A hard day

Well, Saturday was kind of a rough day for us. We started the day out well, going to the family reunion on my mom's side of the family. We went swimming in Lehi, and had fun. Until Kevin came out of the locker room and said someone had stolen his wallet out of his shorts pocket. They had lockers there, but we didn't bring a padlock. I was so ticked! People like that just make me so mad. How can you sleep at night knowing you took someone's personal property? I felt so violated. So I was in my locker room getting ready, and the thought came to me, "have Kevin check the garbage cans". So I suggested this to him. He went back into the locker room, and most of the garbages were full of nasty food and what not. He just pulled the whole bag out and looked to see if he could see it. Well, lo and behold, in the second one he pulled out, there was his wallet, in the very bottom! He got it out, and the only thing missing was his cash, which was about $30. All of his credit cards and his license and everything else was still there. I'm so thankful he found it! But I'm still ticked at the morons who took it. What idiots.

After swimming, we headed over to a park in Lehi to catch up, mingle, eat, and play with relatives. Just as I was getting relaxed, my dad came over to me and told me that Kim, the owner of the property where we are keeping our horses, just called him, and my horse, Honeybear, has colic, and was going downhill pretty fast. Colic is a gastrointestinal condition that happens to horses, and it's pretty common. The best thing to do is get them up and walking immediately, or they can die. I had to make the decision to leave the family reunion and drive back down to West Valley to get her up and moving. My dad and I went, and Kev stayed with the kids at the reunion. Kim kept calling saying Honeybear keeps closing her eyes and wants to give up.
Just a little history about Honeybear: she's 6 years old and has been healthy all her life, but this past winter, she lost all of her weight, and has been horribly skinny for months now. We've taken her in to the vet, and they couldn't find the problem. We've been trying to get her weight back up for months, with no luck.
Here's a picture of what she has looked like recently, ribs and backbone sticking out. It's so sad to see her this way!


So back to the story: We got to West Valley to find Kim pulling her as hard as she could to keep walking and not lay down. I took her from there and the vet was on his way. It was so hard to keep trying to pull her and keep her from lying down. I kept this up for 20-25 minutes. It was SO hard! It was horribly hot outside, my mouth was dry, I was tired, but I couldn't stop. My dad was with me and he was helping. The vet finally got there, right as she laid down again. He gave her a sedative to help with the pain in her stomach. She was just lying there moaning. It was so hard to see her that way, and not know what to do to help her.


After the sedative helped with the pain, she stood up on her own, but you could tell she was very weak. The vet checked her gums, and they were very pale. She wasn't in good shape. The vet said the sedative would wear off in about 45 minutes or so, then she'd probably be in pain again, wanting to lie down.
Surgery would be an option for a normal horse, but due to her weight problem, she wouldn't survive through surgery. So came the decision. The awful decision of whether or not we should put her down.

It was such a hard decision to make, but I think we were just delaying the inevitable. The hardest part for me was telling her good-bye for the last time. It wasn't when she was lying down moaning on the ground, it was when she was standing up, just trying to eat some grass, acting like she normally does. I know she's just an animal, but she was such a sweet horse, and she was my friend. I have some fun memories with her. She took me up Timpanogos on a beautiful fall day in October of 2006, and she also took me on a great ride up in the Uintas. She was very gentle with kids, and I could even trust her to let the little ones lead her around all by themselves. Not many horses are that gentle. Just the other day, Bailee, Trinidee, and their cousin, Toby, were taking turns holding the rope and just walking around with her following. That's about all we could do with her lately since she was too weak for a rider.

I told the kids today, and Bailee cried with me, saying she'll come back to earth when we come back to the earth. She's so sweet! Trinidee said she'll miss her.

I'll miss her too.