He only lived a short while,
not quite making it to six years old. I loved and still love my golden boy,
he was my first foal. I bred my mare and got a beautiful little colt.
He was born two weeks early, and it seemed that he was always in a hurry.
He inhaled his food with gusto. He would drool while I got his meals ready.
He sucked on his tongue, which I was told was a Three Bars trait. He was
a Houdini, he could open a gate quicker than I could and then he would let
everyone else out. The first time he let himself out, I was gone and came
home late in the evening to find him standing at the sliding glass door.
He scared the daylight out of me. I thought I had left his stall gate open
but I didn't, because when I put him away, he just followed me right out.
I had to change all the latches
Dusty had an opinion about everything. If you said whoa, he would say why.
If you were not careful, he would grab a piece of your shirt or anything
else that might be hanging off or take a little nip. He didn't like to get
brushed with a hard brush. I had to use a very soft brush or rag on him.
It was a real pain at shedding time. He had arthritis in his hocks at a very
young age, so he didn't move well and I learned to massage him. He was always
at his stall door to greet me, of course he wanted a treat or a flake of
hay. He was very smart and learned easily. He would drive his mom crazy until
he was weaned.
We did horse shows from the time he was six months old. He did halter and
in-hand trail to start with, then as a yearling he did lounge line. Later
on we did showmanship, trail, western and English pleasure. I have a couple
of buckles and other awards that we won.
The time I remember most
was our first trail ride with a large group of people. We went on a ride
at Lake Perris. He was walking very slowly and soon we lost sight of the
group. Instead of panicking, he would just whinny for the herd and of course
someone answered. I guess he trusted me a lot, and we finally caught up with
the group and he started walking faster to keep up. That was my brave golden
boy. He taught me a lot about horses. He wasn't one to just stand around
and do what I asked. Instead, he would question me at every turn, and make
me think and be brave no matter what we did together. There was so much more
I wanted to do with him. That now falls on his brother who is the opposite
of Dusty.
In October of 2006, he coliced
and I caught him in time. Off we went to the vet hospital and surgery was
performed. They took out a softball-sized stone and he recovered nicely.
When we got home I had to walk him every day. So around the block we went.
By Christmas time, I had decked him out in a Santa hat and lights. The kids
in the neighborhood dubbed him, "Santa Horse". He drank in all the attention.
He loved to be a showoff.
Once he finally recovered, he had back problems, probably from his arthritis
in his hocks. Off we went riding him occasionally and doing Showmanship at
shows. In October, while at a "horsin around day", he bucked me off. So,
I had a trainer come by and work with him as he was spoiled by me, of course.
When I finally got on him, he was just the wonderful horse he used to be.
We went to one show and he did great. I then rode him the weekend before
the fateful day and we had two really great rides. On Tuesday morning at
4:00 a.m. I heard trash cans and thought that I forgot to lock Dusty in,
so out I went just to find him down on the ground, sweating and not getting
up. He broke out a stud panel and a gate to come up to the house to get me,
but it was too late. Even though I took him to the vet hospital, there was
nothing that could be done for him. I will miss my golden boy, but he will
always live in my heart.
Dusty 
