Amy's Skylight (Sally) 1984-2011

Sally came to us in 2002 - A beautiful 18 year old Sorrel AQHA mare. She was a gift from a wonderful friend and our first horse here at the farm. She was the horse our children learned to ride on. She was so patient with them: Gentle enough to be a teacher, with just enough spunk to keep it fun. In her earlier life she had been a barrel racer and even at 18 she could fly! Robin entered her in Western Pleasure and Trail the year after we got her. We worked for months at these disciplines that Robin or Sally had never participated in. She was smart and a fast learner, so before long she was flawlessly side-stepping on cue, changing leads on cue, backing up, crossing hazards, allowing Robin to enter through gates mounted and the other things Western Pleasure and Trail disciplines require. That is, until she got to the show ring. At that point everything we had been working on for months went out the window and Sally completely reverted to her Barrel Racing days. As far as she was concerned, she was there for one thing only - to run as fast as possible! We knew we were in trouble when, while Robin tried to pass though the gate mounted, Sally finally got frustrated enough to push the gate closed herself. The crowd got a big kick out of that one.

Sally loved children and was always our go-to mount when families would visit us with kids interested in their first horse back ride. Few things gives me more pleasure than that, but I think Sally enjoyed it even more. She also has given us some wonderful memories of family rides when the kids were young. I'm so thankful for those times.

A few weeks ago our precious 27 year old Sally (that's 81 in human years) called it quits. She'd been losing weight for months despite our best attempts to keep it on. A few weeks before she started losing her hair and she finally laid down and wouldn't get up. I went out and pet on her for a while and we had a good talk, like we have so many times before. She's been somewhat of a therapist for me these past few years. I could tell her anything and she'd always keep it to herself. That day I told her how blessed we were to have her as a part of our family. How many great memories she's left us with and how we'll never forget her. I called the vet and asked him to come put her down, but he didn't have enough medicine to do so. He encouraged me to let things happen naturally and assured me she wasn't suffering. The next morning she was back up! I laughed and told the kids she must have overheard my conversation with the vet! We were thankful she was back up and moving around, but we knew the writing was on the wall and it was just a matter of time.

Wednesday, while we were in Alabama at a conference, Sally laid down for good. I'm going to miss her greatly. Her registered name was Amy's skylight. I don't really know who Amy is, but if you're reading this I'd like you to know what an incredible blessing your skylight was to me!