ANIMAL MEMORIALS 2008
We have been so blessed by the many animals who have shared their lives with us. We have learned much from each other, laughed together, cried together, and taught together. Each and every one of them has their own story to tell of the many hearts that they have touched. We have shared these special beings with the many people who pass through our facility, whether it be for workshops or tours. But by far the most precious memories we all have here are the private ones that they gifted us with. Their heart relationships that they formed with each of us, who think we are their caretakers, only to find out that they are really taking care of us.
Our lives will forever be blessed by the time we were allowed to spend with each of them. They will never be forgotten. And their energy and love will still fill this farm, making it all the richer for eternity. We thank each and every one of them for giving freely, loving unconditionally, and for teaching us the fine art of forgiveness.
Roxy - 4/9/08
Roxy was a very special bunny. She taught much in her life and especially in her passing. She left gifts to the people who cared for her and held her in their hearts. When Joanne, our "bunny lady", joined our team, after working at a local shelter, she brought her rabbits and rabbit program with her. Roxy, originally was born next to Joanne's desk after her mother was rescued from a horrible situation and then gave birth to 8 bunnies. All of them were adopted out. But as fate would have it, Roxy was returned to the shelter in February 2002 and Joanne brought her with her to Spring Farm. Roxy had long term health issues and was never adopted out again. She was the queen of the rabbit room.
During her last few weeks, Roxy began to really fail. But she was very clear that she was not yet ready to go. She still had work to do and she savored all the help and attention given to her by Director Bonnie throughout the night and the staff during the day. She thrived on the love and attention but most notably she gave to those who cared for her. She let them know how appreciative she was for all they did and she showed them the importance of taking care of themselves as they cared for her. As so many animals who have blessed our lives here at the farm, Roxy was yet another example of the power of love and the strength of caring. She leaves behind several bunnies who will miss her and of course Joanne and the people who cared for her so diligently and lovingly.
CHRISTOPHER - 4/2/08
After many years of friendship, we said good-bye to Christopher today. Christopher came to the farm in 1996, already an adult cat, he and his brother Perry were brought to us by another rescue who had no place to keep them. We also were full at the time but it turned out that Directors Dawn and Margot had just built a house and barn on the farm and were looking for a pair of barn cats. Christopher and Perry had been indoor/outdoor cats and they quickly adapted to being the head barn cats with access to a heated breezeway and their very own living quarters complete with posh beds and cat trees. Christopher, in particular, made his rounds not just of Dawn and Margot's place but of the whole farm. Everyone knew Christopher and adored him. He was full of amazing character and charm but he also lived his life completely on his terms.
After a couple of years, another female cat was added to Dawn and Margot's barn and for some unknown reason, Christopher decided that she should live out of the barn and behind the manure pile and that is exactly where he kept her. Many attempts at renegotiating his proclamation that Tabby didn't belong on the farm failed to resolve the conflict. And Christopher then decided that he'd start taking on bigger things. We have no idea if he found another cat or raccoon or fox or what but whomever he decided to challenge had some other ideas and Christopher came home severely attacked. It proved to be life threatening but he pulled through. His days of barn cat though were over and Dawn and Margot moved him into their house. But he lacked a job and grew very bored.
One day, a litter of 6 feral kittens were dropped off at the farm. Hoping that we could still tame them, they were moved up into a small downstairs room at Dawn and Margot's house. Christopher suddenly had a job. For the rest of his life, he was fondly known as Uncle Christopher. He took those 6 kittens under his tutelage. Today, these now adult semi-feral cats, still live at Dawn's and Margot's house, and they deeply miss their friendly uncle, their mentor, and their friend. One of the feral cats told Dawn that they called themselves the purr family. So we had Earnest-Purr, Junipurr... etc. Junipurr, the head female cat of the family, told Dawn a few years ago that they cared so much for Christopher that they made him an honorary part of their family. From that day on, he was lovingly known as Christopurr.
Christopher leaves behind a whole lot of people missing him. He endeared himself to staff, friends, and visitors. He touched a lot of lives. He had been failing from age related issues for several months, but he had survived several near fatal illnesses in his lifetime and was proud at the end to say he was dying because his body was ready to go and not because some disease got the best of him. He was a lover and a fighter and that is how he lived his life completely.
