We Went Riding!

It had been awhile. Like months. Since spring, 8 makes it a bit difficult. The ride was short, around the quanset and back, but it felt good.

My darling Coyote isn’t getting any younger and although in theory I believe horses can live healthy useful lives into their thirties I’ve never had one make it past twenty. He has been lame on his left front twice this year, he’s never lame it worries me. But it also is interesting to me that it’s the same leg that he severed an artery in years ago. If we hadn’t been watching when he did it he would have bleed to death in minutes. The vet drove over an hour in the snow on a Sunday morning to come patch him up. To my shock and horror at the time the vet simply sewed the artery shut and patched the hole.

I wanted to know how blood was going to get down the leg and was assured that the surrounding veins would take up the slack and carry a little more. And they did. He has worked hard most of his life since then and never been unsound. Until now when he is suddenly and mysteriously off in that leg. Who knows maybe it’s unrelated.

I was greatly bothered to hear of the death of one of my favorite studs this summer. Old ways bimbo was high up in the running when I was looking for a stud to breed Princess Onna to. And now he’s gone at only seventeen, if my math is right. The exact same age as Coyote.

So I will continue to love my rotten pony and worry about him as I appreciate that his advancing age makes him the perfect horse for me at this stage of my life. Just as he has been the perfect horse for me at every other stage in both of our lives and hope that he goes on to be a great first horse for 8 with The Goblin Child having already claimed Princess Onna.