Goodbye Joe

Joey 2002

It's with a heavy heart that I write this post today. Yesterday, while chatting with Hubby at the breakfast table, I was waiting for Grandma to tell me she was ready to head out and do pipes. She called, a bit late, and I grabbed the phone and cheerfully said "Are you ready?" She replied "no," and I could tell she was quite upset. I asked her what was wrong and she informed me that one of our horses, Joey, was badly hurt in an accident. "OMG, what happened?" The guys were all heading up the mountain to put out salt for the cows and had a truck named "Whitey" loaded up with horses. About a kilometre up the road the deck of the truck broke through and Joey's leg went through the hole. They didn't realize something was wrong until the truck slowed down and by that time poor Joey had his back leg caught between the dual wheels of the truck. Oh what a mess! After losing an ice cream bucket full of blood, they got the other horses unloaded and both the guys, and horses, scrambled for home.
I headed down to the barn, loaded up with scissors, sheets, tensor bandages, etc., to see what I could do. Joey wasn't in good shape, standing up tall, still in the back of Whitey. My two BIL's and Pops, along with all of us, bandaged him up the best we could. Led by one BIL, Joey walked to the barn, we propped him up with hay bales and waited for the vet. She didn't arrive until quite a few hours later and said there was nothing more we could do. The damage was just too severe, and along with possible infection, his chances were slim.

Joey & Woody 2004 at my garden gate waiting for a carrot.

After the Vet left, Hubby came up and grabbed his gun... I cried, it's soooo hard to see an animal put down, especially when one becomes attached. Joey would come to my garden gate and I'd feed him carrots over the fence. Such a preventable accident, but then one just doesn't think about certain things on a ranch when there are so many other things to be done "at the moment." I know that's an odd statement, and terribly hard to explain, but I know there are people out there who will understand. Today I was reminded again when I pulled into the barn parking lot and saw the trail of blood still so fresh from yesterday. Joey is forever on the ranch at the end of the barn field, free to roam :)

Sort of after the fact but here's a picture of Mike & Doug (my two BIL's) taking the sides off of Whitey to replace the deck.