A Personal Note regarding Prissy’s Passing
By Doug Mutz |
In the winter we do not clip our horses. Their coats grow long, as intended by Mother Nature, & they are well protected from the weather - even the snow, sleet & cold winter winds. Each morning I bring Prissy & her buddies their feed. She is a bit too short to reach up & into the rail feeders, so I toss her feed into a small feed dish on the ground, back under the shed overhang, away from the weather & the others -so they cannot get design upon snatching Prissy's feed from her. With her long coat in the winter Prissy looks like a furry , over sized football. each day I would call her to walk with me to her dish by telling her it was time to time for us to "kick the field goal & Win the Big Game." I am a big NFL Football fan - enough of a fanatic to have made my own way to more than a dozen Super Bowls over the decades. Not one of those "connected" people, I had to make all my own travel arrangements, rent a car & scratch to find a ticket from some local scalper or a fan with an extra to sell. And as any football fan knows - the kicker is really important! He is not the biggest, nor the fastest, nor the strongest on the field. Often times he is the oldest & the smallest of the athletes on the team. But, if you do not think he is important to the team, just ask The Buffalo Bills. In 1991 the phrase "Wide right" became part of Super Bowl History, when the Buffalo Bills failed to score on a field goal attempt which sailed ....Wide right by a few feet & gave the New York Giants football team the victory in Super Bowl XXX (Super Bowl "Thirty" for those of you who have been living in a cave all your lives). Here at HeavensGait, Prissy & I won the game every time. When I arrived & told her it was time to Kick the Field Goal, she would follow me across the paddock without hesitation. She knew it was her moment. Her small size, her physical "shortcomings" were irrelevant. This small ritual was the high point, which marked the "official" end of my "Start" each day here on our farm.
This past Wednesday, that call to my office was made by Sara to tell me that the vet had come as planned that morning. But, Prissy had suffered another seizure & was lying on the ground when Sara had gone out to do the morning feed. Prissy had damaged her other eye & the results on her blood work really were inconclusive. Might be her liver failing, might be some other problem, but apparently, evidenced by this morning's seizure, Prissy was not doing well. Her legs & feet had (with extra care from our incredible farrier, Gary) held up rather well. But they were becoming increasingly problematic with the passing of 5 years since the last of her leg surgeries. Our vet & Sara both agreed that Prissy was facing a lot of physical uncertainties. With the increasing number of seizures there was a high probability she would have one & could easily succumb to the cold while lying on the cold ground in the paddock in the dark. Sara told me the vet was returning at 2:30pm. so my wife, Anni, & I could be back home on the farm with Prissy & be together when Prissy could gently go to sleep.
Prissy had a great day - When I arrived home & got to the mini paddock, Prissy was energetic & living in the moment, she was being feisty & pacing back & forth by the paddock fence with Sara at her side. Prissy had come into heat & wanted to get closer to our Stallion, Thunder, on the other side of the fence! Shortly later, few minutes after past 3 pm. in the afternoon, under a bright blue sky & in the warmth of January setting sun we steadied Prissy & ourselves. Prissy went to sleep in the bright setting sun, only a few feet from her good buddies & in her favorite warm spot facing South toward our riding ring. Sara's husband, Eric, used his bosses mini excavator (what else would have been appropriate for a dwarf mini?) & we were able to bury Prissy right there in her favorite spot.
We have owned & cared & shared our lives with dozens & dozens of our small pets - cats, ferrets, gerbils, dogs, rescue pigs, dwarf goats, chickens, horses, ponies, far more than we are able to count. And in this past decade we have enjoyed more than a dozen, a small herd if you will, of miniature horses & one very special dwarf miniature horse, Pricilla. Small? Challenged? She never thought so. On Wednesday afternoon she was strutting her stuff, & catching the attention of Thunder, our stallion, who had eyes for Prissy & in this moment thought that Prissy was every bit a mare as any prancing mare he'd ever laid his eyes upon. Prissy lived in her moment & brought us a lot of laughs & a lot of love. At the start of each day, here at HeavensGait, she always showed up for me. There was Prissy, walking alongside me & ready to Win the Game. Wide right? Not Prissy, never any doubt in herself, she just knew she would nail it every time!
Prissy was at rest. She'd endure no more pain. No more cold nights. No more seizures. No infected eyes. She is in a better place. I know all of this is true - no doubts. But, I still hurt for the loss of her by my side. So I dealt with it as I always do .I have always pushed back against these eventual & unavoidable emotional potholes which shake us every so often as we travel our own life journeys. I truly believe that we must look deeply within those sad moments we encounter & find a way of turning them around.
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