A few days before the auction I checked the online program and paid a bit more attention to this guy:
I pulled up a picture I had taken years ago....
I flipped back and forth between the pictures
and compared each twist and turn of the blaze.
OMG.... the Haflinger Gelding featured for sale is none other than my Doc.
"He lost his mate."
What the heck is that all about?!
I couldn't sleep.
I was so upset.
What could have happened to my dear Pippin?
I had to know.
. We Dreamers drove up to the auction this morning.
We found Doc and had a little bit of a reunion.
I don't think he remembered me.
He didn't greet me with the deep, soft nicker I used to love.
But, then again, I wasn't carrying a feed bucket!
We chatted with his current owner and found out that Pippin and his equine buddies took shelter under a tree last fall. The tree was struck by lightning, and Pippin was hit, and killed instantly. Poor boy - but oh so much better than the other nightmarish images of a suffering horse I had conjured up.
Doc will be auctioned off tomorrow. I won't go. I can't go.
It is so damned hard.
There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about my lovely team of Haffies.... and wish I still had them in my back yard. But, I also know that three years ago, after a lot of soul searching, I realized I could not give the horses what they needed. They needed a job. They needed to be busy. And thus I sold them. Today, nothing has changed.
All I can hope is that Doc finds another loving family who treasures him and gives him the opportunity to bring value to their lives.
