Sad Monday...

[Julienne Rha <Julienne.Rha.B@bayer.com>]

Yesterday at my barn a horse died who belonged to a good friend of mine.  The
horse was a QH gelding, in excellent health, and was only 5 years old.  He was
easily one of the best taken care of horses at the barn - she'd ride him every
single day during her lunch hour and made sure on the days she couldn't make it
out there was someone there to give him treats and to turn him out.  She had
hours and hours of trail time logged on him and he was so incredibly quiet, you
could put a kid on him and he'd just putz around the arena.  No known cause as
of yet - the owner of the barn thinks it was a severe brain hemmorrhage..
there was no thrashing evident in his stall when they found him.

Please count your blessings..  we are fortunate enough to have these animals in
our lives.  Don't live in fear, but LIVE each day with your animal.  Even after
bad days, remember you're all they have and that they live for your kindness.
I apologize for this sounding so preachy, but it's a tragedy that these sorts
of events have to occur for us to really appreciate what we are blessed with.

On a lighter note, a few hours later that day, a beautiful colt was born a few
stalls down... and a white dove appeared (first one I've seen all year) down by
the barn aisle where the gelding lived for the past 2 years.  All of these
events were all incredibly surreal..

Julienne - thanks for listening
& Harley (who was found yesterday to be totally covered in welts from bites -
from his eyelid to his sheath, ouch - also really strange!)