The universe is messing with me today. You know how Facebook brings up old posts? Well Shutterfly does it with photos. The ones they served up to me today, were of my beautiful Trakehner gelding, Kronefust. He was already on my mind. Earlier this week I took photos at a hunt — the last territory where I hunted him. At that time I thought he had some stiffness in his neck from a shot. It turned out to be the first symptoms of the blood clot in his brain.
The anniversary of his death is in just a few days and it’s hard to believe ten years have passed. He wasn’t my first horse, but he was a very special one. When I went to look at him, I thought he was the most beautiful horse I’d ever seen. Black Beauty come to life.
Of course, he had his flaws and it took me a long time to figure out his quirks, but in the end we
had such a tremendous partnership. He was a brave horse that you could ride anywhere and jump anything. I felt perfectly safe riding him alone on the trails. He stood his ground when charged by a herd of heifers, and every year he charged down the hill to “raise the muster” and rouse the Lincoln Minutemen when I dressed up as Captain William Smith.
He introduced me to foxhunting and left me with the (as it turns out, unrealistic) impression that it was easy. Hunting was his calling in life; he perked up whenever he heard the hounds, yet was completely under control in a bitless bridle.
I was lucky to have him for as long as I did.
When we have special people in our lives…and horses are people, despite having four legs…we don’t forget them. It was wonderful that you had him in your life. What a lovely horse.
While I’m a scientist and an atheist, still, I am convinced there is something Beyond when we die. So saying, Kronefust is probably when you’ll be around to go chase the doggies.
I hope that all our fur family is waiting over the rainbow bridge! Like all my horses, Kroni fell into my lap in an unexpected way — it was actually one of my clients who found him and I went to try him on a business trip. He was a challenging ride in many ways until I found a job that he really liked, then he excelled at it.