Baasha scares us

This is only the second time in 22 years that I've been amazed to still have a horse the next day. Our bridge accident was different, though, I thought I would watch him die, not find him dead.

It was so horrible last night, I decided not to blog about it, but then I realize this blog is my journal for Baasha and I need to include it.

We were out late geocaching and came home at 7:30 and I was surprised that Baasha was not standing by the gate expecting his slightly late dinner. I ran out there with the dinner and called him but I couldn't see him, it was a dark cloudy night. I saw something white and got a sick feeling in my stomach. I thought briefly of what *besides* my horse it could be out there on the ground. No, it couldn't be our white tarp, it has 6 heavy stones on it and it's not going anywhere.

I needed a flashlight and ran into the house and asked my husband where the flashlights are. He said "My office" and that was just awful cuz that meant I had to find the key and go out there and look. I was in a panic but I just said "I cannot find Baasha."

I shone the light out there and there was my horse lying flat in the muddy rolling area. In all these years I've never seen him sleep flat out, outside, at night. I called to him and he did not move.

I was certain he was dead and ran back in the house, so glad I did not have to deal with this alone. I told my man, "I think Baasha is dead" and he dropped what he was doing, said "SCHEISSE" and ran outside in his slippers after me. We stood there shining the light on him and my man said loudly "BAASHA!" and Baasha just ..woke up! He lifted his head and looked at us (what to him would be just a bright light in his eyes) and he rolled over and then got up.

I remember I was shaking all over and my knees were weak. I held onto my man and he kept calling to Baasha. Baasha still could only see our annoyingly bright light, so he hesitated. Coming out of a very deep sleep he wasn't moving too fast. Finally we turned around and he followed us to the barn. He went in and started eating his mash and I just stood there shaking and finally got the idea to touch him. I just ran my fingers down his cheek and said, "You scared us."

Then I went in and hugged my man for a very long time. I could see he was exhilerated from relief, and I was full of adrenaline. I asked, "Why was he sleeping like that - in the mud?" and my man laughed, "He wanted to be sure to get really dirty while napping."

I grabbed an entire bag of carrots and went out there and fed them to him one after the other.

I think it's possible that when our animals age, they change their sleeping habits, but I'd never seen it happen until now. Tell me, do your horses sleep flat out at night, in a muddy paddock? I've seen him sleep lying down in a stall at night, but never outside.

This morning the memory of finding his white form lying there came back to me with a sick feeling in my stomach. I ran outside to give him his mash and discovered he'd reached into the storage shed (his old stall) and opened up a bag of hay and made a huge mess everywhere in the shed which I'd just swept out. However, it was impossible to get annoyed with him, me being so happy to have a live horse I noticed he had a twinkle in his eye while he very carefully brushed me with his nose, checking my pockets for carrots.

He cavorted around me on the way to his mash eating area on the grass (mornings I feed it outside so I can clean the stall without him in there). He nickered and tossed his head and I warned, "Be careful you don't get in my space with that attitude!" and I was so happy.

When I took him to the pasture today he looked around and then took off at a full gallop the entire length of the field. Nothing had spooked him, he just noticed that it is turning Spring around here and felt good.

I said a prayer, "Thanks God, for making him run just now to comfort me. It worked."