BUDDY - 3/4/08
Today we lost our friend Buddy, a mule who was most likely in his 30's. He had been known by Spring Farm for the past two years when his elderly owner could no longer take care of his animals and those not sold were going to auction. Buddy was headed for a not so pleasant end to his life. At the time, having no room, we arranged for Buddy to be fostered until we could place him somewhere safe. Months later, a safe haven was found for him. Recently, the person caring for him and giving him shelter could no longer keep him. He kept busting down her fences and she could no longer contain him although she loved him dearly. Buddy once again found himself with no place to go. So this time, he ended up here on the farm, with his safety guaranteed for the remainder of his years. And we all thought we would have several years with Buddy, but instead we had only several weeks.
Buddy was not in the greatest condition when he arrived. His teeth were not in the best of shape and he had trouble keeping weight on. But in the short time he was with us, he truly blossomed. He had chiropractic treatments as well as other holistic modalities and he was thriving. He had put on weight nicely and his hair coat was shinny as can be. In fact, just the day before he died we were all commenting at how great he looked and how happy he seemed. He made special friends with the two horses next to him, TJ and Dinah. He was the epitome of a content mule.
So our shock this morning was great when our barn manager Steven came to work and walked around to say good morning to the horses only to discover that Buddy was lying in his stall. At first it looked as if he was just sleeping but when he didn't respond to Steven, he went in and discovered that Buddy had passed away. His death is a mystery to us but we can say it was peaceful. No sign of any struggle whatsoever. We didn't have him with us for long but he touched our hearts deeply. He was huge in stature and huge of heart. He was kind and gentle. And he will be remembered here always.
TASIA (Belesema Fantasia) - 2/24/08
Today we very unexpectedly lost our head mare, Tasia, age 26 years. The pages of memorials we have filled over the years contain lots of stories about lots of incredible animals. All of them our friends. All of them having touched our lives deeply. Many of them suffered tremendous hardships and lives of excessive breeding, abuse, neglect, professional careers in racing and showing, etc. But this story is different. Tasia’s story is not one of abuse, or neglect at all. She was never abandoned. Always loved. Although probably misunderstood at times in her life for her dry wit could often be mistaken for haughtiness, being she was an incredible Arabian Princess after all. This is a story about a mare who gave of herself to help so many others who did live through abuse, neglect, and extreme loss and hardship. This is a story of a lead mare, who led with strength, governed with kindness, demanded to be treated with dignity, and expected nothing short of peace and love around her.
Tasia lived at Dawn and Margot’s barn, a smaller barn attached to their house, on the farm. Yet, when she died, and we walked into the main SFC barn of horses, there was that eerie silence that follows all of the horse deaths on the farm. One of complete respect and silence in memory of their herd mates. Her death was immediately felt around the whole farm.
Tasia was Margot’s riding horse and moved here with her to SFC from Idaho in 1995. Of course the fact that she was Margot’s riding horse got to be a comment of jest here on the farm. Because since Margot moved here and became a part of the management team of the farm, she never had time to ride Tasia. A fact that didn’t bother Tasia much at all. Tasia adored Margot and the important thing to her was their relationship. It didn’t matter what they were doing, the point was that they were doing it together. That was all that mattered to Tasia. And with that understanding, Tasia would watch Margot and the work of SFC with rescuing animals in need, and she took over and helped whenever she could.
The first case was with an elderly pony named Dulcie who was not doing well in the larger SFC barn and who moved in to Margot and Dawn’s barn to join Tasia and a rescued horse named Jeremy. Jeremy had already enjoyed Tasia’s bossy yet healing ways when he moved from Idaho as well. They both readily welcomed Dulcie in the herd and many a day we watched Dulcie and Tasia mutually grooming one another in the sun. With 
Tasia’s help, Dulcie literally began to revitalize. Now in her mid-30’s, she looks younger than she did 10 years ago. Then, in 2003, SFC was involved with the rescue of a horrific animal abuse situation. Dawn and Margot took in two emaciated donkeys and kept them in a pen in their heated garage for the winter. In the spring, we’d let the donkeys out to stroll around by themselves in a paddock adjoining Tasia’s field. One day, Tasia said to us, “you know, they really are cute. They should stay here. They are bonded with you. We can help take care of them.” The head mare had invited them in and offered her guidance. Donkeys Leo and Felix moved in the barn soon after and true to her word, she and Jeremy and Dulcie welcomed them into their fold. They were thrilled to have found their permanent home and Tasia began teaching them how to be little gentlemen.
