My precious horse Sinbad was born May 3, 1993 and died February 17, 2011. He was a purebred Appaloosa.
Sinbad was not a pretty horse by any stretch of the imagination, but was truly beautiful on the inside. I came back to riding after a 20 year hiatus and was very apprehensive about getting on a horse again. We found Sinbad at an auction sale in the fall of 2001, ridden in the ring by a four year old girl. We brought him home and old Sinbad restored my confidence, safely and steadfastly taking me wherever I wanted to go.
He developed nearly complete blindness about three years ago, and it was then that we saw just how much he trusted us. He let us take him anywhere we needed him to go...into a scary vet clinic, into a dark trailer - anywhere. Although he was no longer rideable, he had earned the right to a pasture retirement with his two buddies.
On February 16, he developed colic. The vet said he might recover on his own, but that the colic was likely due to a strangulating lipoma, and treating him would require very costly surgery which may not even work. I made the difficult decision not to have the surgery. The vet gave him an intravenous painkiller and said we should monitor the situation to make sure he wasn't in too much pain. If he was, we should get her back to put him down. I checked on him before bed and although he was not himself, did not appear to be in severe pain. Once again, Sinbad took care of me, sparing me from having to make the final decision to put him down. He died sometime in the night. My heart just hurts.
I will be forever grateful to my special friend, and hope when I enter the gates of heaven, he will be there to greet me with a whinny.
Heather
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Sinbad 
