The zombie horse... that broke my heart

As you may or may not know, I am having to give my horse antibiotics twice a day for an infection she got in her nose.

Now the stables I board at is gated and just like a gated apartment complex you must punch in a code and the gate opens. The gate at the stable isn’t very reliable.

I had been out with family all day so when I got the meds and was out to the horse for her evening dose, it was drizzling and dark. I pull up to the key pad a punch in the code and the final tone sounds I look at the gate expectantly… Nothing… “Maybe I punched it in wrong” I put the code in again the final tone sounds

Nothing…

Well maybe if I punch in the code and run over to the gate and try pushing on it…

Nothing.

Now probably 20 years ago I climbed the fence to get into the stable when the gate wasn’t working (or I forgot the code). Now at 42? Yeah I want no part of scaling the fence.

I know that I had seen vehicles out on the trail, if I can find where they get in I can drive the Jeep over to the area where my horse’s stall is. So I drive around and nothing… I do, however, find a gap in the fence where I can fit through.

I consider, should I just go home and forget her evening dose? Should I walk through the desert at night on a trail that I’ve personally never been on? Should I go around the fence and get on the drive way and walk that in, even though that is meandering and will be a much longer walk?

Of course, the most logical choice is to walk a trail that I’ve never been on before… at night… in the desert… while it’s drizzling….

On a good note I had a flash light with me, not just my phone.

So, I get out of the Jeep and curse my luck, I grab her medicine and the coffee can full of pellets and strike off into the desert.

Now, I’m not afraid of the animals, if there were any, I know coyotes can be a problem, but I am always more concerned about humans. I didn’t think any homeless people would be out this far and I could probably walk past them, I’m sure they don’t want to be bothered and neither do I. Generally, I think if I stumbled on humans in the desert at night, I don’t think they are going to be up to any good. That’s what scares me.

With these thoughts in mind I walk down the trail shining the flashlight on any bushes I thought looked suspicious and looking behind me every so often. The desert is quiet, and that is something I like about the desert.

Once I get closer to the horses I can hear the cribber cribbing, poor horse. I start thinking there is a gate in the fence and I begin looking for a trail off to the gate, but I didn’t see one, so I carefully picked my way around bushes and avoided cactus. I found the fence I needed and climbed through.

Now that I feel safe my mind wanders back to this whole bull shit operation that I had to climb through a fence and walk all the way back here. Granted it’s not a particularly long walk, thought it would have been twice as long if I walked the drive in.

I start thinking about the night that I had to have an emergency call to have vet come out and check my horse. What would I have done if the gate didn’t work? Would the vet have been willing to walk in and look at my horse? What medical supplies would have been needed, would the vet have been willing to carry that stuff in? Should I complain to the barn manager that the gate didn’t work. People had no problem complaining about my horse when she was sick.

All these thoughts running through my head when I become vaguely aware of a large white skeletal creature looking at me. I stop… I look to my left… and there stands a giant skeletal horse… I stare, I blink my eyes, because that really can’t be standing there!

As I return to my senses I realize this creature is in a stall, its ONE of the horses in the stable.

I walk over to this thing, still not really believing what I am seeing…

And then my heart breaks…

It was a skeletal horse because it was grey and looked as if it has been starved. I don’t usually come down this way and I hadn’t ever noticed this horse. I don’t know if it is a rescue or an old horse. It IS a giant, I think it’s withers are as tall as I am… It had to be 16+ hands tall. It wasn’t a draft horse, but I suspect maybe it was a thoroughbred or maybe some exotic (to me) horse like a holsteiner.

I went over to it and it seemed to be propped up by the fence. There was hay in it’s feeder, making me think maybe it was just and old horse that was losing weight. It didn’t seem to be eating the hay. I gently stroked it’s cheek, it looked at me. I wanted to look at it’s teeth to see how old it was, but I didn’t have the heart. The horse looked like it was going to fall over any minute and the fence was the only thing keeping it vertical.

I felt silly and sad. I wished I could help this horse, of course my first impulse is to feed it, but it had food. One also never knows with something like this, if I give it food maybe that will cause it to colic or founder… If it didn’t have any feed I think I would have probably would have fed it, but there was feed.

