We've had some great times lately, and one notable sad time... after about a year of decline, I found old Charlie horse down in his stall Friday evening. Something happened to him while we were gone with Emma Kate's issues last winter, and he was never again able to walk normally (he shifted is whole rear end to the left to keep weight off his right hind leg) and I never again saw him lay down. I had wondered for a long time what would happen if he just laid down to take a rest- if he would be able to get up again or not. Well, I went out to the barn to feed the horses after putting the girls to bed (Greg was working), and I knew something was wrong when I hear Charlie neigh as soon as I clunked the door open. I turned on the lights and when I didn't see him over the stall wall, I knew he was on the floor. Judging by the way the dust was shifted in the stall, I suspect he was sitting on the wall (like he has for the past year, to rest), and his supporting leg must have given out or something- it looked like he went down right against the wall. He had scooted himself all the way to the other side of the stall, I assume in attempts to get up. He wasn't even strong enough to get himself sternal, and the one time he came close and tried to get up, it was a pretty minimal effort. He hadn't been down for long, but I knew pretty soon that he wasn't going to get up, with or without help. Luckily I had some sedative from years ago, I went ahead and gave it to him so he would just rest and not continue his efforts in vain while we waited for one of my old associates to come put him down. He went very peacefully, and must have been ready to go, as he only took about half the dose for a "regular" sized horse and was gone. Greg and I worked Saturday getting his body out of the stall (never a convenient place to have to put a horse down, for sure), and our neighbor (who also burried Ben while we were gone last winter...) came over and buried him very nicely, next to Ben. Before he was put into the grave, I cut his tail hairs off, hoping to someday make a keepsake out of it. He sure was a special horse, who saw me though a lot of the hardest times of my life, and even as giant as he was, he was very kind and trustworthy. Looking back on some of the pictures we have of him, it's amazing that he looked like an entirely different animal just a bit over a year ago- big and round and standing normally, with his mane all grown long. When I bought him in 1998, he was supposed to be 9 years old, so I always thought of him as my '89 model- I didn't know anything really about aging a horse at that time, so I just went with it. A few years later, I came to realize that he was much, much older than I thought, and for the last year or so, I was ballparking his age in his upper 20s. My associate suspected he was into his early 30s when she saw his teeth. Regardless, he had a very long life, especially long for a draft horse, and I'm glad that we were able to give him the last 7 or 8 years in pretty darn easy retirement, with no other real obligations other than to mow and fertilize our pastures. It's very strange not having him here after all this time, I keep looking out in the field for him and realizing he's not there- it's just habit to keep an eye on the horses from the house. Anyhow, one of the things that really struck me looking back is that Emma Kate had said a few times in the past that Charlie was "having a hard time" and earlier in the day before I found him down, we had gone for a pony ride- when we came back to the barn, Charlie was hanging out in his stall and Emma Kate looked at him for a moment and then said "Charlie's sad. 'Cause he's having a hard time." Maybe she picked up on something. A lot of things have been pushing us in this direction for the last 2 months or so, so it was not completely unexpected, but still, it was shocking to have that moment finally come to pass. I appreciate that he made the decision as easy as it could ever be for me to make- there was no other alternative, no other options, no way he could continue on. I find some comfort knowing that I didn't cut his life a day shorter than necessary- he lived out every single day he possibly could, and I hope he was happy. He will be missed tremendously, my old crotchety, worthless galoot. Good ol' Charlie horse, Charles, Booda, and of course, B.C. Flappin' in the Wind. :) Lots of good memories left behind for sure. Here's a picture of Emma Kate on Charlie in late June, 2010. There is a huge grin on her face! Charlie looks great here, happily munching on his clover, with his fly mask on, living in such luxury... :)
Other than that main sadness, things have been good here- the girls are doing well, Emma Kate seems to be holding her own, and Gretta is just plain wild! Emma Kate has really enjoyed playing with her big doll and the "too small baby clothes" that she puts on and off over and over and over, apparently that doll continuously makes poo-poo diapers every time she has just finished dressing her... :) Gretta has been imitating us a lot lately- in the bath the other night she did a really good job mimicking what I had done to wash Emma Kate's hair, it was very cute. Then she was airing out and had a little accident on the floor in the bathroom- I grabbed a little towel to clean it up, and she immediately grabbed a wash cloth and started cleaning the floor under the toys and around the tub! Such good little helper girls here... :)
Emma Kate has recently taken to "nursing" her baby dolls, very cute...
Heading out to find "the perfect tree"
The girls checking out a baby tree
It was some tough terrain for a walking baby!
Gretta got a big kick out of the ornaments on the tree at the farm where we bought our Christmas tree, she loved the lights!
Decorating the tree at home- the girls had a blast
Emma Kate was very determined to keep all the ornaments out of Gretta's reach- we had some "safe" ornaments on the lower part of the tree that we put there on purpose, but she kept removing them and putting them as high up as she could reach!
Pony rides! We had our neighbor friends come over to play and go for a little pony ride in the front pasture
Gretta's favorite way to "ride" Snowy- she loves to give her kisses on her round little rump!
Gretta this afternoon- she saw the camera come out and just jumped in front of it and gave me a sweet smile!
And then Emma Kate did the same... they're such hams!
