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As the season changes........................

It's been a long week.....My horse has been slowing not doing so well since the first of January...The vet said he was between 24-27 years old....he slowly stopped eating and had been very depressed....I bought Jeeves about 11 years ago....way before I ever started hiking we rode horses...at one time our family had 4 horses and we rode on weekends during the summer and into the fall...riding horses is how we started seeing some of the Methow Valley..besides from drives in the car....I remember the first time we rode up in the Beaver Creek area, Twisp...nice easy area with lots of views to go horse riding.....We thought we were in horse riding heaven...lots of open space....Through the years Jeeves was always the kid horse...the easy one to ride....loved to go....easy to load....and an easy keeper.....had a little bit of a stubborn streak that showed up when an adult was on him but nothing to terrible....as he got older and our activities started to change towards hiking....the horses were used less and less....but every time the nieces and nephews came to visit there was lots of time spent in the horse pen taking turns riding Jeeves and the other horses.....Early early spring of 2012 we sold one horse...then very shortly after that we lost a horse very suddenly.....our sweet mare Teko...then last October we decided to put down a horse, Dakota....so we were down to Jeeves....I got to spend 4 months with Jeeves all on his own.....it was good times....felt like when we first got him.....he wanted lots of attention....followed me around....always curious what I was doing.....calling out to me when I entered the barn yard....1st of January he started acting very depressed....then slowly went off his feed.....started not being interested in his apples then stopped eating carrots......I called the vet....decided we had some teeth issues that needed addressed.....well the news was worse than that....Jeeves had a failing heart and bad kidneys.....so I had to make the decision of whether to make him continue in pain for awhile longer or let him go.....it was hard...he had lived a long good healthy life....not easy to let them go.....February 13th, 2013 was a sad day.....very very rough....lots of tears....we had good times together in the 11 years....learned a lot of good skills and how to appreciate a beautiful animal....you don't really own a horse...it owns you.....Jeeves was beautiful animal in appearance and in personality.....I couldn't have ask for a better horse to learn and grow with....I will miss him terribly....the barn yard is a lonely sad empty place right now.....



On another note...I am posting some pictures from our last Sun Mountain Lodge, Winthrop snowshoe trip.....since this visit the snow in the area has melted like crazy off the hills and mountains...spring is on the way.....It just might be time to pack the snowshoes away till next winter.....



































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