They all stood to nicker and watch

Not me though I hid in the barn with my granddaughter as my close friends and vet took my 2 year old filly for her last walk. It has been hard for me to get to this point where I can write about it. It was just a little nick by her ankle. Like most young horses getting them through to maturity without cuts and scrapes is near impossible. It looked like no big deal. We washed her up and put some salve on it and repeat. Two days later her lower leg swolled up like a sausage and very hot.  We picked at it cleaned it and started her on antibiotics. Four days later the leg went down to normal size but not the ankle. Off to the Vet then off to the Horse hospital ninety minutes away. Prognosis the infection had already damaged cartilage and was in the bone. The poor thing even with max pain meds was in pain and couldn't put weight on that leg. The next day the time had come. Our vet that we've known since her Junior High days and when she was in High Shool Rodeo she traveled with us and our daughters was there to perform her duties as our Vet. We had a total of three horses to have done that day. Our friends 2 horses that had been scheduled for that weekend were brought out so that all three could be done at once.  From my occasional peeks from the barn it looked so surreal and sombere all the horses from the 2 pastures and the ones in the paddocks stood there and intensely watched. At one point they all nickered out but then as on que they all turned around and went on with what they were doing before hand. With 14 horses and 2 outside horses being trained I really don't think we will have anymore baby horses in the future.The old man (daughters old barrel horse now 30+) will probably need to be put down this fall but at least I have time to prepare myself for it. It is always tough. I'm tired now of the effort to get a herd of broodmares to help with retirement time. The idealic thought of being retired and working with the baby horses to barrel futurities is just not going to happen. The hours of going over breeding programs and hauling mares just isn't fun if I have to spend waking momemnts worrying about a sudden loss. This filly was the the last of a line since we gelded Mojo now that line is done.Well I guess it is time to start working with the 4 yr old gelding again, his injuries have healed nicely.  Later