Yesterday Tom went into town to get more pipe for installing the stove. He dropped Jessalyn off at the gym to watch some old friends compete. I stayed home with my oldest son while Becky was off doing volunteer work for school. I did grapes all morning.

Before Tom left he thought maybe I should turn the horses out later in the day. It had stopped raining for almost 24 hours and the sun was out. The pasture was muddy, but I thought an hour or so of sun and good air would be nice. So at about 2 in the afternoon I went out and turned out the three haflingers. I gave Rosie her bucket of feed while I cleaned the stalls and when she was done sent her out. I had been really pushing the feed trying to get her to gain weight for the winter. This is her just the other day when Tom was putting in Penny's stall floor. I had debated about taking her out the west door and letting her be in the yard. But, sent her out the east door with the others anyway. I went up to the house and was working around the side door when I hear chaos. I heard the whinny of horses. I thought they were playing in the sunshine. But it didn't stop. Then I thought maybe one had been caught in the electric fence. So I ran out and as I did, I saw two of the haf's prancing up the pasture. As I passed to the north of the barn, I saw the other haf and Rosie sitting there enjoying the sunshine. I stood there and watched her for a while. She was in the mud, but in a packed down high spot. Everything is mud here you know. But I noticed she kept blinking her eyes. She was getting moon vision and the bright light sometimes bothers her eyes. But she kept blinking. So I went out there and tried getting her up. Her front legs came up, but the back just flopped off to the opposite side. I thought maybe they were folded up under her and she just couldn't get a grip. So I called for Tommy and he came out and took a lead and tried to straighten her up and pull up as I guided her butt up. I knew it was feudal.

I sent a text to Tom so he could start heading home. Meanwhile, I went out with a tarp and as much as I didn't want to put her in more pain, I tried to get her to move so I could at least get her out of the mud and fall on the tarp. She finally did, but she didn't just lay there. She wasn't struggling at all. She was upright. She just couldn't get her back half to move.

Jess came home and took her out some hay and she was sitting there eating it. I had thought she broke a leg in the mud at first, but then when Tom saw her, he thought maybe she fell and did something to her hip. We know she must be 20+ years old and he thought maybe her bones were to brittle and she did something to them "if" she slipped. We will never know how she got down there. She might have even tried getting down on her own to lay in the sunshine but when she did it herself she might have come down to hard. Regardless, the decision was made. Jess and I went up to the house, and Tom put her down. Now today we are trying to find someone to bury her. Tom called a man named Mark that did work for us a few summers back and also came to take care of Mathias when we had to put him down because of hoof problems. I hope he still can come. He is a very nice, compassionate guy we met years ago when we attended the same church. We don't know anyone else around here with the right equipment to help us out.