Never Forgotten

Unfortunantly we already have a few horses that we miss all the time and will never forget.  We've owned horses for almost a decade now and have had to say goodbye to three very special horses prematurely.  Each one of them was young and went long before their time.  They're always in our thoughts.

Target

Target was my brother's first horse.  We bought him at the same auction that we bought Socks at.  My brother and dad were actually interested in another horse from the same breeder's as Target, a little black and white paint filly, but we didn't end up getting her.  Then, just for fun, they bid on Target and won.  I didn't even realize they had been bidding.  Target was a registered 2002 bay tobiano Paint Horse.  He was honestly, the best horse I've ever met.  He was the easiest horse to train to saddle and incredibly gentle to handle on the ground.  He was a stallion and had one foal.  Unfortunantly we had Target in the days before I owned a camera so we have very limited pictures of him.  Most of the pictures we do have are not on the computer.  Just after his third birthday, Target went missing.  Two days later my dad found him.  At the time my dad lived on a very large, heavily wooded property.  The horses had the run of a quarter section and there was a creek with a beaver dam on it.  We'll never know how, but from what we've been able to gather, Target became stuck in the mud at a part of the beaver pond the horses never went to and had his head trapped down low.  He drowned.  We will never forget him, he was much more forgiving than Socks and taught us a lot about horses and especially how a stallion should act. 

Sisco

Sisco was born the same year as Cassidy.  I'm the one who found her.  Right away Sisco just wanted to be your friend.  She'd rather follow you around than her mother.  She was curious and friendly but she fought the halter much harder than Cas ever did.  She could be stubborn but mostly just wanted some attention.  She was very small but was healthy in the beginning.  However, she came down with pneumonia and despite our best efforts, she didn't make it through.  That day spent trying to keep her alive will forever remain as one of the worst of my life.  She lived only 37 days.

Trooper

Trooper was born the same year as Cas and Sisco, born only one day after Sisco.  Once again I was the one who found him, only moments after his birth.  I saw him take his first wobbly steps.  Troop was born without tendons in one of his front legs.  He recieved injections and had his leg put in a special boot and for a while it seemed to be working.  But after time his leg became worse and worse and there was nothing else to try.  We finally made the decision to put him down instead of having him continue to live in pain.  He was just over two months old.