But it was in May of 2005 that we saw one of the most incredibly giving acts of kindness from the heart of this amazing horse. SFC took in an orphaned foal, only 12 hours old, whose mother died shortly after giving birth to him, and he was badly injured on top of that. Orphaned foals are a ton of work. They need to be bottle fed every 2 hours around the clock at first. And Shawnee had even more special needs as he had deep puncture wounds covering his body and some of them became life threateningly infected. The other problem with orphan foals is that they notoriously end up being behaviorally challenged adults. Humans can feed them from a bottle, but they can’t do the work of the mother mare. They cannot provide the teaching of how to be a horse. As the first few days went by and we saw how imprinted Shawnee was on us humans, we knew his future was at stake to not have a horse mom. We would walk him in an area adjacent to our barn where Tasia and crew could see him. Tasia did not act the least maternal towards him as many mares will do. Margot knew that Tasia had one foal in her lifetime before Margot knew her. But one day, looking over her stall, Tasia was watching Margot trying to work with young Shawnee. Tasia said to Dawn, “This is so much work and Margot is so tired. I’d like to help. He could come live with me in my stall.” We couldn’t believe what she was saying. It takes a lot for a non-nursing mare to take in another mare’s foal. It does not happen often that you can get a mare to accept a foal like that. So much could go wrong. 
The foal is bound to try to nurse and if the mare kicks it could be so much trouble. But Tasia gave us all the right cues. There was nothing to lose and everything to gain. We had to trust her. It took two meetings, both of them on halters and lead ropes, and we knew Tasia was offering up the greatest gift she could to this foal. He moved in and she raised him as her own, with us feeding him of course. Shawnee owes so much to her. He has a normal life as a normal horse now. And he was blessed by not one mother but two in his life. One day Tasia quipped to Dawn. “He grew up good didn’t he? One could say he is a good boy and was easy to raise. Or one could say it took two mares to raise that kid!” Said in such typical Tasia manner.
Today, we said good-bye all too soon to this wonderful mare. She took a fall in her pasture and a few hours later she died, something must have ruptured within her. All of us are in a state of shock and grief. Her first thoughts were that Margot would be ok. That was so like her. And then, she sent us the peace that she had found when she left her body. Incredible peace. So deserving for all the peace and love she shared with all of us in her life. Always opinionated. Always ready to tell you about it. Always the boss. And always doing things her way on her terms. But her terms were always based on love, joy and humor….. and if I may add….. with great class. The makings of a true head mare.
She leaves behind a herd of horses and donkeys that are just devastated. Jeremy who shared her life for 15 years asked “how will we all know what to do now?” Dulcie, said, “I was supposed to go before her.” The donkeys said, “she was so smart and she always knew just what to do. We are so sad.” And the one whose words haunt us the most was from her foster son Shawnee, now 3 years old, who said, “now I’ve lost my second mom. Two that were just as precious as one another. I love them both forever.”
Tasia told me to tell her story in her memorial, “but don’t make it sappy!” I think Shawnee says it best of all, Tasia. We will love you forever. You will be felt in our barn, seen in the 3 babies you helped raise, felt in the wind, and heard in the galloping hooves of your herd. But most of all, you will forever live in our hearts. Most especially in Margot’s whose life you blessed the most. You walked firmly on this earth and you gave far more than you ever took. Not sappy, just the truth.
And, now one last note. Tasia had an incredible talent of opening doors. Doors that were even hard for humans to get open, she could open in a heartbeat. If we forgot to put the snaps on the latches, we’d come down to the barn to find all the doors open and Tasia standing there with a gleam in her eye. There was a sign in our barn from Margot to all those who helped in our barn. It read: “My crafty horse Tasia can and will open all of the doors. Please remember to put the snaps on the doors.” We imagine now in the spirit realm of horses, that today, the same sign has been added there.
MARIAH - 2/9/08
Mariah was an 18 year old Thoroughbred mare who had spent every day of her life here at Spring Farm. Before Spring Farm CARES was born, Bonnie and Dawn operated a small breeding farm. This was the birth of Spring Farm CARES when we realized the tremendous over-population of horses and decided to stop breeding and instead go into rescue. Mariah was one of the 8 foals born to us over a 3 year period who helped teach us this valuable lesson and get us on the track to forming Spring Farm CARES.
