The Green Horseman

The year appears to be FLYING by and things are happening faster now.

In NY here we are in spring. We’ve been lucky to have some amazing spring weather. It has been mostly dry and temperate allowing us to ride outside often. We are expecting some rain this weekend, which is needed after what seems like a month of no rain. I haven’t kept track but the ground is extraordinarily dry right now.

---

I am going to start with some sad news. At the end of April I came home from riding at the barn to find Neeners in distress. I had seen her just a few hours earlier, even seen her poop. After calling the vet immediately and getting them out they ultimately told me they could not save her without extraordinary measures. She was a pony in her mid-twenties. She had Cushing’s but could not be treated (it gave her seizures). She had only just started on antibiotics a few days before for a mouth infection. I still think about if I could have done anything differently to have better supported her (despite knowing that it doesn’t do any good).

What I DO know is that Sassy Neeners McPonyPants had a wonderful life. My friend took her in years ago, underweight but still sassy. In those years the pony has known unconditional love from everyone who’s known her.

Unsure about what to do following the events, I texted a neighbor who was kind enough to come down and help us lay Pony in her final place, a spot I chose right next to Blade on top of the hill. Blade was always the fondest of pony mares.

Happy, the mare with Blade in the second photo below was laid to rest last year in her late 20s. I imagine the three of them running worry and pain-free in a large grassy field.

---

Nahe and Reality must have known what was going on that day. They seemed to have had a moment when they said “Goodbye.” They were solemn but they have been closer than ever since then.

Many days I look out and can see Reality and Nahe laying together in the grass. Or they are side by side grazing next to each other.

---

---

We have passed through spring and the grief of losing Neeners.

Now we enter into summer. We’ve hung the curtains to the run-in shed. Together Nahe and I are convincing Reality that the curtains won’t eat her.

Nahe is unfortunately already experiencing his usual seasonal allergies. With the help of the curtains, he has a place to go to stay cooler and with fewer bugs. Soon we will also have a fan to move the air inside to further keep the bugs off of him. He also wears fly boots, a sheet, and a mask.