Paint – Thoughts From The Middle of Nowhere

<center><a class='serendipity_image_link' href='http://www.sarpysam.net/gallery/horses/paint10022007?full=1'><img width="640" height="480" style="border: 0px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px;" src="http://www.sarpysam.net/gallery/albums/horses/paint10022007.sized.jpg" alt="" /></a></center> n n n<center>Paint coming up and seeing what I am up to. Taken 10/02/2007.</center> n n nWhy is it the critters you really are fond of are such a pain in the ass? When it comes to horses the ones that are characters are the ones that I seem to enjoy. I've got calm and gentle ones and they never stick in my mind, just the pain's in the ass. I remember when Paint come on the scene many moons ago. Talk about a high strung horse. He was wound tight but I figured I could make a go of it with him. There was times I wondered though. n nHe was so wound up I had a hell of a time getting him to watch a cow. Because of this I made him my big circle horse. He didn't have to watch a cow that much, just travel and he did that well. One of his interesting traits is the way he tries to bite and kick me when I saddle him. This started a couple of years after we had him. I right away discovered that he wasn't real serious about it. He was playing with me and wanted me to play back. Once I learned this we really started getting along well. n nI've been the only guy who has rode Paint since he has been on the place. One time I asked a hired hand if he could catch and saddle Paint while I did a couple of things so we could get going quicker. Well, it wasn't any quicker. He did manage to get Paint caught finally and then when he tried to saddle him, Paint would have nothing of it. Paint really fought him so the guy backed off. I got there and threw the saddle right on and away we went. I kind of discovered then that not only was Paint my horse, I think I was his human. n nWhy do I talk about Paint? I had to retire him from use this fall. He was getting slow and losing a step but he still really enjoyed riding and working cattle but he had a funny raised spot on his back that I couldn't identify so I asked the vet earlier while he was out here about it. It turned out that the spot on his back was nothing but the vet spotted a growth on his hip that had been there for a couple of years. He said it was a pre-cancerous condition some horses get and most of the time it's benign but can flair up elsewhere. So we looked him over and sure enough there was another large growth on his hock. That growth got really large and bust open and has healed up a little now but is still large. It doesn't affect him but I see a couple of more spots of this cancer breaking out on him now. n nSo Paint is retired for now. This condition doesn't seem to be affecting him and he is in good spirits and running with the other horses fine so I will leave him there. i am assuming eventually I will have to put him down when it really starts bothering him. I am not looking forward to that. Putting a critter down, whether it's a horse, cow , dog or something else, is always very hard for me. I wrap up to much of myself in them and it is really an effort for me to do but sometimes you have no choice. At least Paint is doing well enough right now I can delay that decision. n nToo often, people think that solving the world's problems is based on conquering the earth, rather than touching the earth, touching ground. Chogyam Trungpa