saying goodbye to an old friend

matt and i haven't been around the horse farm all that long, but we've learned a few things already:
1. don't let the dogs run in the back field because coyotes will try to eat nina;
2. glue jokes are never funny;
3. nobody likes it when you say you can't tell the horses apart;
4. and, horses are to horse people what nina and jake are to me.

today, the oldest horse on the farm had to be put down. his official name was "goodnight cavalier," but he was generally referred to as kim. he seemed like a very nice, gentle horse and i heard that he was quite the show animal in his day. he was a five-gater, which someone told me with a sense of awe, and at first i nodded knowlingly but then finally confessed to having no idea what it means. turns out, he was a five-gaiter, which means he knew five different gaits. this is very impressive for a horse.

kim had been in pretty rough shape for a while- unable to digest fresh grass, he needed to wear a muzzle when he was out on the pasture and it was pretty sad to watch him try to graze. he also had a lot of foot troubles and was in pain whenever he was standing, which, for those of you unfamiliar with horses, is pretty much all the time. they tried all these tricks to extend his life and keep him comfortable- foam horseshoes, a stall full of sand, painkillers, etc... but finally someone- i think the vet- made the call that enough was enough, and on behalf of the horse, i said, "phew."

i didn't really realize just what a monumental process it is to get rid of a horse and i guess we should consider ourselves lucky that kim was able to walk to his grave under his own power, and even more importantly than that, that he didn't die in the barn. it's not easy to get a 1200 pound animal out of a stall when he is dead. a neighbor spent three hours digging a hole in one of the pastures last night, and today, the horse people all walked with kim out to the hole and said goodbye before the vet gave him a fatal dose of anesthetic. i admit, i was more than a little choked up as i watched. and i gave both my doggies a piece of the "cowboy country" sausage that they love so much and hoped that there would be lots of people who would come and say goodbye to them and i hoped that i will be able to let go when the time is right. and i hoped that that won't be for a very long time to come.