Station.  Health Certificates and current Coggins.  Which, even though we started in plenty of time, we were four days away from leaving, and still didn’t have the Health Certificate.  The secretary has been out sick for a week.  Oh My!  The owner was concerned about changing grain since the one horse is on a very strict special diet.  So I got an extra bag of grain to send with her.  I also checked and the grain company does sell in Nashville also.  I am sending hay because the hay I use is not local to that area.  I have included their shots, worming, and farrier schedule.  Feeding schedule with a list all their supplement’s and medication dosages.  Some hints on their handling instructions.  Boy, I wish people would give me a heads up about that when they move in.  It’s always a trial and error period until you work the bugs out of the system.  Check.

What could be packed a head of time is, and I’m going to have to make a list so I don’t forget to send what I’m still using.  Lists are a good thing when you are old and stupid.  I refuse to be old and senile, I like stupid better.  Check.

The owner has the names of the specialized vets that have been working on this case, so she can continue the process with her new vet.  Check.

My husband has gone over her trailer to make sure that it’s road worthy for the trip. Check.

Let me see, paperwork, feed, hay, blankets, trunk, misc. barn items, horses, give hugs, cry, wave goodbye, collapse, text to make sure they made it there safely, and start life again.

Just another day in Paradise.

So last week was one of those weeks times two.

I put one of our horses down and then thirty-six hours later my old dog.  I hate those kind of weeks.  I’m still numb from losing both of them, but when you have other horses and dogs you must keep on going.  Cry now and then, and move on.  It still stinks.

So I was just going to call my friend of fifty-five years, to wish her a Happy Easter.  Since her husband died several years ago, she’s been a mess.  We met at the barn when we were teenagers, and have swapped horses stories and problems over the years.  She always broke her own babies and showed them very successfully.  She’s also broken her back several times.  She had this one baby who definitely was a psycho.  He would dump her and then attack her while she was on the ground.  She didn’t keep him.  It was actually odd how she got him.  He kept breaking out of his pen and would keep showing up at her house, so she bought him.

So I called her.  She immediately went into her story about how her one dog was having more seizures and the meds weren’t working, and they were killing the dogs liver.  Crying she said I don’t know what to do.  When she comes out of the seizures she plays with her toys like nothing ever happened.  (She was only five and was a rescue from another state.)  But she bounces off the walls at night and runs over the other dogs.  They tried her on different meds, but they are not working at all.

I explained my last week, having to put down the Clyde and my old dog, and how hard it was. She said it gets harder as you get older.  I told her, no it doesn’t, it was never easy.

Then comes the ultimate question – “what should I do?”  Oh No!!!  I just had a hard enough time answering that question with regards to my animals, don’t ask me to make that decision about yours!  Okay, calm down, I told myself.  I told her how I made my decision.  I asked the vet if there was any chance of healing?  If there was healing, what kind of quality of life will they have?  I looked at their suffering.  I love them so much, do I want to stand there and watch them suffer?  Do I love them enough to release them from their pain?

Now this same friend has an old horse and pony who should have been put down years ago, and hasn’t.  Another friend and I have spoken, very carefully about them with her, and truthfully, many other horses of hers in the past, with no success.  So am I expecting a miracle this time.  No.

What did I tell her?  Well I told her how I made my decision, and told her she knows what she has to do in her heart.  She told me she would think about it.  I told her to let me know what she decides.  Dollars to donuts she won’t do it.  Hum, don’t know where that quote came from, but it’s old.

I usually look in their eyes and they tell me.  You can tell they are tired and have given up.  They always say that the eyes are the window to the soul.  I believe they are.

Do someone a favor, never ask them if it’s time to put your animal down.  That’s a decision that only you can make and live with.  And no, it was hard in the past and it never gets any easier.

***

She spoke to her vet and made the decision to let her go across the Rainbow Bridge.

On a chilly February morning in 2000, as the first pink rays of light were streaking across the sky I watched my new Clydesdale baby arrive.  She was laying in the mist that was covering the ground.  Her mother Maggie was standing next to her.

