Cowlitz Squaw was her registered name; she went by Cowlitz. She was born
in Longview, Washington April 20, 1975...she was named after Cowlitz County.
I live in Oregon. I got her when she was 17 years old. I was 11; I'll be
22 September 12th.
She was an American Quarter
Horse; she was my first. When we got her, she had been out to pasture for
8 years, but before that she had been in 4H with the previous owners' daughter.
I got her for my 11th birthday, and I was also in 4H. Cowlitz did really
well(1st place, medallions etc..), but hated being in a stable, and hated
performance. Eventually I moved her here to our property and took up barrel
racing/gaming. She loved that. She was introduced to a buddy when we moved
her to our barn. Dusty, who is 11 years old now. Eventually I retired Cowlitz,
and only put kids on her for little rides. Once in a while we'd go hit an
easy trail.
She loved Coke, peppermints,
apples and carrots....and strangely enough she loved the packets of hot sauce
from Taco Bell. She had a lot of odd tastes. She was very stubborn. But she
was loving in her own way and willing to please. She was quite a character
at times. When it was really hot, she would go out and stick her head into
the big water bucket, just up to her ears and then blow bubbles, and then
she would throw some one her chest. She also had her daily 12 o'clock nap,
in which she'd lay down in a soft spot out in the paddock and stretch out.
Also when she'd go out and roll she'd let everyone know she was loving it
because she'd let out this groan of ecstasy as she did.
She was a real champion and was willing to do what I asked. She was
wonderful with kids (better with them than she was with me sometimes. LOL).
When I first got her, we had an accident in which I got too close behind
her while lunging and she bucked and caught me in the chin and broke my jaw.
It wasn't her fault at all and she never hurt me since (besides the occasional
spill).
For the past year, she has been completely at rest and just hanging out with
Dusty. She was very healthy and never got sick. A week ago she had a little
injury to her leg and we fixed her leg up and she was doing better. 3 days
ago she began to act funny and we kept a close eye on her. We found that
she stopped taking water for 24 hours. I went in and took her temp, it was
high, and she was lethargic. Called the vet who watched how she was acting,
the vet thought laminitis at first, but then listened to her heart and found
a severe murmur. She gave her drugs, pumped water into Cowlitz's stomach,
and gave us instructions on different ways to get her to drink.
That night we tried everything, still no drinking. Yesterday morning,
her temp was down, but she wouldn't drink and wouldn't eat much, we left
her plenty of watery food and different flavoured waters and then went to
a Dr.'s appt for me(about my jaw actually LOL).
My mother checked in on her and called us saying she didn't look like she
was doing very well. We came home immediately and found her lying down. She
got up, but kept lying down like she was colicking. Eventually she lay down
and stayed. We called the vet and she got there and listened to her heart.
Her heart was even worse and there wasn't anything that could be
done.
We spent some time with her, she lay on her side, flat out in her stall
and she looked at me and I knew then, that she was ready. She basically told
me that it was time. We pet her and hugged on her and then I was able to
get her back on her feet. I led her to the lower pasture and found a nice
spot. Cowlitz walked down there like there was no problem, even nipping the
tops off of the high grass as she went. The vet had me listen to her heart
and I did. It sounded terrible, like a washing machine. Her blood pressure
was so low that her pulse stopped at her knee.
I held onto Cowlitz as the vet gave her a sedative, as soon as she started
to get really sleepy, she administered the other drugs. Cowlitz laid down
nice and easy and went to sleep. Everything went "perfectly" she passed like
a champion and with dignity. Once she was gone, the vet said that she always
likes to take the horses' halter off so that they can be free again. So,
we did that and now she is free and healthy again.
I really thank God that everything worked and went as smoothly as it
did. There is a lot more to the story that shows that the ONLY way, everything
happened as it did, was because God had his hand on the situation. I knew
how I wanted everything to go once it was time, and it all went, as I wanted
it. Of course that didn't make it any easier, I didn't expect this for a
few more years.
Cowlitz 
