Posted by NicksCowgirl777, Oct 2 2009, 03:18 PM
I will never forget the day Delta died. I have lost horses in my life before... I remember we were up our hunting camp, that is a 4 hour ride in on horses, getting ready to saddle the horses up for a short evening ride to the top of the mountain. It was a beautiful Saturday and the horses were eager to stretch their legs a little more without hobbles on. After a while of riding we were looking at the scenery, but as we started to move to a different view delta started kicking and biting at her sides as if she were colicing...
Immediatly my mom got off and unsaddled her (we have delt with sick horses so much we know almost every sign of anything wrong) to relax her and get her moving freely without the saddle constriction. The mare threw herself down and started to roll and thrash around. We all know that more horses die of exhaustion rather than the actul colic. Anyways we started heading back to camp, all down hill, and she threw herself down repetativly. the best we could do was keep her head uphill and try our hardest to keep her going down to camp.
We spent 5 hours with her trying to relax her, talking to her, walking her, and begging her to get up.
Delta was always the type of horse that loved to please us and do everything we asked of her. After 3 hours, she became unresponsive to touch.
Finally my mom told me to give her one last hug and tell her goodbye and say a prayer for her. She was getting worse and because we were 4 hours from the closest vehicle or cell service we couldn't do much else for her. We tried our best to help her.
We had to put her down ourselves, I didn't watch, I couldn't. I had connected with her, I was in her head when we worked together.... she was part of the family. She had so many amazing memories with us and it was the worst thing for her to go. She lies underneath her favorite tree in her favorite part of the meadow. On an aspen we put "Delta's Glade '09' "
Later my parents an I talked about hte whole situation, we decided that because there was something else wrong with her, besides colic, that was eventually going to kill her, she decided it was best she choose where she wanted to pass away. A place she loved to be with the family , a place she would always be happy. She said goodbye to the other horses when we took her down to her tree.
I will never forget that day, the hours we spent with her, ot the memories she made with us since she was a wild 5 year old. She died at age 12, just hitting the prime of her life. Delta was amazing, branded our hearts, and beautiful. A lasting memory and a part of our hearts forever.
Blue Delta Skip aka Delta Born: April 8th, 1997
Died: September 26th, 2009
"A shining star in the night sky, Delta watches over us with many other loved ones." -Queen family (my family, Delta's family)
