My sweet boy ...

He was a beautiful, gentle friend ... part appaloosa and part palomino.  Just look at him ... all that muscle.  He had so much draft in him that we used to say we could serve tea on his back.  He might even have stood still for it.  He didn't stand still for much though.  If coyotes got in the corral, Tanq just watched him bare his teeth and chase them out of their home.  In the summer of 2006, my husband came home from doing horse chores and said, "Honey, you'd better go out to the farm.  There's something wrong with your horse."  I did go out to the farm and found my powerful beautiful gelding wilting.  There's no better way to describe how he looked.  His head was hanging down and when he walked he dragged his feet like he had no strength to lift them anymore.  He came to me and rested his head on my shoulder and, while we waited for Doug to come back with the vet, his head got heavier and heavier.  I was so afraid he would collapse and I wouldn't be able to get him up.  After a million years (or so it seemed), Doug came back with the vet and he diagnosed West Nile Virus.  We had been really good about getting the vaccine for the virus for our two boys and the vet said, when Polky was back to his old self within a week after steroids and antibiotics, that was probably what saved him.  He was around for another 12 years.  In 2016, we discovered he was going blind.  We were using a weed whip to clear some tall weeds and, when we started it, the noise scared our sweet boy and he nearly went through the barn wall to get away from the sound because he couldn't see where the door was.  We never determined the cause of his blindness but he adapted well, in the corral and pasture that he knew so well.  He always came running to the barn when he heard one of us pull up to groom and feed him.  He LOVED his carrots.  Once tried to eat my husband's orange shirt.  Time passes and we all grow old and so did Polk.  He was probably totally blind by this past summer and had no appetite so had lost around 200 pounds.  He wouldn't take his sweet grain but he still loved his carrots.  Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to keep him healthy and strong.  Doug watched him fail, hoping he would rally this spring and be our old Polk but time passes.  Time passed and we knew that Polk was just tired and wanted to be with his old friend, Tanq..  Now he is ... they are running free without fences and their manes and tails flying in the air behind them..  A smart man once said, "There's nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse."  They are beautiful, gentle creatures and we were lucky to share the lives of Polky and Tanq.  Bless you our sweet boys.