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.