Miss Bri 05/28/83 to 01/23/08

We hope you enjoy your visit.

You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.

Join our community!

If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Pages:
1
2
3
4

Miss Bri 05/28/83 to 01/23/08; My sweet little mare
Topic Started: Jan 24 2008, 05:27 AM (1,251 Views)
MissBri	Jan 24 2008, 05:27 AM Post #1
Cead Mile Failte ! ! SLAINTE! Posts: 4,011 Group: Members Member #973 Joined: April 20, 2007	What a wonderful life we shared! almost 25 years together..... I held her as she came into this world and I held her as she left - my little princess pony. She was there for me in good times and in bad - always a comfort, always a lady. a few pictures of my special girl... http://www.flickr.com/photos/11240543@N04/...57603788446295/ can't say more as it's a little too raw.....



Chezzie	Jan 24 2008, 05:49 AM Post #2
Thomas H. Cruise! Posts: 690 Group: Members Member #891 Joined: March 17, 2007	I'm so sorry. to you in this sad time.



justmagic	Jan 24 2008, 06:05 AM Post #3
Off visiting Candy Cave, be right back. Posts: 1,378 Group: Members Member #565 Joined: January 22, 2007	I'm so sorry.



DairyQueen2049	Jan 24 2008, 06:08 AM Post #4
DRAGON BREATH. DRAGGIN' BUTT Posts: 7,545 Group: Members Member #385 Joined: January 17, 2007	Oh miss Bri!!!!! It so hurts when our best friends leave us. I can't even imagine how this happened. I wish I could be there next to you - I do know just how painful this is - how hollow you feel. Please tell us some stories about you and she and your best days. I do know this will help. It will never hurt less, but someday it will hurt less often. I am glad you were there for her in the end. I know that by being there you were able to bring her peace.



MissBri	Jan 24 2008, 06:16 AM Post #5
Cead Mile Failte ! ! SLAINTE! Posts: 4,011 Group: Members Member #973 Joined: April 20, 2007	Thanks DQ and Chezzie.... She coliced yesterday, and it was bad. ah some stories... here's one from two years ago Springs First Ride I went for what was supposed to be just a quick 20 to 30 min trail ride on Sunday. We haven't really been out all winter so I didn't want to overface the old bones (hers and mine!). So I popped on bareback after trying to strip off as much of her loose hair as possible and off we went. As we hit the open field I felt her gather herself up, get round as a ball, a couple of staccato dance steps, and a snort and a blow. We started as a nice, round, very much on the haunches, canter. Then she started to lengthen, but was still round. WOOOOO! The hind hoofs kissed the clouds, she flattened out, and away we flew! Silly old mare - give me a clue! Back to a trot, then a walk as we left the field and entered the soft silence of the forest. The canopy of pines blocks out most of the sunshine, but errant rays dance and flicker where they filter through the bare oaks and maples. The paths are cushioned with a thick bed of old pine needles muffling our hoofbeats. The earthy smell of spring is faintly perfuming the air. Onto the dirt road, over the gravel culverts. She's feeling frisky and wants to go. We canter along the straight away, then pick up speed as we near the curvy hill. She digs in, snorts, and powers up the hill, around the bend, a quick sideways spook at a phantom in a boulder, then slows down, all puffed up and so proud of herself. We continue on just walking and listening. As we turn off the road onto the back hill trail she suddenly stops. Plants her feet, raises her head - high alert, high alert! A few steps forward, a blow and a snort. Bri tosses her head, then still at alert she proceeds forward again. Stops, whips her head to the right, a deer bounds across our path and vanishes into the dense growth. OK I'm thinking, that was the cause of the alert. WRONG! She is still telling me something is here. Flips her head, takes a few steps, then stands at red-mare alert again. Around the bend come the riders from the farm below. I wave them by, we exchange a few pleasantries, and go off on our separate ways. Down we travel, the hill is steep here and the footing uncertain. She gingerly picks her way, I'm trying my best to keep from sliding forward (don't forget I'm bareback). Finally make it to the foot of the hill - whew. We decide to skirt the cornfield now lying fallow. See lots of signs of deer and a few coyote tracks in the soft dirt. I miss the tiny cut thru to the road a few times, then finally find it. Emerging onto the abandoned back road we pick up a nice, soft, swinging trot, then branch off onto another old farm trail. Ah this old trail has been improved! The face whipping branches have been pruned back, the mud wallows filled with crushed stone/gravel, and the rusted remains of an old truck or tractor engine have been pushed well off the trail. Guess I should call it a road or farm track now. Up on the knoll we overlook the middle cornfield. Passing by, we head toward the north trail. A very large pine has blown down at the head of the trail. What to do now? Hmm we may be able to get by over there - Bri shakes her head and starts to trot heading straight for the fallen tree. Now this is a good four foot spread, and probably about three feet high - I'm bareback remember, she's only 15H and coming 23. Forget it Bri - Oh SHOOT - I'm just going along for the ride. She gathers herself, sets back, raises her front, and launches! WHEEEEEE!!!! She did it! She did it!! WOW! As I remember to start breathing again, she arches herself up and snorts, then relaxes and walks along like it was nothing. We saunter along about another quarter mile, then I slide off and we just hang around for fifteen minutes. Finding a log I pop back up. No other way to go but the way we came in. So back to the fallen pine - this time we daintily pick our way to the tip and pip-pop over. We stay to the far edge of the cornfield, going all the way around back to the trail with the knoll. As the trail widens to the 'new' farm track we pick up a trot, just relaxing. The trot lengthens into that good old trail trot as we near the abandoned road intersection. OK now, Please, I need to walk! She slows down, complying with my request. I see from the tracks in the dirt the other riders have already passed by on their return trip. We turn off the road and head on up the steep hill. She digs in her hind end as she scales the slope. Emerging back onto the upper dirt road we walk along, enjoying each other and this wonderful day. As the road starts dipping down Bri picks up a trot. OK I'm still bareback, now my muscles are getting tired, and I start slipping, slipping, slipping to the left. I try to correct myself just as Bri tries to help by shifting to the left. TOO MUCH, now I'm slipping, slipping to the right. No hope of recovery now....Bri stops as I complete my unscheduled dismount. Touches me with her nose and waits for me to get up on my feet. I figured a walk would do me good about now, so we just ambled down the dirt road side by side, my arm slung over her neck. About a half mile I climbed on a rock and back onto her back. She reaches back and nuzzles my leg as if to say 'you sure you're going to stay there this time?' We make our way back home without futher incident. I grabbed a cold beer, and gave her a well deserved rubdown and brushing. Our 20-30 min easy trail ride had turned into a three hour 'adventure'. God I loved this mare!



