Sunday Stills Challenge~emotions~Jan 17 2010

Beauty was always so inquisitive and one day I brought up a bag of carrots for the horses. This was Beauty's reaction to them. I'll let you feel your emotions while viewing these pics. Sunday Stills Challenge for January 17, 2010.

Beauty in January, 2009~Camera Critters 011610

I found another website this morning dedicated to another woman's horse that she lost. Apparently I'm not the only blogger to do this. I do it to help keep Beauty's memory alive. I actually forgot I had these photos, which I took in January of 2009. I was going through the photos on my desktop computer, which I recently got back from the shop. It crashed in December and I was terrified that I'd lost all my pictures, but it just needed a RAM update! PHEW! My goal this weekend is to back up all my photos onto an external hard drive. Anyway, these are pics of both Gigondas and Beauty at play in the arena. Beauty was so playful and full of life. It is hard to go up to the ranch and not see here there...I still miss her every day! She had completed her trail training and was a nice, calm trail horse. My cousin trained her and had taken her out on the trail a few times and I'm sure Beauty would have been as competent as any of Valerie's horses, which she takes out on trails at least once a week. Valerie rotates them (she has 4 horses herself), so that they each get a turn out on the trails here in the desert and then, in the summer, up in the mountains. Camera Critters for January 16, 2010

Beauty and I, 2008

No, I haven't forgotten my sweet Beauty. My desktop crashed and I'm having to use hubby's laptop and he doesn't have a lot of my photos on it. Here are some pics of Beauty and I, from 2008. She certainly did live up to her name! She WAS a beautiful mare, not only physically, but also mentally. She was calm, patient, trusting, and confident. She was wonderful, especially for me, as a beginning horse owner. She was everything I could have wanted in a horse. I miss her every day.

Beauty's first saddle~Camera Critters 110709

I had a couple of trainers with Beauty. Her first trainer was Angi Keitel, who is an excellent horsewoman and trainer and trains mustangs. She has been in the Extreme Mustang Challenge for about 3 years now and always does very well with her mustangs. THANK YOU, Angi! Anyway, Angi was Beauty's first trainer. Beauty was untrained when we got her off a slaughter feedlot in WA state, as a two year old. She was such a beautiful mare and had such a wonderful, calm personality, that Angi didn't think it would take much to saddle and then ride her. She was right. Beauty gave a couple of bucks, some kicks, and ran around the round pen, then stopped, faced Angi, let out a sigh, and that was it! My cousin, Valerie, took over her training here in Southern California when we moved the entire herd closer to us and she took Beauty out for 9 months of training. HA! I almost didn't get her back! Valerie fell in LOVE with her, saddle broke her, and took her out on trails. Beauty was curious, intelligent, and calm. She would have been the perfect horse for me with my bad back as she didn't spook. But, alas, nature intervened and I lost Beauty. But, here are some pics of the day that Angi saddle broke her a couple of years ago. Camera Critters for November 7, 2009. I miss her every day.

Beauty at play~Camera Critters October 24, 2009

Beauty was so full of life and enjoyed EVERYTHING! She especially enjoyed going down to the arena and kicking up her heels. On this day Sunni was with her and she chased him ALL OVER! I managed to capture this shot of her at play. I miss her every day and I still can't understand why she died. I do picture her in fields of green grass, far from the slaughter feedlot which I rescued her from. She was a WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL horse and companion. RIP, my sweet one.

Beauty having fun~Camera Critters for 100309

I remember how Beauty used to love to get into the arena and RUN! I had several people tell me she looked like an appendix QH. I don't know her history or breeding as I found her on an online rescue organization, now defunct, up in Washington state on a killer buyer's feedlot. Imagine Beauty on a KB's feedlot! Nobody obviously assessed her. If they had, they would have seen what an obvious gem she was~! She had a great personality, she was intelligent, willing, and loving. It makes me wonder how many other "Beauties" are on feedlots today. Please, if you can, support the horse rescue of your choice and give another horse like Beauty a chance to live a decent life instead of experiencing the horror of a trip to slaughter. The other horse I rescued off that feedlot, Gigondas, I am now training for riding. She, too, was dumped and she is a beautiful red thoroughbred. Camera Critters for October 3, 2009.

Confession 100209

Beauty's death was so unexpected and sudden. I never got to say goodbye to her. Two days before she died, my ferrier came over and did all the horses, including Beauty. I remember he got tired and gave her a couple of thumps. I thought, "Don't do that to my Beauty!!!", but he did. The poor guy had just spent an HOUR trying to get Sunni to stand still, with no success, and he was tired. I didn't see her the next day and the following day, when I drove up to the ranch early one morning, she was dead. Gone. She laid on her side and never got up. No thrashing marks. It appears she got cast, tried to get up, and hit her head on the metal pipe in the corral. That was it. She was gone. I feel so bad that I never got to hug her again, I never got to smell her, or greet her. I never got to hear her nicker. I'm so sorry, my Beauty. I still miss you every day. There is one empty corral at the ranch now and I'm thinking about rescuing another horse, like Beauty. That's all for now. 100109