Bobby was getting up every few hours to check if she had been born yet.  Maggie was spritzing milk when we came home from hunting the night before, so we figured that the baby would be coming that night.  We put Maggie in the pasture right outside our back door so all we had to do was turn on the flood light to check.  Maggie had other babies before, so we weren’t worried about the delivery.  At 5:00 a.m. I heard my husband yell “What Maggie still no baby?”  So I turned over and went back to sleep.  At 6:45 I heard “We have a baby!!!”  Looking out the back door all you saw were beautiful white legs.  We rushed out into the ground fog and we were gazing at this big chestnut filly with the most beautiful legs you ever saw.  We decided to name her Magnolias Misty Dawn. Southmoors Ideal Magnolia was Maggie’s name.  Well when she stood we noticed there was a problem with those long white stockings.  Her back legs were wind-swept.  They went off to the side.  I was assured by my vet that they would straighten and they did. There’s not enough room in the womb for all those legs, he said.

She grew to be quite a character.  She never had a work ethic, she thought work was unethical.  She also thought that she was a lap dog, not a horse.  She loved shoes, other people’s.  When she was little she got an infection and, along with her legs, spent a lot of time on bed rest.  My Jack Russell and I would sit in the stall with her, with her head on my lap, and I would sing to her.  Through her many trials in life, singing always calmed her and encouraged her.  It brought us closer together.

So today as I waited for the vet to come and put her down I did the same thing.  I sat on the ground and stroked her head, singing the same song I sang to her as a baby.

She’d gotten a spider bite seems like 5 or 6 years ago, maybe it was more, who’s counting.  It left her back left leg in a bad way.  A couple of weeks ago she got an abscess in her one good back foot.  Now we’re talking a 1500 – 1600 lb Clydesdale.  But she had the will and the guts to fight this.  I didn’t realize she wasn’t walking to get water and she colicked (yes you add the k) a week and a half ago.  Got her through that.  But her legs took a toll that day.  She was tired.  Started sitting on the fence and then leaning on trees.  When she laid down the other night, and then tried to get up, she hurt her front left shoulder.  There was not one of those things that would kill her, but put them all together and you had a major problem.  My vet also thought that there was more going on, like maybe cancer, because of the gradual weight loss.

Watching her struggle was hurting me so bad, but if she wouldn’t give up, neither would I.  So every hour Bobby or I would walk up and give her water and food.  Her butt got raw from the bark on the tree so we wrapped the tree with a moving blanket.  Her spider bite leg swelled up to the size of the tree she was leaning on.  She finally laid down last night (Monday) at 5:00 p.m. and this morning (Tuesday) she didn’t get up.  She nickered to me this morning like “where is my water and breakfast?”  So as the good room service provider that I am, I brought the princess what she wanted, along with a bag of carrots. Breakfast was as usual, but in a reclining position.  She was alert and demanding.  Yup she’s herself.  Not ready to give up yet.  She laid there, flat-out, munching on her hay.

The sun was starting to rise, just like the morning she was born, but this time she wasn’t going to get up and great the new day.  I called my vet and told her I needed her.  She would come out and we would discuss the situation.  By the time she got there Dawn’s eyes were half closed and she didn’t want any more carrots.  She was telling me, she was done.  It’s funny, both people and animals rally just before they go.

Forty years ago my vet, at the time in another state, told me that a horse would tell me when it was time.  Dawnie did.  I told Dawn, as the vet was ready to give her the first needle, that she needed to go to her mom, go to your mama my girl.  She wouldn’t be in pain anymore, and she’d be able to run again with straight perfect legs clear across that Rainbow Bridge.  A very dear friend, who wanted to be with Dawn in her last hours, said “okay, the go to mama put me over the edge, as she started to cry.”

When I called my prayer partner from church who had been praying for her, to let her know that I had released Dawn from this life, she told me how sorry she was and how sad it was.  I told her that, yes even though I would miss her, God had told me that we humans had the wrong idea of death.  Death was just a transition from one life to the next.  It’s not really the end, but just the beginning;  there would be no more pain, and she would be with her mom and her friends who were killed two years ago by lightning.  I said it’s really a beautiful thing.  When I said this, my friend said she wanted to remember that when her sister, who is very ill, dies.  How sad for non believers.  We focus too much on the loss we are feeling, and not enough on the beautiful life they will be entering.

My wonderful Pastor who is a dear friend and golfing buddy of Bobs, and my church family have been praying for Dawn for over a week.  One man said he has never prayed for a horse before, but now he has prayed for her for the entire week.  I feel that they are apart of Gods Creation, and if God knows every sparrow that falls, He certainly knows of His other creatures great and small. My Pastor feels that all our animals are family members and should be cared about, and prayed for in the same manner.  The Bible speaks of horses often, with grandeur.

See our horses are teacher even until the very end.  Or is it the new beginning?

