Ember – May 27, 2020
Today marks the end of an era at Spring Farm CARES. Today, we said good-bye to Ember who is the last remaining horse of our original herd. Ember was born here on the farm before we were actually an animal sanctuary. As a Thoroughbred, she was bred to be a race horse. But as fate had it, Ember and four other foals, pointed us in a different direction. Ember was not destined to be a race horse. But she ended up instead, living a life that most horses never get to have. Ember was not really a people horse. While she was friendly and kind and such, she was just not into working with people.
Ember was all about her horse herd. She was a horse’s horse. She was devoted to each and every one of her horse friends. It has been particularly sad to watch over the past 29 years as one by one she slowly lost every single one of them. While we have always had a barn full of horses, Ember really never truly bonded with anyone else outside of her herd.
While today is marked with sadness for the Founders who have watched the entire generation of founding horses leave, it is also filled with joy for Ember who got to be reunited with her herd once again. She lived a good life. She never left this farm until a few months ago when she got on a trailer for the first time in her life to go to a veterinary clinic where she had to have an eye removed due to a melanoma. It turned out the melanomas had spread all inside her head. Life became unbearable with headaches and blindness and Ember could no longer find comfort in her world. So, today, we set her free.
Spring Farm CARES has been guided, loved, and moved deeper into our mission by each and every one of the animals who have resided on this farm over the years. There have been about 120 horses who have lived and died here in the past almost 30 years. They have left their mark on all of our hearts.
Bonnie and Dawn watched Ember be born into this world, and today we stood with her as she left – the circle complete. Life is a precious thing and it goes by in such a blink of an eye. We hold these animals in our lives and say they belong to us. But, in reality, we are only borrowing them for a short time. They grace us with their gifts. They teach us and walk together with us on our journey. And then the time comes at the end of the day when we can no longer keep them in our possession. They must go back to their bigger journey, onward into Spirit from whence they came to be with us.  They remain in our hearts for always. And we are all the richer for having shared this brief time with them.
Ember got to go home today to her herd. We know how excited she was to leave a body that no longer was comfortable to live in. She was met by the herd who came running to get her as they always did when she left the barn. There was bucking and kicking and running and racing. And we’re sure now that we are being watched over by a most amazing ghost brigade of animals.
As the best tribute I could think of to Ember, I wanted to include what was indeed the most important part of her life. Below are the photos of the herd she called her own. May they all rejoice together now and enjoy the freedom they always have shared. Fly free dear Ember. Welcome back home.
