giving back loaned wings

It has been a terribly sad week for me.  On Wednesday, we said good-bye to Blizzard, my 23 year old thoroughbred who has been part of my life here for eighteen years.  He succumbed to an unexpected case of lymphangitis, and infection deep in the lymph system, and despite heroic measures, we were not able to turn it around.  From its onset, it was clear within a matter of days that we were not going to win this battle. It was a disease that moved with hideous and cruel swiftness.

The Bedouin, who owed their very existence to their Arabian horses, said "that Allah  took a handful of southerly wind, blew His breath over it, and created the horse. Thou shall fly without wings, and conquer without any sword,  O Horse!"

In England, there is a proverb, "if God made anything more beautiful than horses, He kept it for Himself."

There is great truth in that.  

teaching Sarah to fly, summer 2014

For the 18 years he has shared in my life, Blizzard has unfailingly shared with me his strength, his courage, his loyalty, his trust. He learned what I wanted to teach him, and he taught me what I needed to know. 

And he has loaned with joy to all who were lucky enough to sit on his elegant back his wings. To ride him as to ride the sky.  This week,  it was time to give those wings back.

He raced under the name Senator Blizzard, came to us from Manitoba, competed in Horse Trials and dressage under the name Anam Cara (Soul Friend) and was known to his friends simply as Blizzard.  He made life richer, better.  He will be missed.

1992 - 2015

"Your youth, and his courage,

His strength and his power...

the best Gifts to Man

are the Horse and the Hour.

You asked, and he gave

and was glad in the giving

And the world was your playground

And life was worth living."