Nine Fabulous Lives

Last Sunday I taught a clinic, then at the end of the drive home, I got really bad news.

My dad needs to call me more. Luckily for me, my boyfriend was driving, so when my dad called, I picked up after telling him "my dad never calls me, this is not good." The last time my dad called me was when Cooper died.

Stretch, who had been running and playing in the pasture all day Saturday, laid down Saturday night and wouldn't get up. He never lays down. So the vet was called and they gave him banamine and steroids and he still wouldn't get up. He told my mom it was time and she let him go.

He was the best boy

Best little pony club paint (except he was a nightmare to keep clean)

I was, of course, devastated. I was already exhausted after teaching all day and hadn't had the best week at work leading up to the break. I'm still sad about it, but you couldn't have asked for a better life or a better way to go. Stretch truly had nine lives and every one of them was fabulous.

Stretch began his life as a very adorable baby and was broke at 2. His previous owner told a story about how he was show sheened too much before being tacked up at the Cow Palace where he had been brought to be shown in some baby classes. His saddle slipped, rider fell off, and he went galloping around the show grounds.

He then competed in the Junior Hunters until his previous owner bought him and turned him into an eventer. He evented through Training and never made time, so she leased him to me while she bought a new horse with Prelim+ potential.

He was a great novice horse!

When I began leasing him in 2001, I was scared to jump. I had been riding my old thoroughbred who had bucked me off quite a lot. We were looking for a packer to take me around the low level hunters and do pony club on. He was perfect. I showed him in all three rings and passed my C1 pony club rating, all in one year.

After that one year, it was apparent I had outgrown him, though he was ours now and I ended up teaching lessons on him, leasing him out to a client, and then my mom began trail riding him.

He was my mom's horse for way longer than he was mine. He lived at TC's breeders in 2009 when my parents bought their property and then moved to the ranch in 2010 when they built their barn. He lived there for nearly ten years.

Hey I do this on the flat too, Stretch was a saint

He got internal pigeon fever and nearly died several times. It was revealed to us that he had liver disease from the pigeon fever, so he was put on a supplement and special diet. But he came back to riding and I even jumped him a bit at the ranch for fun while my mom trail rode him with my dad and his horse, Riot.

He got a bit neurologic in 2015 and the vet said that the only treatment was steroids, which could give him laminitis and then he'd need to be put down. We opted for it and he recovered spectacularly, galloping around in his pasture, though we stopped riding him just in case. Over the next several years, he needed more steroids (he had narcolepsy and we thought that sometimes he'd fall and hit his neck pretty hard), each time we held our breath and he recovered.

He figured out how to sleep over the years (pressed up against the wall of his stall) so he wouldn't hurt himself. He hadn't been neurologic in a while, I even sat on him once or twice (he loved being ridden) and my mom longed him while he went nuts just weeks before he died.

Not the best dressage horse but then again,
I was not the best dressage rider

Just earlier this year, I saw the vet who had treated him for pigeon fever and dealt with the neurologic stuff too. She's now TC's chiro-vet. I told her Stretch was still galloping around in his pasture getting really possessive over the neighbor's mares. She said she was so happy to hear that and that my mom truly does an amazing job with her horses. I'll be sad to tell her he died, but he lived probably about five more years than he should have.

He was born in April 1991 and we lost him in December 2019, he lived a really amazing life and gave my family and I so much. I'm sad, but I couldn't have asked for a better life for such a great horse.

Jumpers

I think that what I'm struggling with most right now is that Rico is now the oldest horse at the ranch, the one we'll lose next. But I know he's living his best life right now at nearly 24, still running around in his pasture just like Stretch. I hope he has another five or even ten years there because he deserves them. Either way, I am still very happy to be giving Rico the retirement he deserves and I'm glad that Stretch had all the time with us that he did.