Hoof Prints in the Heart

During his week at the vet school, Jack continued to look bright and alert. Unfortunately, he never stopped refluxing.  His vet team was perplexed because in every other way, he was doing well.  They opened him up again on Friday and discovered he had developed adhesions all through the mesentery of his intestines.  Eventually, his intestines would be one immovable mass. Jack was euthanized.
It's with a heavy heart that I went to Auburn with a dump wagon instead of a horse  trailer.  No man left behind is my policy, I was going to get my boy.  An acquaintance (a friend would know better) dared to sigh a relief that he wasn't "one of mine".  I wanted to reach though the phone and beat the woman.  After almost 6 years of tending to all these horses day in and day out, spending sleepless nights in the barn with them to shield them from lightning, stopping whatever I'm doing to watch them gallop back to the barn for feeding because the sound of hoof beats is music to me... I'd say he's mine in my heart.
I buried him that night in our horse cemetery.

In good company with Bella, Tommy, Teejay and Chance.

I can almost hear all their hoof beats over the Rainbow Bridge.