Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world.

Special  Treat – Tonia Goslett

January 17, 2007

I am happy to announce another new writer for Storytime Tapestry.  Tonia Goslett becomes writer # 394. Please email her and welcome her to the fold.

May 2005 - May 2006

Tonia Goslett

Magic came to us on a cold February morning, a little worse for wear after the long trip from Texas. He seemed a bit bewildered, not understanding why he had been taken from his familiar surroundings in Texas to this strange Arkansas pasture. He took it well though, allowing himself to be put on a lead rope and led all over so he could become familiar with his new surroundings. He was shown the fence line, and the water tank, and the run-in that would be his shelter. He was introduced to the two mares, and showed all the appropriate submissive responses that a 9 month old colt should in the presence of his elders.

The pasture is cross-fenced, so Magic had his own 3 acres, while the girls had the larger 7 acre area. It worked well, they could fuss, and talk, and get to know each other over the fence without anybody getting hurt. For the first few days, the girls acted out, charging at the fence and then turning away at the last moment. Magic took their shenanigans very calmly, staying far enough away so they could not reach him, yet close enough so that they would know he was very interested in becoming part of the herd. Within a week, things had settled down, and I would often find them all communing with each other over the fence line.

Horses are a relatively new experience for me. I did ride as a teenager, but have never had the responsibility for caring for horses of my own. My partner brought them into my life, and Magic was the first youngster I'd ever known. And, oh, did I fall in love. He was very gentle, and sweet, and had a bit of a mischievous side as well. Every day it was my job to go and take care of the horses, since I have the more flexible schedule. I'd get out to the pasture, and feed them all, and then spend time petting and chatting and singing to Magic. He took it all in good stride as long as I had let him eat before lavishing my attentions on him.

We both spent a lot of time working with him, conditioning him to being handled in all sorts of ways (touched all over, feet lifted, led anywhere) since he was to become a stallion. He was a gem, seeming to really love to please. There was one odd little thing though, every once in awhile, he would take a step or two and seem to be very unstable on his feet. With the next step, he would recover, so we just assumed it was part of him growing into himself.

On Mothers Day of this year, the phone rang at 7am in the morning. It was the man who we lease the pasture from, calling to say that the little guy was down and he couldn't seem to get up. We both jumped up, rapidly got dressed, and flew out to the pasture. A vet had been called and he was on the way as well. When we got there, Magic was down, and struggling to get up. It was obvious he had been working at it for awhile, since the grass all around was matted down.

When the vet arrived, and pulled his truck into the pasture, Magic finally struggled to his feet, though he remained pretty unsteady. The vet looked him over thoroughly and told us he believed that it was Wobbler's Syndrome, a lay term for Cervical Vertebral Instability. What that meant was that an area of his neck was not developing as fast as the rest of him, and it was pressing on his spinal cord and reducing his ability to feel his back legs. He also wanted to test for another possibility, EPM (Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis), a type of infection that can affect a horses central nervous system.

We moved Magic into a small paddock, where if he fell, he could not hurt himself on anything. The vet left us with medications for him, and told us to try to keep him calm. Neither of us knew how to react. There was something terribly wrong with our precious colt, and it seemed that just couldn't be true.

That evening contained a lot of research, looking for any information about this syndrome, and any types of treatment that might help him. What we found was not encouraging, though we did hold onto hope that the vet was wrong, and maybe it was something that could be treated.

The next two days were nerve wracking, trying to figure out how to proceed. Magic seemed better on the first day and was able to get up on his own, but on the second one he needed assistance. For the third day, we arranged transportation and an appointment with a horse specialist.

When we arrived at the pasture, Magic was down, and no amount of assistance seemed to be helping him to get up. We called our vet, and he was on the way when Magic finally got up by himself. He took a few steps, and then fell. We got him up, and then the vet arrived and gave him a shot to help reduce any swelling. Then it was time to wait for the horse trailer to arrive so we could load up Magic and get him to the specialist.

He did manage to stay on his feet, right up to the time when the trailer arrived, and we were trying to get him loaded. Then he went down. For the last time. We tried everything we could to get him on that trailer, and had the vet come back out to see if he could do something to make it work, but it was all to no avail. At some point, it is important to know when enough is enough, and that point had arrived. With Magic's head lying in my partner's lap, he was euthanized.

In all my life, I have never been so emotionally wrecked as I was the day that Magic died.  It all seemed so terribly unfair. Here was this young creature full of so much love and possibility, and in an instant it was gone. I couldn't understand why he had been brought into our lives for such a brief time only to be taken away so tragically.

It has taken months for me to come to a place where I can talk about Magic without crying, and also to start to see the grace in the whole experience. Since the problem he was diagnosed with is a congenital one, his fate was ordained from the moment he was born. At least with us he had 3 months of freedom, of being deeply loved, and of having his very own herd. I am grateful that we had the opportunity to give that wonderful little guy all of that, and will always believe that his spirit is out in the pasture with our girls, running free in a way he never could have had he lived.

© Tonia Goslett

GosCer@aol.com