“A horse is poetry in motion.”
Rhythm
Yesterday was a tough day. At
around 9:40 AM, while in lab I received a call from Sara, my wife, to hear our
29 year old Arab was not doing well. At
that time he had been lying down and not wanting to get up. Sara was all packed
up to head to a horse show and prior to heading out she was checking in on the
horses in the pasture. It was at that
time she discovered the Arab. It is with
a very heavy heart we have to announce we have lost Rhythm to severe colic. Our
decision was not easy; it was time, and yet we both struggled to find the
courage to tell the vet it was time.
How do you put into perspective the
idea of spending a good portion of your life with another animal? Rhythm was an
Arab and he was 3 years old when Sara picked him up, our son was 2 years old
and our daughter was 3 years old! Today our kids are 28 and 29 years old! The
horse gave us many incredible experiences and he had his quirks; hoses were
great big scary snakes or least we thought so, anything that ruffled or
crunched was scary! The thing is, he did not have a mean bone in his body, and
he was a gentle horse who just happened to have a loaded spring when
frightened! Yes, that spring threw me a couple of times. The list of riding adventures for this
incredible family member is pretty long! Sara and Rhythm started doing
endurance rides, they would trot rather briskly for about 25 miles a stretch in
an actual endurance competition. Sara
and Rhythm camped together by themselves before riding in endurance competitions. As a family one of my most interesting
memories was when we were camping with our kids in the southern part of the
state; we woke up to huge tornado warning, lightening was striking all around
us, the wind was kicking up and we were racing to pack camp. That horse was just as calm as could be, it
was as if he was thinking to himself, “those crazy humans!” Turns out he had
zero issues with the weather and we had no difficulty loading him into the
trailer to leave that night.
Some of our recent adventures
involved taking him and one of our thoroughbreds to the river for a swim! The
Wisconsin River is no joke when it comes to the currents underneath, and yet,
we took them out for a quick adventure! This particular part of the river has
claimed the lives of a few over the last few years! One of my favorite
adventures was our full moon rides through the neighborhood from the farm. We
had a group of horse friends who, like us, enjoyed trail riding and so every so
often we would all get together and ride on a full moon summer night. It was always a thrill! In recent years I started to, on a couple
occasions, tack him up on my own and ride him by myself! I know, you probably
thought, oh I thought you did this already, hey I am a novice in the equestrian
world! Sara is the expert in our house!
In the end you realize or wish you
could have taken him on one more trail ride or find just one last adventure but
you realize it was too late. He will be
missed and I know we will look out into the pasture only to momentarily feel a
pain in the heart as we cannot see him standing there.
"To live in this world you must be able to do three things: to
love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life
depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go."
- Mary Oliver, Blackwater Woods
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