Friends For A Lifetime

Today marked 2 years exactly since I said goodbye to my childhood horse and lifelong friend, Sugar. It was a bittersweet morning at the farm for sure. I spent a few minutes in the bottom pasture where she is buried beneath big beautiful trees, along the bank of the river where I used to take her for handwalks when she got too old for me to ride her. Those of you with large animals probably know that a "resting plot" is not the typical way to part with them. So I am so thankful to Mr. A and Mrs. R for giving her a place there!

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Anyway, enough with the sad stuff. I did say, "bittersweet" not, "bitter" after all! I decided I'd do a post today to commemorate her life, and as I started looking back through old pictures I was moved by truly what an amazing journey we had. I would never ever have guessed that the neglected little grey mare with melanoma that came into my life in grade school, would be with me long enough to happily carry around 4 of my children! In fact, I was newly pregnant with Princess A when we lost Sug. So in a way, she crossed paths with her too.

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Okay, enough chatter. Here is a sampling of our journey in pictures. Enjoy!

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I think I was 10, maybe 11 here?

12

13

16

(Somewhere in here I went away to college, came back, and started a family.  And Sug was cared for by a wonderful family who loved her as their own until she came back to me.)

That's Younger Brother in my belly!

It's waaay more nerve-wracking to be on the parent end of horseback riding!

She always took good care of them.
I knew she would.

Big Sis

Little Sis

I miss those ears. They were unusually small and fuzzy for a horse.  So sweet...

...just like her.

Happy trails to you, dear friend.

You will not be forgotten.