This morning, 28-yr-old Judy joined her sister, Josie, in greener pastures. Together their entire lives, Judy seemed to do ok after we said goodbye to Josie in late July, and became friends with Dex and Lily, but the heat and humidity was causing her COPD to flare up. Losing Dex last week seemed to be the final straw and Judy went downhill fast as well. We are grateful that we could be there and she wasn't alone, and we were able to contact her previous owner who loved them dearly and allow her to say her goodbyes over the phone.
Judy was the quieter sister, always taking care of Josie, and absolutely a great horse to have around. She liked to be difficult about her meds for her breathing, and a pain about getting trimmed, but for the most part was just a quiet, easy part of the farm. It's hard to think of her and not think of Josie, and these past six weeks have been difficult seeing her without her sister - but we are glad she made a couple of friends to hang out with anyway. To be honest, we aren't surprised that her body failed. Horses absolutely have bonds and friendships and spending every day of your entire life with your full sister - and a LONG life at that - and then losing that sister can be hard to get over. We're grateful their previous owner entrusted us with them when their health needs required the environment and attention we could give, but also our heart breaks for her with the loss of two beloved friends.
We know Josie was there to greet her, and probably Dex, and we are confident those three old ladies are causing trouble in those greener pastures in the sky. But man, will they all be missed.
As we said when we said goodbye to Dex, this is a hard, horrible year, to be expected with so many horses between 25-40 years old, but can we just be done with this year? We knew we would likely be saying goodbye to Judy yet this fall, but how about a break? We could all use it.