Disarm.

Brandy - 29 years old

I woke up this morning feeling like I wanted to hurl but I knew the barn would help. 

I got there and when I turned on the lights, the 29 year old gelding - Brandy - was not hanging his head out of his stall door like he does every morning.

Crap.

Then I see his stall is empty and I knew.

There was a note on the dry erase board from his owner who wrote that he was euthanized Sunday evening and that he had a bunch of extra smartpaks that the rest of us were welcome to. 

When you feed these guys every morning you start to become attached. Brandy was a sweet old guy but had hurt his leg last week and he just wasn't going to be able to handle the recovery. His owner gave him a great life, spoiled him and gave him a kind final gift. I'll miss him though, for 29 he was still full of piss and vinegar.

I cleaned stalls in record time and I was going to ride but still felt queasy so decided on a grooming session for Hamps. I'm not sure I have ever seen him so grateful to be groomed!

Leave it to Hampton to totally cheer me up and make me laugh hysterically. :)

When I went to curry his hind legs, here is what he did:

After I removed about 80 pounds of hair, I let him graze a bit.

One of the barn kittehs wandered over.

Have you EVER seen a barn cat so fat?! I mean what does he eat, the local DEER population?

And yes that is me meowing at him. Don't judge, I don't have anyone but the animals to talk to in the morning.

Thank you all for listening to my down in the dumps post. :) I try to keep those to a minimum but we all have shitty days and might as well include those with the good.