Rest in peace my sweet baby girl, but run with the wind and let those beautiful white legs flash with the heavenly light.

When I was young my Uncle took me to see the Rockettes Christmas Show at Radio City Music Hall.  I was amazed.  The precision of their movements were mesmerizing.  The height that they could kick as one, the colors, the outfits, were spectacular.  I wanted to be one of them when I grew up.  To this day I watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade just to see them, and once again I’m transported back to my childhood.

Have you ever watched, I mean really watched the power behind a horses kick?  Have you ever noticed the extent of the length of an outstretched leg?  It’s actually unnerving. I saw my mare put her foot through my stall door twice.  We’re talking 3/4 inch plywood framed by two by fours and cross braced with the same.  Kind of reminded me of the guys who break concrete blocks with their heads.  The first time, I ran into the stall figuring she had broken her leg or at least did some tendons in, and she would not be hunting for a while. Nope, didn’t faze her in the least.  Now that’s raw power.  My husband however, was not impressed.  That was a brand new door.  Magic never like strange horses coming into her barn and was going to let it be known by whoever was walking by.

My husband was not a horse person when we bought our first farm together.  Our barn and house were pre-revolutionary, they were over 300 years old, but not in that bad a shape.  The barn was three stories high.  We totally enjoyed redoing both the house and barn.  By the time we were done the barn had a new coat of barn red paint with white trim.  The house was white with barn red trim.  Just like in all the pictures on Christmas Cards, with snow all around, sparkling on the huge roof.  Oh I miss that barn and house, but not the snow.  Anyway, when the last dutch door was hung, he stood back and admired his work and said., “my work here is done, I never have to come into the barn again.”  At that point I told him, “you don’t know horses, it’s fix and repair daily.” And sure enough when he came home the next evening from work, I mentioned that one of the horses had removed half of one of the dutch doors and back to the barn he went.  To this day he comes home and asks “Okay, what did you break today?”  His work shop was in the house garage back then, when we moved here he moved his shop to the barn since that’s where all the action is.

This all came back to me when my friend and I were wrapping one of the horses legs.  I was wrapping and she was watching.  Both squatted down when the mare swiped a fly off of her belly.  Yes this is Florida and we have bugs year around.  We both stopped and looked at the leg and each other.  She was nowhere near hitting either one of us, but it was a reminder that we become to comfortable around horses legs.  How many times have I bent over to clean a front hoof without thinking about those back feet, and one comes passing by.  I should know better.  I get to relaxed around my horses.  We all do. They are not kickers, so to speak, but there can always come a time when they get bit by something and really throw a kick.  Oh yes, they know we are there and in a thinking moment will avoid us, but there is always that “for every action, there is a reaction” moment when they just respond to the bite and never think about who is in the way. Bob’s old appendix hated bugs, and if there was one on his body he would body slam you to get that bug.

Now we all know that the safest place to be in a kick situation is either right up against the horses leg or at the extreme reach of that kick.  You may get kicked, but the impact is really reduced.  Now if you are anywhere in between, its major damage.  I’m very aware of strange horses and walk wide around the back, but this one mare got me.  It was feeding time and even though I was far enough away, she stepped backwards and let out with both back legs.  She was just telling the other horses that this was her food and not to come into her private space.  I assume she knew I was walking behind, but if she really cared, I’m not sure.  Maybe the kick was intended for me.  Maybe she didn’t want me in her space.  I don’t really know.  She got the bucket I was carrying, which hit me in the ribs and sent me flying through the air.  Now this is all taking place in a 13 acre pasture with basically nothing but grass in it.  The other feed buckets were spread far apart and nowhere near us.  But boy when I landed, I hit something big and hard.  As I laid there trying to determine if I was alive and still able to move, I thought, what did I land on? There’s nothing here.  But oh yes there was.  A brand new salt block.  Picked myself up, check all body parts and hurried off.  It was Sunday and I had Children’s Church.  I was hurting, but I’ve hurt before.  That was until I went to the doctor a couple of weeks later for my regular check up.  Three broken ribs. Oh well ribs heal.  Been down that road before.  Don’t sneeze, cough or laugh.  If I hadn’t been as far back as I was it could have been real bad.  Learned to carry my cell phone after that.  Otherwise no one would notice until the buzzards started circling, or it was dinner time.  Bob will always seek me out if a meal is missing.

