I would be willing to guess that any of us who have
ridden for many years have had good experiences along with bad
experiences. Sometimes the only way to learn is the hard way. We all
make mistakes, we all learn from our mistakes. Sometimes we could have
prevented our mistakes, sometimes s@@@ happens and there was nothing we could
have done. My hubby lost his good QH mare over 5 years ago from a weird
liver disease. For weeks we were checking the horses' gums for redness 2
and 3 times a day. Our vet caught us doing it and gave us a big
lecture. Mostly what he said was, "if one owns horses long enough, one is
going to have 'stuff' happen that cannot be prevented." He then went on to
say that what happened to Lucky was not our fault, that it was just the luck of
the draw. He made us feel good when he also said that we took
excellent care of our horses.
Unfortunately, no matter how careful we are, no
matter what excellent care we give our horses on trail, ugly things can and will
happen. I always figure that when something does, there but for the luck
of the draw, could be me. Jeanie
