In Memory
2008 began with much sadness here. On January 22, I lost my old friend, Cromwell Rev-A-Lea. I got Rev in 1977 when she was born and had hoped for a long, happy life together. Unfortunately, while I was attending college it became increasingly more difficult to afford her and so I made the very hard decision to sell her. I placed an ad in the newspaper and it was promptly answered by a man who was anxious to buy her. I desperately needed both the money and to sell, but I got a bad feeling about him and turned down his offer. A couple of weeks later, an older couple saw her . fell in love with her and so ,I agreed to sell . They had a beautiful place and a couple of other very happy, healthy horses and I had a good feeling about her future. She spent the next 20 years with them. Eventually, the husband had passed away and now his wife, who was now in her nineties, had her health rapidily failing, I was contacted (as I had asked to be told if they ever wanted to sell her) and the next day Rev came home. Rev spent the last eight years of her life with me, happy and healthy. She looked as though she could have lived many more years, but on the morning of January 22, I went out to feed and called out to her, expecting to hear her whinney to me as she did every morning. Instead, I opened her door and my heart sank. She had died very suddenly just outside the back of her stall door where she stood everyday catching the morning sun with her friends. I miss her terribly , but was glad she never suffered a day in her very long life. If losing Rev wasn't hard enough, less than two months later tragedy struck. I was getting very nervous about losing my remaining older horses and wanted just one more to keep as a lifelong companion. So, on March 9, I put a deposit on a weanling colt up in Vermont, as I had decided not to breed my ten year old homebred mare, Daisy. Daisy had lost two pregnancies the previous two years, which was pretty hard on me. This way, I would have just one more young horse to raise and enjoy as I had just turned 50 and didn't want to wait much longer. On March 12, a beautiful early spring day, I went out to clean and fill the horse's water tank. The horses were running around kicking up their heels with spring fever. About fifteen minutes later, I came back to turn off the hose and Daisy was standing near the tank waiting for a drink. I remembered talking to her .as she would never drink while the hose was running. About an hour later , I went out to feed their dinner and nearly collapsed when I found Daisy dead next to the water tank. She must have died within minutes of me walking back into the house. A necropsy revealed that she had torn her diaphragm with her liver herniating into her chest cavity, compressing her lungs. A very rare injury that they said was due to a trauma. The only thing that I can speculate, is that she was inadvertently kicked by her mother while they were playing , as I had seen her really bucking and frolicking just a while before. She would have never kicked her on purpose, as they were best friends. Daisy was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. There were no other signs of any other possibilities as it takes a pretty serious blow to cause that injury. The pathologist said there was nothing I could have done to save her. It could never have been fixed by surgery. This will haunt me for a long time. It's very hard to go out to the barn and not see Rev and Daisy, but at least I know they had very good lives and were much loved. 'Til we meet again......
