The Passing of a Great Horse

The Passing of a Great Horse

It is with much sadness that I tell you that we lost our beloved Ranger last week.

Over 25 years ago, my sister, Ellen, was looking for her first horse.  A friend of ours told us about a horse that was for sale at her barn.  She didn't know much about him because he came from the Sugarcreek auction.

His current owners saw him at the auction and liked him, but they were too slow in making a decision and he was sold to the meat man.  Afterwards, they found him in a pen.  It was the wrong pen.  When the meat man's horses were loaded onto the truck, he wasn't with them.  Ranger must have been born under a lucky star.  The women thought that he was a Tennessee Walker, so they offered to buy him from the meat man.

A Tennessee Walker he certainly wasn't. They took him out on the trails, crossed water and discovered he had a fast, ground-covering trot.  Now they were looking for a home for him.

It would be nice to say it was love at first sight for Ellen, but she was hesitant.  He was the best horse we looked at, and when we asked his owners if he had a fast trot, they assured us he did.  This was important because my horse, Cruiser, could really trot fast, and we were looking for a good horse to go with him.  It was another big plus with us that he was willing to cross water.  He seemed like a good horse, so she took the chance.

We didn't know how old he was or what kind of horse he was.  Since he came from the Sugarcreek auction, there was a chance he was Amish.  He did have the Amish haircut of a very short tail and very little forelock.  Also, it was evident that he didn't have a lot of gentle handling in his background.  He was terrified of vets, hated farriers, impossible to paste worm and not very friendly.  He tossed his head a lot in the warm weather.  At first, we thought it was bugs, but we later determined it was his sinuses.  That alone would make him a lousy buggy horse and could be the reason he ended up at the auction.

I always have said that he was "Such a singular horse."

Within a few months, Ellen and I were riding together all over the place.  Not only could he trot as fast as Cruiser, but sometimes he was even faster.  The miles would just melt away.  His canter was even awesome.  We had so much fun out on the trails--they were the best times of our lives.  

Over time, the head tossing became a distant memory.  He became very friendly with us and he really seemed to enjoy his job.  Cruiser and Ranger became best buddies.  Mingo was born the spring that Ellen got Ranger, so Ranger helped to raise him.  (He couldn't trust Cruiser with such an important job.)  After all, Ranger was the king of our herd.

Ranger loved to be the leader on the trail.  The problem was that Cruiser did, too.  If Cruiser tried to pass Ranger, he would snarl at him.  That wouldn't keep Cruiser from passing, though.  Then, we would stop and return Cruiser to his proper place.

Range's favorite game was to slow down and tempt Cruiser to pass--and then make faces at him as he did.  Cruiser fell for it every single time.  

If Ranger ever got worried about something on the trail, he would send Cruiser in front to face it; as if to say that Cruiser was expendable, so he should go first.  Once Cruiser cleared things up, Ranger would take the lead again.  Unless there were a lot of bugs.  Ranger liked to walk close behind Cruiser with his face in Cruiser's tail to keep the bugs off of it.

Did I mention our trotting races?  Cruiser always lost, eventually, because he would start to canter.

They were so much fun to ride together that when Mingo was old enough to go on trail rides, I would take him out by himself or have someone else ride him.  It wasn't until Cruiser bowed his tendon and I had to ride Mingo with Ranger; that we did very much of it.  Ranger was in his teens at the time.  Mingo was a very slow horse, and that is when Ranger learned that he didn't have to go so fast, after all.

Mingo died, and I brought Cole into the herd.  Ranger taught him to stay in his place.  To this day, Cole is happy to follow the horse ahead of him and is even a little afraid to pass other horses.  A few years later, Ellen got Dante and as she did more with him, Ranger gradually slipped into retirement.

And it was a retirement that he thoroughly enjoyed, too.  When Ellen first got him, he was a quiet horse.  Over the years, he found his voice and became the most talkative horse I have ever known--and it wasn't only at feeding time.  I loved hearing him talk.  He made his wishes known--after all, he was the king.

He kept the other horses all in line--particularly Starry.  They would bicker all day, but when Starry went out for a ride, Ranger was so upset that we had to put another horse in Starry's stall to quiet him down.

We miss him so much--words can't even express how we feel, so I won't try.  He was such a lucky horse to escape death at the auction, and Ellen was such a lucky person to find such a perfect first horse.  Those 25 years he almost didn't have were 25 spectacular years filled with exciting rides and tender moments--and they were too few.