Last Thursday I was flying home from Charlotte, NC and phoned my wife to tell her when to meet me at the airport. She said she needed to pull off the freeway and call me back about something important.

The something important was the the youngest of our three horses, Boris, died suddenly Thursday morning. As best she could tell, whatever it was, it was mercifully quick; it appears that he just died and fell over (i.e., no signs of struggling). He was only 15 years old.

Boris was something of a rescue horse: many owners before us, some of whom (it appeared) mistreated him. He was exceptionally spooky: he especially hated anything white sitting on the ground and would jump or run to avoid it. He never reached what I think was his full potential, but he definitely wanted to please whoever was with him.

All-in-all, a good boy. We'll miss him dearly.

 

Sorry to hear of your loss. It's never easy to lose one that we care for.

 

Our condolences to you and Marlana, Bill. RIP Boris.

 

Sorry for your loss.

 

sorry to hear.

 

Bill, I am so sorry to hear about Boris. I understand how much the horses mean to you and Marlana. I can only imagine how hard it was for her to give you the bad news. People that don't care for them on a daily basis probably can't understand how much a member of the family they become. I know when my wife comes home and hears about Boris she will cry, both for the horse and the two of you.

How did your other horses take it? I hope they are not grieving too badly.

 

Thanks, Topper. I know that you do.

When she phoned she started with, "First, I want to tell you that Val and Khaleel are OK."

I didn't know where this was going. Had she been riding Val and ponying Khaleel and one of them stumbled? Did Val throw her? Did the barn collapse? What happened?

There is no easy way to say what she had to say.

Give her a hug from us, and a sincere "Thank you!

I don't know how they reacted when it happened. I was in Charlotte, and Marlana was at work. She got a call from our friend who owns the barn where we keep them, but she didn't tell me if he said anything about how the other horses reacted.

I think not, but I've never seen horses grieve. Marlana took them out Friday evening and we rode them Saturday morning, and apart from Khaleel being the tiniest bit gimpy they seemed fine.

 

Back before we had our own farm and boarded our horses we were told that one of ours, "Tot" would watch for us and seem to grieve and become depressed if we were gone more than 3 or 4 days. He also once had a girlfriend for a few months and they were inseparable until her owner sold her. When she was loaded into the transport he screamed like someone was killing him. He didn't eat for days. It was a sad and touching thing to see.

M and I talked alot about this as we fed the 4 we have here. They all got extra hugs this evening... I'm sure you know why.

 

I kept waiting for the punchline. Sorry for your loss

 

Thanks.