My point in this whole story is to always pay attention to where you body is, especially your head.  Even though you have a trust worthy horse, stupid things happen.  We teach the little ones, not to walk behind a horse – any horse, but we don’t even think about it ourselves.  When a horse stretches his leg out backwards it only reaches a certain distance, but when he throws a kick it goes further, with a lot of power behind it.  Fly season will be coming up.  Don’t be on the receiving end of that kick, it will leave a lasting impression.  I’ve been on the receiving end of four kicks, and they all hurt.  I know three were directed at other horses and I intercepted them, and there’s always the last one that I’m not sure about.

I am pleased to say that all the horses I received kicks from where other people’s.  Now that says something right there, but I’m not sure what.

Keep your head up when working around those feet and legs, and Just remember to always watch the Rockettes from a safe distance, the show is much more enjoyable.

My friend goes to all the garage sales and thrift stores.  She has a second-hand shop for furniture and things, and whenever she sees anything horse related she picks it up for me and Bob.  We’ve gotten some really neat stuff.  Things I’ve never seen in any of the many catalogs I get monthly.  The other day she gave me a picture of a woman looking lovingly at her horse and on it read – “In My Heart – ‘Tis said the wild horse runs free. Yet…a wild horse resides in me.  His singular beauty, His spirit– free.  His thundering energy… ‘Tis captured in me.  The Wild Horse within my heart.”  Written by Barbara Dunn-Reeves.

This touched me, but left me wanting more.  More of what, I don’t know.

Two days ago I was speaking with a woman at Direct TV about updating my equipment. When she asked about what number the tech should use when calling to confirm,  I told her to call the cell because I might be out in the barn.  That started a whole conversation about horses.  She lives in Arizona.  I think of Arizona as rural, desert, open spaces.  She told me when she first moved to where she lives, she had wild horses grazing in her yard.  Now with all the development, they are pushed far out of her area.  She told me it made her very sad that they are gone.

These are things we here about every once in a while.  We know that Land Management is rounding up all the wild horses.  Just like the Native American Indians, the horses are forced into a small designated area, or sold.  I’ve had several adopted Mustangs here and they were wonderful animals.

I am a person who hates change.  I hate that these areas are being taken away from animals that were born there and have every, God-given right, to be there.  Progress stinks.  We designate certain areas to remain as they were, but it’s not enough.  It’s not enough land to support a herd.  It’s not enough land to remind us of what our country once was.  Oh yes there is still a lot of untouched land out there, but that’s because the developments haven’t gotten there yet.

I am very well aware that people have to live somewhere, but so do the wild animals. Not in cages at zoos, but really live and thrive.

I’m also seeing the Wild Horse within my heart disappearing along with the animals who are being slain, caged, or corralled.  As with the extinction of these animals, so will man go.

Such a shame, that’s not how it was intended to be.

Just a thought.

Well its spring here in Florida.  Everything is blooming.  Now that’s not to say that we won’t get another frost, but I’m really starting to believe we won’t.  While we’re enjoy near 80 degree weather, with beautiful sunshine here, I know a good part of the country is having snow storms.  But hang in there, there is hope.

I know most horses have started shedding.  Yay!!!  We get so tired of the long thick hair. We can’t wait for them to start losing all that fluff, until we have our eyes and mouths full of that stuff.  If we’re brave enough we will pull out our body clippers and end the pain right now.  However, most just wait it out.

It’s very rewarding to groom your horse and see the difference, or maybe not.  You’ve just spent a good hour shedding out your horse and the darn stuff is still there.  It looks like something tore a bunny apart in your barn and yard.  You’re covered head to toe. You new puppy runs by grabbing a mouthful and looks like Santa Dog.  You’ve got some in your eye so you take your hand to get it out and deposit more in its place.  It’s in your hair and other places that you don’t even want to think about.  You now have more hair on you than your horse has on him.  Oh the joys of horse ownership.

Just keep in mind that it’s also on the inside of his blanket and saddle pad,  it will mat and cause bald spots and sores if you don’t also keep your equipment clean.  Don’t forget to look for skin damage under all that loose hair.  Fungus, sores, irritations are all common.

Remember, they will shed out.  You will stop finding hair in your dinner, tooth-brush, hair brush, and shower drain.  When you do finally find the dirt and grass again, remember to start back slowly, both for you and your horse.  You both are a few months older than when you went into winter, and you both will feel it for a while.  Your horse may not tell you, but believe me, it’s for real.

Believe that this winter will come to an end.  It always does, eventually.