A Sad Easter

This Easter was a sad one... It started out just fine with feeding everyone their breakfast and decorating Easter eggs. When I went up to check in on Sophie and JJ in the barn prior to my family's annual get together, I found Sophie flat out in her stall unable to get up. She had eaten breakfast, drank, and had over a flake of hay in the 2 hours between feeding and then. I was able to get her up, gave her banamine for colic, and called the vet. To make a long story short there was no improvement and it was suspected that she had strangulating lipoma, which in the 20 plus years I've been riding and working with horses I had never heard up. Strangulating lipoma takes years to develop, but once it causes a problem the only treatment is surgery and that is a 50-50 chance you take for the horse recovering. Sophie was 26 years old and had a great life. Her show name was "Trick Pony" for a couple reasons - 1) When I first got her (and the reason why I took her as my own) was that she had a bit of a wild side. She loved to run really fast and she would rear and spin when she got scared or did not want to do something. Since I got so used to her doing that it almost looked like I had trained her to do that rearing trick. 2) At the time there was a country band named Trick Pony that I liked to listen to. At any rate I worked and trained Sophie so that she hardly reared and she became an awesome jumper for me. She had springs for legs and we had a lot of adventures in the woods and in the show ring together. She was a best friend to me, Shelby (a previous TB) and Jake (TB that passed this Jan.). She was also a friend to JJ the mule who is now by himself in the barn. To honor their memory and carry out the mission of the rescue I will foster a horse or pony that needs some work in hopes to get them adopted. This will happen this summer and I will post pics. Please enjoy some photos of Sophie and Easter. Rest in Peace Sophie. You are with good company up there.