Bred to be a race horse, Mariah's path was instantly changed upon her arrival. Born with a leg malformation, it was clear she would never race, and her future as a riding horse was at once uncertain as well. After undergoing a lot of remedial hoof reconstruction and leg splints, all we could do was hope for the best. Mariah maintained an incredible friendship with her mother Gypsy and the two of them were virtually inseparable. Gypsy and her half sister Babe were bred at the same time and foaled 
within days of one another. Babe and her foal Breezie anxiously watched the birth of Mariah to Gypsy. When Mariah greeted the world, it was to the excited whinny of her half sister Breezie. All four of them spent the early days of Breezie and Mariah's childhood all running and playing together. As the foals grew bigger, another Thoroughbred mare named Bo reunited with her herd mates Gypsy and Babe and the 5 of them became a very close knit family. Babe tragically died in 1999 when her leg broke while running through her pasture. The Thoroughbred mares all mourned her passing.
Then, life took another sudden turn for Mariah when at the age of 10, she quite suddenly went blind. Mariah was never an easy horse to handle under normal circumstances. Always jumpy and skittish, she was somewhat of a live wire. Now, with her sight instantly gone, she was a basket case. It was then that we witnessed one of the most unselfish acts of kindness in our horse herd. We managed to get Mariah into her stall, but she refused to come out. Life was now terrifying for her. Her mother Gypsy was in a stall on one side and her lifelong friend Bo was on the other. We wondered if Mariah could survive being blind. Barely able to handle her without her whipping around and totally freaking out, she was very dangerous. The thought crossed our minds that we might have to euthanize her. It was summer and the horses were used to going outside all day. What would happen when Bo and Gypsy left, leaving Mariah in the barn by herself? We knew she couldn't handle it. It was then that Bo told Dawn that she and Gypsy would give up their summer of going outside to stay with Mariah to comfort her through this time. Bo said, "if it means her life, we can give up a piece of ours to comfort her." Unbelievably they quietly did so. As all the other horses went outside to pasture each day, not a whinny came out of Bo or Gypsy. They would calmly reassure Mariah that they were still there with her. They did this for several months, into the winter, foregoing an entire season of nice grass and fields to run in.
That following spring, Mariah told Dawn that it was ok to let Bo and Gypsy back out. We hesitantly tried it and the first day they were out, we could hear Bo and Gypsy calling to Mariah every so often from their field, and Mariah would answer back calmly, and all was well. Mariah never did ever again leave her stall. Life for her was secure and peaceful as long as everything was familiar to her. It was the way she wanted it and the way she lived. In the past 3 years, we watched Mariah grow from the skittish insecure horse that she was when she was sighted, to the terrified horse she became when she went blind, to evolve into a trusting, calm, and loving horse before her death. It was an astonishing transformation to watch. She began to participate in animal communication workshops and she taught people what she "saw" in the world even without eyes and she asked them to look within themselves with a different kind of vision. Many people were humbled by her words and her heart. In her blindness she found new light in her life and grew tremendously.
She is the first of our babies to leave. Her death was very sudden and unexpected and still a mystery to us. Something happened neurologically and she went down in her stall and could not get up again. With Bo on one side, and her mother Gypsy on the other, she tried as best she could to get up. They tried all they could do to comfort her. But after several hours, it became clear that something irreversible had happened and we would need to intervene. The life we helped bring into this world, we were now being asked to help out. Bonnie told Gypsy to call in Babe to help Mariah and she told Mariah to find Babe in Spirit. In Mariah's passing, she left us one glimpse of the new vision she had gained. As we stood with her and she left her body, Dawn felt Babe suddenly arrive. When Dawn told her to go to Babe, the last words Dawn heard from Mariah were, "I see her! I see her!" Dawn realized then that she was free of her body and once again she could see.
The following morning we called in a backhoe for her burial. At every burial, we, with our staff, have a memorial service honoring the animal we are saying good-bye to. People offer memorable anecdotes and we all laugh and cry together. This day was no different. As we all gathered, still pretty much in shock, and the backhoe dug the grave, the sky was blue and the sun was out. Just as the grave was finished a huge wind gust came and instantly it began to snow like a blizzard. A complete white out followed with a driving wind over 30 mph with higher gusts. Barely able to stand at the graveside, none of us could speak our words that we would normally share. The wind was so strong and the snow so blinding. It was then that Bonnie realized the message we were being given. Mariah's full name is, Call the Wind Mariah. And she did call in the wind! Mariah leaves behind a barn full of horses who miss her tremendously. But most especially, her mother Gypsy, her best friends Bo and Breezie, all wish her the greatest of journeys and they hold her safely in their hearts as they always have and always will. And we know that Mariah, who could never run with the wind in body, is now racing with the wind in spirit.
