6 Years Gone

My first horse was a beautiful palomino paint gelding named Justin.

I bought him in his mid teens from a woman in California - he had definately lived through a lot in his previous life.  He suffered a knee injury as a colt and had arthroscopic knee surgery, later was sold to some people who went through a divorce and he was nearly starved to death.  The woman I bought him from said she rescued him from the neglect.

She boarded Justin at a farm in California's Sierra Nevada mountains where a musician saw him and wanted to buy him for his daughter.  The previous owner didn't think Justin was the right horse for a young girl so she refused to sell him.  She did agree to let the musician take pictures with the horse and use them for his Christmas Album...  You can see Justin with Kenny Loggins on the back cover of his 1998 release "December".

Justin showed some scars from his past...  he had a front knee that was a little larger than the other, he was not real trusting of people until you proved yourself to him, and he was pretty serious about protecting his food.  But once he got to know and trust someone, he was a good friend to have.

I was a green rider when he first arrived and Justin was not a "push button" kind of guy.  He knew all of the tricks on how to get out of work and that forced me to become an assertive and confident rider.  This being said, the horse never wanted to hurt me...  as I look back, I realize that he never dished out more than I could take.

Justin taught me how to listen to a horse, he taught me how to talk to a horse, and most importantly he taught me what it meant to have a partner.  We camped and rode the trails of Tennessee, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and all over Michigan.  We did some team penning and went to a few horse shows, but our favorite times together were trail riding right here at home.

It was the fall of 2004 and we had a lot of rain...  the temperatures dropped and the mud froze into the jagged ground I have "stressed" about on this blog before.  Justin bruised the bottom of two of his feet and could hardly walk.  We moved him into the barn and the vet came and treated his abcesses with pain meds and directed us to soak his feet in warm epsom salts water twice a day.  After two weeks in the barn, his feet healed and he was able to go back to the pasture with his friends for the day.

This picture by Kat Wiegand - Laughing Horse Farms

It was good to see him moving so well and as I put him back in the barn that night, I noticed that he was moving a little loose in the hind end but dismissed it as being muscle fatigue from standing around for so long.  The very next morning Wayne woke me up and said that I needed to go to the barn.

Justin had lost complete control of his hind end.  He was not one to lay down much, you could tell that it made him feel vulnerable so he was fighting and fighting to get on his feet.  Crashing into the wall and gate, struggling to his feet.  He was finally able to get his head up over the gate and by shear force of will balanced himself upright.  After a short time he was down again and the struggle would start again.

It was probably a stroke - two weeks standing still had likely formed a blood clot that let loose when he was finally able to move without pain.  The vet got there as quickly as possible on that warm New Years Morning in 2005 and our neighbor was kind enough to bury Justin in the back pasture the very same day.

Logic tells me that it was his time, but my heart tells me that Justin saw my young horse "Riot" waiting in the wings and the thought of a peaceful retirement was not his idea of "Golden Years".  He left while he still had his dignity and pride and forced me to take what he had taught me and put it to use with the young one.

I still miss him today and I talk to him from time to time.  I think he has whispered in Riot's ears a few times when the young boy has shown himself to be wise beyond his years.

6 years gone today but truly not forgotten - rest in peace old friend.