A very sad day at Tucker Creek

All who have visited our farm know we have a variety of four legged critters.  Two of which are Texas and Tess.  On Monday afternoon Texas Lightning (as was his registered name) was euthanized after being treated by our veterinarian over the weekend.  Upon necropsy it was found that he was bleeding into his abdomen and had a basketball sized tumor around his kidney. 

Texas was 27 and appeared as healthy as a horse half his age.  He is painfully missed by all of us humans but that loss is nothing compared to the loss felt by our dear little mare and his long time pasture mate, Tess. 

It is amazing the role he played beyond just being a great horse--he also helped us to locate Tess.  Tess has always been a bit of a Houdini from the time she was a young filly.  The first thing every morning we look out to see where the horses are.  Texas was always easy to find--being bigger than Tess and a paint he always stood out in the pasture--and that is where he generally was as he did not have the Houdini tendencies that Tess has.  So all we had to do was find Texas and Tess would be somewhere near by as he would stay near her even if she chose to morph herself into the area between the pasture and the creek (none of us has ever seen how she gets over the fence).  Tess would be witchy to him from time to time but he would always be at her side--sometimes painfully for him. 

So it has been a very painful goodbye to a very dear friend.