[Laneco]

I feel for your wife. We lost our last two a few years ago. Both Arabians as well, the gelding a well bred Polish, coincidently.

The gelding, was the first to go. We got him when he was five. A holy terror if there ever was one, a horse that needed a job. We found one for him, he was an exceptional endurance horse. He once covered 150 miles cross country in 22 hours total (that included stops) and galloped across the finish line. I rode him in the Tevis Cup, but I could never wear the buckle he won, because it was always his. When he was 24, a growth in in jaw kept him from eating, so we tube fed him every 4 hours for more than two weeks until the test results confirmed that it was a most aggressive cancer. When the kill-drug took effect, he raised his head, pricked his ears forward as if he was spotting some finish line to race for, then passed from this world to wherever good horses go on the next.

The last of the horses was Abba. We got her when I was one year old. She and I grew up together. My first horse show, my first ribbons, trophy, 4-H, my first endurance ride. All of my life that gray mare had been there. By the time she was 36 (35 years with our family), she had become quite infirm and physically challenged. When it got bad, I held her head in my arms, and wept like a baby when we put her down.

The bonds with the horses developed through those long miles and many years eclipses my love of all other four legged friends, even dogs. Prays sent for your wife.

angela