Tango  






Thoroughbred
16 years old
Date of Death: March 9, 2011



His name was Tango, and he was an amazing horse.
 
I met Tango a short while ago, in the beginning of December 2010.  I take riding lessons at a low key riding stable in New Jersey and have not had the resources to afford to care for my own horse.  Like everybody else, I have had a number of favorite riding horses, but Tango was the first to really claim my heart.  He was a rescued thoroughbred; a lady in Georgia by the name of Laura found him “Free to a good home.” on the internet and immediately wanted to save him.  He was incredibly skinny – he wasn’t healthy enough to make the trip from Pennsylvania to Georgia, so he was going to spend the winter at the barn where I ride.
 
The first time I saw Tango, he was standing in the back corner of his stall with his big head low and his empty eyes open, staring at me with such a depressed, sad stare that you would never expect from a big thoroughbred.  I instantly fell in love with him.  The first time I saw him out of his stall without a blanket, my heart broke.  He was the skinniest horse I had ever seen; I could feel and count each of his ribs, and his hindquarters were so jagged and wimpy that I was amazed he had ever raced at all.  I was in love with him and his big sweet, sad face and his loving personality.  It was a wonder that I horse this neglected still had such a warm heart inside him. 
 
As I worked with Tango over the past three months, I could see him progress.  His eyes became brighter and happier and he started to fill out and build up some muscle.  I began to take pictures of him and post them on facebook for his rescuer to see, and we began to talk about him every day over the pictures.  I began to forget that he wasn’t “my horse” because there was something different between Tango and I than there ever had been with the other horses.  I loved Tango so much – every time I opened his door, his big fuzzy head would pop out and he would stare into me and warm me after I had stepped in from the snowy outside world.  I can try all I want to explain the beauty and love that I saw in this horse, but I will never be able to do him justice.  I believe that God brought him to the barn for me and for him, and I will forever be thankful for knowing him.
 
A few weeks before Tango passed, the lady in Georgia called my mother to ask if Tango could stay here with me and become my baby.  Although we didn’t have the financial means to support him and give him the life he deserved, the possibility of Tango staying with me was wonderful. 
 
On March 9, 2011 I went to the barn after school to work and to hang out with Tango.  I went outside to see him in his paddock and I took some really great picture of his beautiful face.  We stood on either side of the fence and I fed him peppermints, his favorite treat.  My favorite memory of him was that day in his paddock.  Tango absolutely loved peppermints.  After he had eaten one, he would start to lick everything in sight.  He licked the fence, the gate, and then moved on to my jacket.  I kissed him and he licked my jacket, slobbering me in horsey goo and peppermint gunk and it was wonderful.  The bond you form with a horse is really the most divine and wonderful feeling.  I took several more pictures and rubbed his face and gave him kisses before I walked back inside to do my job.  About an hour later, the horses were let in and I watched as Tango happily jogged into the barn and into his stall to eat his dinner.  It was wonderful to see him feeling so good when three months ago he barely had the energy or desire to keep standing. 
 
I will remember what happened next for the rest of my life.  I went to go get Tango out of his stall to ride him, and he nearly fell on his face trying to walk.  After I got him steadied and sure on his feet, my trainer came to look at him.  He limped so much as he walked; we put him back in his stall and I gave him a supplement.  We thought it was another racing injury flaring up again, so we gave him about an hour and then came back to check.  Tango was standing in his stall eating his hay…on three legs.  His front left leg was dropped to the ground so that there was no weight on it and his hoof was bent at an unbelievable angle under his leg.  We called the vet and then another girl at the barn and I stayed with him until the vet came.  It was so painful to watch – he was supporting his whole head, neck and front with his right front leg and so he began to shake as his right leg became tired.  When he wanted to move to his water, he would have to almost rear up on his haunches before using his right leg to turn his body around, dragging his left on the ground.  He almost fell over several times.  We gave him hay to try to keep him in one place but he kept trying to move.  The vet came, examined him and said his shoulder was broken and there was nothing to do for him but take the pain away.  I fed him all of the peppermints I could, and patted his strong neck for as long as I was able to stay.  I hugged him for the last time and left the stall in a mess as the vet began to walk toward him to relieve him of his pain.
 
Tango was my first love, and he will always be with me.  I love him so much and remember him every day.  He was sweet, loving, and funny despite everything he had been through.  Once a magnificent, winning racehorse, he had been neglected and then brought to me by the hand of God and by Laura, the amazing woman who saved him. I am thankful that I had the privilege of knowing and loving him and I wish I could have shared more than only three months with that special horse.

I am glad that he is in a perfect place now and that he will never feel any pain ever again.  I am confident that he gallops through endless meadows of lush green grass with all of the other beloved equine friends and heroes somewhere in another world.  I long for the day when I see him again and am able to wrap my arms around his big neck and have him lick my jacket, covering me in peppermint slobber.

Tango is not dead – he is more alive now than he ever was before.  God is good and will care for him in the ways he should have been since the day he came into this world.  I love Tango and I miss him incredibly. 

Katie














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