We Lost Tori

 Before the walk this morning I brought Indy's colt and Irish's filly inside to eat their grain and handle them a bit.

                                              Below Irish's filly noticed the cat watching her.

Right after that Mike called to report we had a dead horse at Middle Grove. A big black horse. I left thinking it may be Lily as she is the oldest mare out there and had colic surgery and wondering if she had colicked again. When I pulled onto Middle Grove road I had to stop for a flock of turkeys crossing the road. 

As I was on Camp Big Sky road and at the crossroad of that and Raven's road a mangy looking coyote went running up that road. 

When I arrived I drove up to the top of the summer pasture left the car and started hiking around the lake. It took me quite a while to find out which mare. The body was laying against a tree. There were no buzzards and not a strong smell of death so I believe she died yesterday. The land showed no struggle and the body was not muddy, so I don't think she colicked and even though the body was against a tree there were no marks in the ground to show that she struggled trying to get up so I don't think she got cast against the tree.  It was not Lily, there was no star on her forehead but I couldn't tell which mare it was. In death they don't look the same. I left there and started hiking to find the herd to find out which mare was missing. It took a while to figure out that Tori was missing and her colt was hanging around Joshua, Kyro and Rosaleigh's colt. I called Karin to tell her about Tori and asked if she would help load the colt and Joshua to bring them home. A few pictures were taken before I left to pick up the trailer. Below is Jewel's filly.

 Below are Hadassah's filly and Tatiana's filly.

Below is Sangria shaking her head and beautiful 2 year old Isla.

    Below are Lola, Lily and Jenis.

Above is Irish and below Jenis is as gorgeous as always.

If you would like to see the rest of the pictures click HERE. I hiked back to the car, drove home and took the truck and trailer and started driving back to Middle Grove but stopped first at the Library to pick up Karin. We drove back to the big field and parked the truck and trailer, opened the back of the trailer then I took her to Tori and she too was mystified how or why she died. Next we started looking for Tori's colt. I saw a foal laying down with no mares near by, walked up and put a halter on him and started leading him to the trailer when Rosaleigh started neighing and galloping to us worried that we were taking her colt away. Well that wasn't the right colt so the halter was taken off of him. By this time a lot of the horses had made their way to the trailer and I could see one horse in the trailer. When we got there we found that Joshua was inside patiently waiting to be taken home. I put a halter on him, tied him then found Tori's colt standing near the trailer close to Tatiana and her filly. I put the halter on him and Karin helped get him loaded. When I got back, Joshua and Tori's orphaned colt were brought into a stall, given grain and fresh water and I was pleased to see the colt followed Joshua's lead by diving into the buckets and scarfing down the grain. Once they had finished they were put in the field with Irish's filly and Indy's colt. Later this evening they were fed grain again and Joshua was so kind, letting the colt share his grain out of his bucket.

Joan shared a picture of the waves hitting the pier in Gulf Shores before Hurricane Sally.

The pier was broken up during the hurricane and only some of it was still standing after Sally left the area. The entire section going out into the gulf is no longer there. 

The good news is mom's condo is still standing and looks fine from the outside. Below is a picture right in front of her condo. The dunes that were in front of her condo protecting it are now gone. Mom's is the little blue one.

Tonight we went to mom's house for church and were joined by Bethany, Joshua, William, Daisy, Hannah, Jacob, Joan, Faith, Mackenson, Berlica, Ruth, Fedi, Spark, Rhonda and Aunt Jinnie.

It was a good evening to worship together. I was reminded today that all things were made by Him and for Him. I am sad that we lost Tori but then we were only her caretakers she really belonged to Him.