I stepped away and went to my horse who lightened my heart, I gave her, her medicine and her ration of pellets.

On the way back out I stopped by the horse again and stroked its cheek and neck. I wish I could have offered it some comfort. It’s at the stable I am, and I’m sure that it is being cared for. I assume it’s a rescue or an old horse in decline, but it was definitely sad to see.

EDIT: I discovered that this horse was owned by an older gentleman that didn't want to put it down as long as he lived. He spent thousands and thousands of dollars to keep this horse alive. It had some sort of wasting disease where it's body could no longer absorb nutrition from it's food. It passed away some time last week.

Halloween 2014 - the year of the Hearse

On October 30^th I lay awake trying to sort out in my mind what I was going to do for Halloween. I am so excited I can't sleep anyway. I had the ultimate Halloween prop, the hearse, this was our first year together.

I decided on a couple of different plans, I had hoped that I would be able to fold myself up at the bottom of the casket, hopefully being completely hidden by the second lid. I could also hide in the back of the hearse and come exploding out… or I could crouch down at the front of the car and run to the back when there were Trick or Treaters.

Finally morning came and then , I kept saying to hubby, "Hey, hey, guess what?" He would dutifully say, "what?"and then I would say, "TODAY IS HALLOWEEN." He would then say, "yes dear, you've told me 500 times today." Then I had to wait ALL DAY for it finally to be the “witching hour” when the Trick or Treaters would arrive. Seriously I think I am more excited than the kids.

I parked the hearse catty corner in the drive way so Trick or Treaters could see the side of the car. I put the purple lights in around the top and on the door. Harvey and Mildred my skeletons were in attendance. Harvey was sitting in one of the camp chairs, and Mildred was sitting in the back of the hearse as she often does at the car shows.

Malice placed many of her Living Dead Dolls on the table. We couldn’t find the usually candy bowl/cauldron this year, so I cleaned out all my sewing projects from the one cauldron and it was filled with candy. We had three 245, piece bags, and we went to the store for more that morning, by the end of the night we were OUT!

Next it was time to pull the casket out of the hearse and put it on the ground behind it. In pulling the casket out of the hearse and opening it fully we discovered that someone had already lain in the casket (with dirty shoes) and that the hinge for the bottom lid was busted, and someone had used a cotter pin to secure it to the top.

So with the crumby hinges, I wasn’t going to be able to swiftly open the lid at the appointed time to scare the kiddies. So begrudgingly I agreed to just lie in the casket and when Malice uttered the words, “don’t be afraid of the skeleton” I would pop up and reach out. I thought this was never going to work, I’d be instantly be made by anyone.

I laid down as the first group came, as I suspected no one was scared. I could also hear myself breathing in my mask, it was so loud! I don’t know how anyone else couldn't hear it! The next group came and lo, I did scar some, one poor little, little kid that was dressed like a foot ball player.

As the night wore on I hit some and some made me as soon as they walked up. I learned a couple new things… When you make yourself into a prop you don’t get to eat candy and drink booze while ooing and ahing over the Trick or Treaters costumes. I also learned that some parents are mean! So often they would tell their kids to come over and look at me and I would pop up and scare them!

Some neighbors that had been driving by wanted to come over and see the set up, they made me as soon as they walked up. We offered them shots and they stood around talking to Malice and Dragon. I was sitting up as well getting a drink. I had my mask up, I saw some kids coming so I lay down, assuming that they saw me.

So I lay still and hear people around me, and then a little boy says, “hi, skeleton.” I assume I’ve been made so I sit up and reach out for the boy, I think I even brushed him. He took off running and made it passed the neighbors house to the stop sign before his parents were able to yell for him to stop! Of course we are all evil and started laughing.

About 8:10pm a couple older kids came by, and they made me of course. They were given a couple big hand full’s of candy. They then said they had to put on a show, so the proceeded to do a choreographed sword fight! They were pretty good!

Malice’s kids were over and her grandson and son in law assisted me with a good scare. They poked me and said that nothing would happen. Then when I heard someone close I sat up, scared a couple.

It was a fun night, and now I feel like one does after opening all their Christmas presents… 365 more days to go until I get to do this again! Ugh... Oh well on to Krampusnacht...