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The Day The Horses Left

Blog: #6 of 17 by Larry Wright

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After a long overdue divorce in the mid-1990's, it seemed best to sell my small
Tennessee farm and move back to town. One problem.....I had been breeding
and raising Appaloosa horses for a decade and had a small herd that would
have to be sold. There was a big, beautiful stallion, some brood mares and foals,
and my riding horse, Stormy, raised and trained since birth. How could I part
with these wonderful animals ?

In the end, I asked a close friend, also a horse breeder, to disperse my herd.
She set about selling my beloved horses to buyers I didn't know and would
never see. Within a very short time, she found breeders for all the horses and
a day was set for the dispersal. As agreed, I would be at work, in town, and
my friend and her partner would trailer my stock to her farm. She would then
make deliveries from her place.

When I got home that late spring evening, all the animals were gone. There
were no horse sounds, like I was used to hearing, no feeding to do, no stalls
to muck, no hay to get, no water tanks to fill.......nothing. What a dreadful
feeling of loss....not just of my beautiful animals but of a lifestyle over a decade
in the making. In exchange for everything that mattered, I had a check. No
way could dollars cover the loss.

The farm was soon sold, the cats relocated, and the two farm dogs moved to a town
apartment with me. I put together a scrapbook of my horses, then went about
learning a new lifestyle. Things weren't good....not even OK....but, life went on.
Today other things have filled my life, and I am not tempted to recreate the
farm life. It was a chapter of life, not to be replicated nor ignored.

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