The horse of a lifetime

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TexasJerseyMilker

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The first and greatest horse of my life was a Thoroughbred Quarter cross mare. I bought her with my babysitting money when I was 15. She had the fire and bone structure of the TB and the mind and muscle of a Quarter horse. The break away speed and kept running, never quit, and she outran 38 horses (in teenage kid races).Rode her 30 miles to the sea and back over mountains and hills, even in storms at night. She went through a range fire and jumped the fireline so we could escape. I rode her in the Yosemite valley at night, crossed the icy Merced river and I saw Bridalveil Falls falling in the moonlight between her up pricked ears. One time she went toward a screaming mountain lion because I asked.

She made me survive my idiotic teenage years and I made her survive her old age. She lived 40 years and was still ridable (at a walk). I have her bones in a crate to be buried with, Tamar on one side, husband on the other. In fact I was riding her in his hayfield in 1980 when he rode up on a black horse and he also became my soulmate. Such a one comes only once in life and does not come again. But I never expected any other horse to be like her, so I enjoyed them for what they were. The horse I have now is a 16.2 hand Saddlebred. I'm 70 years old and don't ride him much because he is not brave I don't want to fall off that far.
 
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I am writing a book :)

She loved to swim of her own free will. One time I looked out and saw what looked like an alligator swimming across the pond. It was her head. She would also graze on water plants although she had grass and hay.

Speaking of water there was the night we were still at the coast. It was once of those Autumn nights when the phosphorescent plankton take fire and light up when the waves break. We galloped on the beach. I looked back behind and her hoofprints glowed.
 
She did not come with papers. But she was from Colorado and had the Circle7 freeze brand on her shoulder. It was a freeze brand done right. Not white hair, just changed the lie of it. Sure footed as she was I think she was born in the mountains. I bought her as a 5 year old. Never did any more babysitting after that, but would climb out the window at night and ride her in the moonlit hills.
 
Pretty horse. My wife has about the same passion for horses as you do. She don't get rid of them when they get old or crippled. Feeds them all grain, alfalfa,Bermuda grass twice a day. Regular working schedule, teeth floated and better health care than I have. Vet care whenever needed and and teeth floated when needed. Wife weighs about 140 lbs is 5' 5" tall and she took over shoeing her own horse 10 years ago. She is 52 years old now. I am 64. Was 40 when I married her. She had 20 something horses when I met her. I had 3 myself. That's when l started shoeing horse. I had plenty of horses to learn on and caught on fast. Shoed more horse than I wanted too.

Wife constantly keep wanting me to teach her how to shoe. So I was more than happy to teach her. She can shoe better than any farrier I know.

She gets up at 4 a.m every morning to feed her horse's before she goes to work and feeds them every night before dark. Puts horse blankets on all of them when it's cold and if it's going to warm up during the middle of the day she will drive a 40 mile round trip to come home on her lunch hour to take the blankets off so that they don't get too hot during the day.

And next in line are our dogs and cats that gets the royal treatment of being taken care of.

Then I am next 😐 she don't take as good of care of me as she does the horses and pets but takes better care of me than I deserve I guess ? 🫤

I used my horses and mules for hunting and trail ridding. Like you I made a lot of 30 sometimes 40 mile trail rides through the mountains and other places. Also have a lot of good memories during those years.

Have back issues now. Couldn't get in the saddle I don't believe.
 
I am not a religious man. I'm not a believer or a non believer in God. I don't know what to believe. But my wife does believe in God. She is about as good of a person I have ever met in my life. She treats these horses like as if they were people.

We had to put this horse down a few months ago because it tore a tendon in its back leg. The horse besides being one of the best horses and one the wife rodeo's on was special in a lot of ways. We had several vets working on her from the time she got hurt up until we put her down weeks latter. The vet that I had put her down was the first Vet on the scene the night of the accident. I was at work. Had the wife on the phone crying trying to tell me what had happened while waiting on the vet to get there.

Once the Vet who I have used for 30 years got there he explained to me how. Critical the injury was and the horses condition. Told me that the horse could be saved and probably used as a brood mare. But she would have to go to a vet with the facilities he didn't have and that the leg would have to be put in a cast. But he assured me the horse could be taken care of and she didn't need to be put down. Because I have had this vet work on animals so many times over the years. I trusted his opinion and still do now.

So we took here to the vet and clinic he referred us too. That vet said sure she can be saved would probably even be able to barrel race again and for sure be used as a brood mare. Because of her breeding and a colt we have out of her now. We wanted to save her to have more colts out of her. My wife and I went to the clinic every day to check on its progress. Every day ! That vet kept assuring me and the wife the horse was getting better.

But she wasn't. I started questioning both my personal vet and the clinic vet. My personal vet whom word was good as gold to me keep telling me not to put her down.

But after the Cast came off it was obvious the horse was not going to be able to use that back leg to even just get around to walk. That was what in the end both of these vets told us. But it was so obvious by that time we knew ourselves without having to have them tell us that.

If you look at the picture I posted of the horses eye and can zoom in on it. You can see my reflection in its eye. It was staring directly at me. Of course Horse are silent animals. They can't express their feelings. They can't tell you how miserable they are or how bad they are hurting. And I didn't notice my reflection in her eye until weeks after we had her put down. But after I saw it and know this is silly but I think the horse was trying to let me know how much pain it was in. At that time I was trusting these vets opinions.

I spent hours checking on the horse and doing whatever I could to make her as comfortable as she could be. Had stall fans everywhere to keep her cool. Clean stall shavings, every kind of fed or minerals I could think of. Had a radio to play music to keep her from just standing and focusing on the pain she was in. Wife was spending every spare moment she had too even taken off work and during her lunch hours to take care of her. Before she would go to work and her days off.

I spent a lot of money on vet bills in order to try and save her. And would have kept paying them if it could have saved the horse. Not because of how we might have benefited by raising colts out of her or possibly being able to ride her again which sure would have been great.

But my main reason was to not only save the horse but to keep my wife from the suffering she has and still is going through from the loss of the horse. These animals are more than just pets to the both of us. They mean as much to us as family members means to their families.

I have learned a lot about caring for others both humans and animals from my wife. I sure don't know how I ended up with a woman as good as she is or why she puts up with me. But she does and I consider myself the luckiest man in the world that she is my wife.
 
When I brought Tamar to Texas me and my cousins would ride out to catch fireflies with butterfly nets. There were harmless big orb weaver spiders that make a web that spans little woodland clearings. Horrifying to ride into then feel something crawling in your hair.

We also had a sport called Possum Powdering. The neighbors would ride over at night and add their dogs to my dog. One person was elected to be the Possum Powderer and carried a can of flea powder and an old bugle horn. The dogs would hunt up a possum and it would play dead. This was announced by the Powderer by blowing of the horn, dismount and sprinkle the grinning possum with flea powder. We would then ride off to find another possum. No tequila was used although that would would have helped.

The only time I ever tried to ride her drunk she reared and slid me off her back.
 
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Tamar was once bred to a grandson of Native Dancer. She was there and bred to him multiple times but never took. She left no descendants. Such a one comes once in life and does not come again.

I remember the night she died, age 40. I came home from the hospital and found her dead on the ground. I could see by the tracks she had gone into the barn, got a drink, came out and fell dead. No signs of struggle were seen. My young mare was with her. I sat on a bucket by her head and did not cry. All our lives flashed before me. Would I have asked her to live longer? No.
 
You silly man. I tried to ride her WHILE I was drunk. It did not take much to get me drunk in those days, maybe a couple small glasses of wine.

How did your stallion act while stoned?
 

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