headlesshorseman	Jan 24 2008, 06:17 AM Post #6
You're BANNED! Posts: 4,749 Group: Members Member #871 Joined: March 8, 2007	Oh NO...I'm so sorry for your huge loss...I know you loved her so much...and she loved you too... Let her go and play as she did when she was young..and she'll be waiting at the gate when you are ready to come home...and then you and she can ride the never ending beaches of time.. HH



DairyQueen2049	Jan 24 2008, 06:23 AM Post #7
DRAGON BREATH. DRAGGIN' BUTT Posts: 7,545 Group: Members Member #385 Joined: January 17, 2007	"Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it. We anticipate (we know) that someone close to us could die, but we do not look beyond the few days or weeks that immediately follow such an imagined death. We misconstrue the nature of even those few days or weeks. We might expect if the death is sudden to feel shock. We do not expect this shock to be obliterative, dislocating to both body and mind. We might expect that we will be prostrate, inconsolable, crazy with loss. We do not expect to be literally crazy, cool customers who believe that their husband is about to return and need his shoes. . . . Nor can we know ahead of the fact (and here lies the heart of the difference between grief as we imagine it and grief as it is) the unending absence that follows, the void, the very opposite of meaning, the relentless succession of moments during which we will confront the experience of meaninglessness itself." The Year of Magical Thinking Joan Didion 25 years - what a wonderful lot of memories you have!! Hold them near you, and bring all your friends that knew her together and share her photos and memories. I can just see Bri and her 'rude over that tree. I am so glad you were able to be with her, to bring her peace.



zbar	Jan 24 2008, 06:45 AM Post #8
Is the meadow on fire? Posts: 1,981 Group: Members Member #661 Joined: January 28, 2007	I am so sorry Miss Bri , special thoughts of you today.



