Requiem for a mountain horse - 08/23/09
Fellow Campfire Members;
When we arrived home yesterday afternoon from our trip stateside, after the car was unpacked I wandered over to the horse pen. One look at our old sorrel gelding Cody told me the day I knew had been coming had arrived. I called the kids and my wife to come out, telling them what was up on the way to the pen.
My wife suggested I call a good friend for a 2nd opinion and Dwight, a retired RCMP Inspector and lifelong horseman arrived as soon as he could free himself from his vineyard. Dwight confirmed my opinion of Cody�s situation and reminded me of the pact we�d made sometime ago. As he put it, �A man shouldn�t have to shoot his own horse or dog, so when the day comes you call me and I�ll call you.�
Meanwhile my wife drove over to another neighbor Bill, a former logging road builder who now operates a mini-excavator and deals with this sort of thing locally, to see what his schedule looked like.
Cody came into our lives 15 years ago almost to the day, purchased from a horse trader and day ranch worker one valley to the east of us. He was a typical Quarter Horse build, 14.3 hands high and went maybe 1100lbs in his prime. From the T over W brand on his left flank I knew he had been on a large ranch on the Washington � BC border at some point in his life. The seller said he was between 12 and 15 years old and thought he�d been a pony horse at a local race track for awhile. Other than that, he was just a solid horse that let me handle his feet without fussing and did what he was asked when I rode him.
He turned out to be a great pony horse. Our two girls as well as other kinds learned to ride our jigging Appaloosa mare as she was latched to my right knee via a thong run through the left cheek snaffle ring, me aboard the steady sorrel gelding.
While I was never quite able to get him to agree to pack meat, he did tolerate foolishness such as a .308 Norma and an �06 being discharged in his general vicinity without too much bother.
He showed real promise as a cow horse the few times I used him as such but his real strength proved to be as a mountain horse that seemed to be able to go indefinitely and always know where to put his feet and when to put them there. As it turned out, he never tripped a single time in the hills with me on him � a particularly endearing trait in my books.
Slowly for Cody, as it does for all of us I guess, time took its toll.
So it was that at 8:00 this morning as my wife and our eldest took our Appy for a walk down the road, two neighbors met me in the back of the horse pen. In an amazingly short time Bill had a deep hole opened in the rocky ground. I haltered Cody and for the last time gave him some of his all time favorite- whole oats. He�d been off his feed lately, so although he labored a bit with the grain, as he dipped his head for another mouthful, Dwight aimed the little rimfire and did what he�d come to do.
By 9:00am, we all had gone our separate ways, me with our family to get some back to school clothes shopping done for the girls.
As I waited while the girls shopped, I considered how very fortunate I am to live in a state of grace that allows me to have family that understands that sometimes in life doing the right thing can be extremely tough.
I considered my great fortune to have friends and neighbors who will rearrange their lives to help me do unpleasant tasks that need doing.
While it was a sad day for me I take heart in the notion some of the folks I�m surrounded by are apparently very capable individuals.
With that I thank my fellow Campfire Members for allowing me to sort my thoughts on the events of the day in this fashion.
Hopefully it doesn't sound like I feel sorry for myself, as emphatically I don't. Death is a part of life, just the last part is all. Perhaps it will mean something to someone else at the Campfire, so I put it out for your consideration.
I believe I�ll end this story, hit the �Submit� tab and raise a small glass of Tangle Ridge to a great old mountain horse that never tripped, to good friends and a great family.
Thanks for reading,
Dwayne
Cody in his prime a few years back
When we arrived home yesterday afternoon from our trip stateside, after the car was unpacked I wandered over to the horse pen. One look at our old sorrel gelding Cody told me the day I knew had been coming had arrived. I called the kids and my wife to come out, telling them what was up on the way to the pen.
My wife suggested I call a good friend for a 2nd opinion and Dwight, a retired RCMP Inspector and lifelong horseman arrived as soon as he could free himself from his vineyard. Dwight confirmed my opinion of Cody�s situation and reminded me of the pact we�d made sometime ago. As he put it, �A man shouldn�t have to shoot his own horse or dog, so when the day comes you call me and I�ll call you.�
Meanwhile my wife drove over to another neighbor Bill, a former logging road builder who now operates a mini-excavator and deals with this sort of thing locally, to see what his schedule looked like.
Cody came into our lives 15 years ago almost to the day, purchased from a horse trader and day ranch worker one valley to the east of us. He was a typical Quarter Horse build, 14.3 hands high and went maybe 1100lbs in his prime. From the T over W brand on his left flank I knew he had been on a large ranch on the Washington � BC border at some point in his life. The seller said he was between 12 and 15 years old and thought he�d been a pony horse at a local race track for awhile. Other than that, he was just a solid horse that let me handle his feet without fussing and did what he was asked when I rode him.
He turned out to be a great pony horse. Our two girls as well as other kinds learned to ride our jigging Appaloosa mare as she was latched to my right knee via a thong run through the left cheek snaffle ring, me aboard the steady sorrel gelding.
While I was never quite able to get him to agree to pack meat, he did tolerate foolishness such as a .308 Norma and an �06 being discharged in his general vicinity without too much bother.
He showed real promise as a cow horse the few times I used him as such but his real strength proved to be as a mountain horse that seemed to be able to go indefinitely and always know where to put his feet and when to put them there. As it turned out, he never tripped a single time in the hills with me on him � a particularly endearing trait in my books.
Slowly for Cody, as it does for all of us I guess, time took its toll.
So it was that at 8:00 this morning as my wife and our eldest took our Appy for a walk down the road, two neighbors met me in the back of the horse pen. In an amazingly short time Bill had a deep hole opened in the rocky ground. I haltered Cody and for the last time gave him some of his all time favorite- whole oats. He�d been off his feed lately, so although he labored a bit with the grain, as he dipped his head for another mouthful, Dwight aimed the little rimfire and did what he�d come to do.
By 9:00am, we all had gone our separate ways, me with our family to get some back to school clothes shopping done for the girls.
As I waited while the girls shopped, I considered how very fortunate I am to live in a state of grace that allows me to have family that understands that sometimes in life doing the right thing can be extremely tough.
I considered my great fortune to have friends and neighbors who will rearrange their lives to help me do unpleasant tasks that need doing.
While it was a sad day for me I take heart in the notion some of the folks I�m surrounded by are apparently very capable individuals.
With that I thank my fellow Campfire Members for allowing me to sort my thoughts on the events of the day in this fashion.
Hopefully it doesn't sound like I feel sorry for myself, as emphatically I don't. Death is a part of life, just the last part is all. Perhaps it will mean something to someone else at the Campfire, so I put it out for your consideration.
I believe I�ll end this story, hit the �Submit� tab and raise a small glass of Tangle Ridge to a great old mountain horse that never tripped, to good friends and a great family.
Thanks for reading,
Dwayne
Cody in his prime a few years back