I met Maggie in the spring
of 2004 after a 25 year hiatus from having horses in my life. From the moment
our eyes met, I know we were meant to be together. Her owner had just bought
her from a man that had no clue to the care for horses and she was extremely
thin. After spending some time with her, I knew she had some formal training
by the way she allowed me to handle her and how she responded on the long
line. I rode her bareback for a few minutes and she responded to every cue.
I bought her at a steal as her new owner had no need for her, he just felt
sorry for the situation she was in.
From the moment I brought
her home, she followed me around like a well-trained dog. She kept herself
about one foot away from my right shoulder, turning with me and stopping
when I did. After several months of special diets, supplements and exercise,
she looked like a completely different horse.
I started riding her in
the fall of that first year and she turned out to be my dream horse. She
would do anything I asked without hesitation. I started taking her to the
training facility for our local mounted posse. There was nothing they could
throw at her that made her flinch...from smoke bombs to helicopters flying
over. She had turned the heads of many members of the mounted posse.
In the spring of 2005, I
bred her to one of the mounted posse's stallions. He was one of the most
mellowed out stallions I had ever been around and was hoping with both Maggie
and his dispositions, I would get the horse of a lifetime. Along about Maggie's
sixth month of pregnancy, she grass foundered. Between the many visits of
the vets and farrier, we were able to get her comfortable and she went on
through her pregnancy with no further complications.
Maggie foaled a beautiful
filly on April 2, 2006. As feared, the stress of labor brought new pain and
complications to her front feet. The vet visits and farrier visits were weekly
for a while and then 2 times a month, but we were never able to get her pain
free. She never lost the twinkle in her eyes until one morning when I went
out to the barn to turn her and her little filly out. She had this dull look
in her eyes and she just stood there with her head on my shoulder. I knew
it was time. I called my vet and told him the time had come. He came out
later that day when it had cooled off and peacefully put her down. She laid
down and I held her head in my lap while she took her last breath. My tears
flowed like a river as I heard her four month old baby calling for her
Momma.
She is buried in a shady
grove just behind our barn. Wild flowers and ferns grow around the statue
I had placed on her grave. Their presence tells me her spirit is still with
me and that she is waiting for me to cross the Rainbow Bridge.
MagzMom