Horse stories

Last week a friend at work told me a story about another coworker's horse that had recently died. It was very sad of course, in that the horse died, but remarkable in that the horse was 45 years old. Wow. My friend used to drive by and liked to see the horse grazing in its field. It was a sturdy and hardy Morgan, one of those old-style tough little Morgans that look like they can do anything. She hadn't seen it in awhile, wondered what had happened and finally asked our coworker who owned the horse. Apparently the owners discovered the horse in a bad way when they went to feed one morning. It couldn't drink. It was having difficulty moving and in fact couldn't move forward. Yet, when the coworker and her husband approached, the horse tried to shuffle about to reach out and nose the husband. Given its condition and age, they made the still-difficult decision to put the horse out of its misery. My friend said our coworker told her she had wanted to tell her what happened to the horse, but just couldn't talk about it until some time had passed; she'd become emotional. These horses become such a part of our lives.

Yesterday, as Katie and I drove through Colchester heading to the barn, we passed an odd sight: a man on a horse loaded down with packs, ponying another horse that was also loaded down with packs. All three looked pretty road weary. We were on a busy two lane road and we both did a doubletake as we spotted the little group. Would love to know their story. And with the wonders of Google, I think I now do know it: Googling yielded a recent story by local station WCAX on a man traveling from Canada to Texas (!) to raise awareness of the plight of the Canadian Horse, a breed that is nearing extinction, according to the article. Here's a link to the story. What a trip. I hope all three make it safe and sound.