IN LOVING MEMORY - GYPSY & KING

THEY CROSSED THE RAINBOW BRIDGE ON 04/24/2005....

We made a 800-mile trip to pick up a pregnant PMU mare (GYPSY) which I planned on keeping from the very first moment I heard about her.... Without ever seeing a photo, I committed to taking her in and keeping her and her foal.
We picked them (Gypsy and another horse) up on Saturday, stopped 12-14 times on the way back to check on them and let them rest, and we finally arrived home at 4:30 am. Gypsy stepped off the trailer, followed me into the stall, started eating and drinking, and not even 20 minutes later she passed away.... My husband and me are VERY, VERY angry, sad and just plain devastated. I didn't know we could cry so darrn much over a horse that we only knew for about 10 hours and that didn't have much of a chance anyway....
Gypsy was a PMU draft-mare, about 14-16 years old, approx. 300-400 lbs underweight, was lame with possibly an abscess in her hoof, has probably never been vaccinated or wormed, and was due to foal in only a few weeks. We are not exactly sure why she died, but due to her condition there were definitely multiple things "wrong" with her that could have caused her death. At pick-up we didn't even know if she could be saved at all, but I knew I had to take her home and try, but we lost before we even had a chance to fight....
We only knew Gypsy for about 10 hours, but that doesn't make the pain any less intense. This changed our lives, and I'm unable to explain in what way. Gypsy and her unborn foal were OUR horses, and I so hope that she knew that she was finally home and felt that we loved her and her baby.... She passed away in our presence, in a clean, dry and warm stall, on a bed of fresh shavings, after eating some hay and drinking clean water.... There was no chance to save Gypsy's unborn foal.
I've never felt so power-less in my whole life. I always knew something like that could happen anytime, but I was NOT prepared for how hard and devastating it would be.
For some reason, my husband and I believe that Gypsy's unborn foal was a boy and we named him "King". Gypsy and King are buried here on our property and will always be surrounded by us and many other horses who were able to get a 2nd chance....

DEEPLY MISSED - MIA

SHE CROSSED THE RAINBOW BRIDGE ON 01/05/2006....

Our Mia crossed the Rainbow-Bridge early this morning.
It happened very sudden, possibly due to a blood-clot in one of her arteries or because of a major intestine problem - we'll never know for sure. Mia was treated by a Vet during the night after showing signs of colic, but the problem wasn't a colic and sadly she couldn't be saved. She died within only a few hours of showing symptoms, and pain-medication made it as easy as possible for her....

Mia arrived here in SD on 03-07-2005 from a PMU farm with a severe injury, which probably happened in-route or while they were loading her. Several ligaments were torn in her right rear leg which caused severe lameness. According to the Vet, she would have never be sound for any type of work, and this injury could have re-occured at any given time. So Mia found her forever-home right here with us in SD.....
On 05-24-2005 she foaled a beautiful filly named "Jessie" - the exact image of Mia. Jessie was adopted to NY on 11-26-2005.

For the past few weeks I was battling with the decision about surgery on Mia's injured leg. The big problem was that Mia would have needed 1 year (!!) of stall-rest after surgery, and I doubted that she would be happy locked up in a stall for so long.... I was hoping for her to let me know somehow if we should go ahead with the surgery or not, and I guess Mia made her decision.

I can't even quite grasp the idea of Mia being gone yet. I hope she's in a warm, peaceful place now, galloping across green pastures without an injury or anything else that would bother her....

Hopefully she knew how much she was loved - she'll stay in my heart forever.....

THANK YOU Mia for touching so many lives.