A Sad Day

Yesterday, because it's after midnight, actually closer to 3AM has been terrible.  But I need to write this because my boy, my Cisco, is gone, downed by colic earlier this evening.

Cisco came to me almost three years ago.  Hero Rider suggested I purchase him to boost my confidence.  He didn't cost much.  He was already 20 years old and had a crooked lower jaw.  Not much to look at I guess.

But he knew his job and he did it well.  He came to me from Eastern Washington, in the area that grew apples.  He hated apples, guess he had enough of them from whence he came.

Cisco could sit idle for a year and yet one could climb on him and he was right there with you, ready to do whatever you asked.  What a gem of a horse!

True he was the little Sargent in the pasture, bossing around everybody else.  But he did it kindly.  And last summer, when a Tornado touched down about 4 miles from our place, it was Cisco who hustled our older Belgian, Sunny into the loafing shed for protection multiple times that day.

I'll always think of Sunny and Cisco, standing at the end of our back pasture, a BIG Belgian standing next to a small Quarter Horse, both of them watching the neighbor's chickens for hours.


It has been raining here for days.  Yet, as Cisco went to leave us tonight the sky cleared and you could see the stars. 

I told him that he was free to go and join the herd of horses in heaven that includes Bosc and Sunshine.  I told him that he could now eat all the grain he ever wanted and run free as the wind. 

And I thanked him for the gift he gave me, confidence to ride.