MissBri	Jan 24 2008, 07:21 AM Post #9
Cead Mile Failte ! ! SLAINTE! Posts: 4,011 Group: Members Member #973 Joined: April 20, 2007	and another quick ride from Jan 2006 AH, had a wonderful ride last night. Went out to toss Bri a bit more hay about 9:30, the moonlight was glistening off the snow, and Bri was silloueted against the white backdrop of the snow covered field. I stood there a moment then went back in to quietly put on my mountain horse winter pants. Not quiet enough, Tara raises her head, and slowly hauls her ebony body out of her bean bag bed. "Go for a trail ride with us?" I whisper. The tail beats a furious reply. Out we head into the fridgid night air. Grabbed Bri's halter and two pieces of baling twine for reins. The three of us walked together through the field to the trails where I stood on a stump and swung my leg over this great old mare's pumpkin colored back. Oh she was ready. Trotting without a sound through the woods along the silver threads of trails, snow enveloping us as we plow through drift upon drift, Tara bounding along behind us. Breaking through the silvery woods out to the ocean of white meadow. Bri breaks into a canter, then stops, head up, looking across toward the pond. There, three deer stand like lawn statues, then in a flurry of activity, dash off and disappear deep into the woods. Bri begins snorting and prancing, then sails across the field, snow cascading all about us, our wake the only disturbance on this ocean of white. As we pass in back of MMLs, a young Arab snuffles a hello, and Bri arches her neck and strutts her stuff with a big lofty trot and murmuring to me. Into the silvery silence of the woods once again, her soft breathing and Taras tags jingling, the only sounds. As we come to our field Bri leaps forward and we race to the top of the knoll, then stand there and survey our little domain. I take it all in and feel blessed. A good ride with my wonderful girls.



Lawndart	Jan 24 2008, 07:40 AM Post #10
Slave to Horses, Beagles, and Kids Posts: 608 Group: Members Member #911 Joined: March 27, 2007	Godspeed to Miss Bri. and to her Mom. She sounds like a great one, one that will be part of your life forever.



2hsmommy	Jan 24 2008, 07:41 AM Post #11
It'll be an adventure! We're going on an adventure! Posts: 2,036 Group: Members Member #5 Joined: January 3, 2007	RIP MissBri



Sannois	Jan 24 2008, 07:45 AM Post #12
You're BANNED! Posts: 5,857 Group: Members Member #116 Joined: January 7, 2007	OH God I am so truly sorry this happened. Was the Colic sudden? HAd she been ill? Oh girl I just feel so horrible for you! No words can help I know I am crying for you right now! What a wonderful mare she was. ~Sob~



MissBri	Jan 24 2008, 07:56 AM Post #13
Cead Mile Failte ! ! SLAINTE! Posts: 4,011 Group: Members Member #973 Joined: April 20, 2007	It was very sudden. Tuesday night I had brought over a new blanket for her. In a conservative hunter green color. I of course prefer the vibrant pink and purple ones - but the barn owner does not. So I bought a new blankie so Bri would fit in with the show barn. She was fine. The colic started yesterday early afternoon. We released her from her body just before 9pm. We had a wonderful life together - there will never be another like her for me. There will be another, and it will be special to me, but it will not be the same. We had a very special bond - I was there when she was born, first to touch her, I was there when she left, the last to touch her, and most every moment in between.



OTF	Jan 24 2008, 08:24 AM Post #14
You're BANNED! Posts: 3,187 Group: Members Member #476 Joined: January 18, 2007	Oh my dear MissBri, I just learned of this. Your sweet, wonderful Bri! I am SOOOOOO sorry. Like you, I am grateful it was not a long, drawn out illness, but I know you must be in pieces and wish we could all make it better. I looked at your slide show of Bri...my favorites are the beach shot and the one where you have an armload of hay...it is easy to see how special you and she were together. Your stories are heart warming. I'll be thinking of you a lot and wishing I could be there to give you a great big hug and cry with you.



MissBri	Jan 24 2008, 08:30 AM Post #15
Cead Mile Failte ! ! SLAINTE! Posts: 4,011 Group: Members Member #973 Joined: April 20, 2007	Thanks OTF..... I think I may go home now - it is too hard to try and concentrate on work.....



1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)


Go to Next Page
« Previous Topic · God's Garden · Next Topic »

Pages:
1
2
3
4