SKEETER

Today started like any other day, except I forgot that I had to work for my son at the post office so he could go to the Dr. Found out he has low blood sugar and he is very ill. It's a wonder he is still walking around. Needless to say, I haven't done my treadmill walk yet nor my Bible study. You see, I forget things easily now and I forgot when his appointment was so I didn't plan for it.

This afternoon our horse of twenty six years is having issues. He has really watery diarrhea and he fell over onto his side and had convulsions. Then he got up and seemed fine for a while but still has the runs. We are going to watch him tonight and see how he is doing in the morning. He seems fine for now.
 This is the story about our horse Skeeter. Skeeter is a half Appaloosa and half Missouri Fox Trotter,(we horse people call that breed a Walkaloosa). We got him as an unbroken gelding when he was one. I was a 4-H teacher of horsemanship and I was able to have horses donated to our club as long as I kept said horse for one year then I could do what I wished, keep it or sell it.

We lost our Skeeter. He got poisoned from some bad hay. We bought it from a different supplier and it had some toxic leaves in it. So we had to put him down. But I will share his story.

When he was one we adopted him through our 4H project. My husband had lost his job and we decided to get a buggy and start a horse and buggy business. When Skeeter was two, we found a horse trainer and took Skeeter there for a few months. Also, we found an old fashioned blacksmith who used old fashioned ways to do his job. No electric and used an old timey forge and hammer. Anyway, he and my husband  Gary, built the buggy by hand. The only thing that was already made was the wheels. It was handy because five days a week Gary went to the blacksmith to work with him then on over to the horse trainer for lessons.They were about an hour and a half from home.

After the first day on the training cart, the trainer told my hubby we had a one in a million horse. Don't ever get rid of him so we didn't. Our buggy business was ok for a while but it cost too much to operate it and pay insurance and feed and etc. We were able to take our own son, Matt and his wife for a ride from the church to the reception. It was a great time. We also did a few rides in town and a few anniversaries and birthdays and special events but that was not very steady and it was our only income so we had to look elsewhere.

The first parade was on the 4th of July and that was 23 years ago when our grandson was born so I missed the parade. but it was worth it.

We retired Skeeter from business and just used him for family things. But eventually he was totally retired and just looked pretty in our front driveway area. He had a good life and we enjoyed him so much.