1980 - 2005
Sage was a beautiful 25-year-old thoroughbred/quarter horse cross gelding. He was my very first horse. My nickname for him was "Bubba". I bought him when he was 8 years old from a stable where they rent horses by the hour. When I was a teenager, I worked at this stable on the weekends. Once a month, a horse trader would bring in new horses to the stable and take away horses that weren't working out. One month, he brought in Sage. The owner of the stable bought him. He was skinny and his coat was dull and he didn't look very good. She put him out on the rent line and he immediately started bucking off the customers and running back to the barn every hour. The wranglers at the stable rode him hard and tried to work the spirit out of him so he would settle down but every time they would rent him out, he would buck off the rent rider and run back to the barn. Whenever I was working, I would try to ride him myself. I got bucked of a few times myself, but when he bucked me off, he didn't run back to the barn, he would stay with me and wait for me to get back on. He would stand there and look at me like he was saying, "Why'd you fall off? We were having fun, weren't we?" After a few months, the owner of the stable decided that she couldn't keep him because he was bucking too much so she was going to trade him off the next time the horse trader came back by. I decided I wanted to buy him. So, I asked her if I could buy him from her. She agreed. So I bought Sage from the stable owner for $1000. Everyone there laughed at me and thought I was making a big mistake. He had saddle sores on his back and he was skinny from being run into the ground by the wranglers at the stable. But I thought he was the most beautiful horse in the world. I had always dreamed of owning my own horse, and now that dream had finally come true. Sage was mine.
Once I got him to his barn, I started feeding him twice a day and grooming him and he immediately started gaining weight. I got him a saddle that fit him properly and got his hooves trimmed and dewormed him and within a few months, he started to look like a completely different horse. His coat was shiny and dappled, his eyes were bright and he was gorgeous. I rode him everywhere. Of course, I still got bucked off now and then, but at least, he would wait around for me to get back on afterward.
Sage was very smart. He knew how to open gates, untie ropes and open stall doors. When it was hot, you could often find him standing on the front porch of my house to cool off. When he was hungry, he would come up to the back porch and jiggle the doorknob to let me know he was ready for dinner. One time, I didn't close the front door completely and he just pushed the door open and came right in the front door! I came out of the bedroom and found him standing in the foyer of my house! That was a bit of a surprise! I guess he knows the value of air conditioning in the Texas heat!
When I got him, he had a bad tooth in the front. It was a nasty brown color. Every time he would yawn, it looked like he had a tooth missing. It always cracked me up to see it because it looked very funny. Eventually the tooth broke off and then grew out, but I managed to get a picture of it before that happened.
After several years, I noticed that Sage's left hind leg was swollen. I called the vet to look at it. He said it would need X-rays so he referred me to a big animal hospital in Weatherford. I trailered him out to Weatherford and had the vet there X-ray him. I found out that Sage had a detached suspensory ligament in his left fetlock joint. He had originally come from an english riding school and was used for show jumping, so he had probably injured it back then. The vet told me that the injury was very old and that there was nothing he could do for Sage. He recommended that I have him euthanized because he would never be useful again. I decided to take him home and think it over. I called my farrier the next day and he came out and tried some corrective shoes on his hind feet. With corrective eggbar shoes on his hind feet, the swelling went down in his fetlock joint, and he was completely sound for the next 12 years. I rode him without any problems. I am very thankful that I did not take that vet's advice!!!
Sage's color would change from season to season. He was a very different color in the spring and in the fall. He would go from having dapples and being almost black to a reddish color to a golden color. Of course, I am biased, but I always thought he was gorgeous no matter what color he was.
When Sage was about 22 years old, he developed an upper respiratory infection. He was on antibiotics on and off for over a year trying to fight it. He had a nagging cough that would not clear no matter how we treated it. Finally, I thought we had it beaten. He seemed to be a lot better. Then, he suddenly stopped eating for almost a month. His weight dropped drastically to the point that I thought I was going to have to put him down. He was so thin that you could see almost every bone in his body through the skin. Working with my vet, we tried everything to get him to eat, and we tried every medication to help him and finally, he started eating again. I managed to get him to gain weight again. He was finally getting back into good shape again. He was starting to look like his old self again. I was even starting to think about being able to ride him again in a few months. Then, one day I noticed he was breathing very rapidly. I thought he might be starting to colic because he was refusing his ration of grain that morning. I called in to work and took the day off that day to stay home with him. The weather was very hot and I hosed him with water to cool him off and I gave him a dose of Banamine and Bute and kept him walking until he seemed better and was interested in eating again. The episode passed and he seemed fine after that.
The next day, his breathing was worse and I asked the vet to examine him. He listened to his chest and told me Sage had pneumonia. His right lung sounded like a wet sponge and his left lung was completely full of fluid and wasn't getting any air at all. He had to special order some medicine for him and I needed to pick it up the next day. I agreed and anxiously waited for the medicine to come in. That night, The horses were standing outside the back of the house as usual waiting to be fed so I decided to give them a carrot for a treat. As I went to the windows to look at them, I noticed that Sage had some discharge coming from his nostrils. I looked closer and noticed that he had blood coming out of his nose. I got very worried. I tried to feed him the carrot and he wasn't able to bend his neck down to take the food out of my hand or chew the food when I put it in his mouth. He was very wobbly on his feet and hardly able to stand.
The next morning I went immediately to the vet to get his medicine and talk to the vet. I described the symptoms and the vet told me that with neurologic symptoms like that it was very likely that Sage had suffered a stroke. He gave me some medications to give him and I went home and gave him the medicine. After about 20 minutes, he was barely able to stand up without leaning against something and blood was pouring out of both nostrils. By this time, he was unable to flex his neck down to drink water and he was almost so uncoordinated he was unable to walk. I knew that he was not going to be able to recover. I called the vet and he told me that even with the medication, he probably had, at best, a 10% chance of any improvement--and if it was a stroke, he would never totally recover. I decided that the humane thing to do would be euthanization. The last thing I would ever want would be for him to suffer. And what I was witnessing was no way for a horse to live.
My vet came to the house and we managed to get Sage out into the soft grass. I had already spent the last 30 minutes with him talking to him, telling him I loved him, hugging him and telling him how much he meant to me and what an awesome horse he was. The vet got his shot ready and he started the injections. He made two injections directly into the artery. Within 10 seconds, Sage just gently went down onto his side. Dr. Reese checked for a heartbeat and it was over. I cut a big lock of his mane to keep. Sage was laid to rest at Pine Hill Pet & Horse Cemetery in Bowie, TX.
In time, I may have other horses in my life, but there was only one Sage.
If tears could build a stairway,
and memories could build a lane,
I'd walk right up to heaven
and bring you home again....
Just this side of Heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.
"When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There
are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food
and water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable. All the animals who had been ill and old are
restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember
them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing: they miss someone very special to them; who had
to be left behind.
They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. The bright
eyes are intent; the eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to break away from the group, flying over the green
grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster. YOU have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally
meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your
hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from
your life but never absent from your heart.
Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together......."
(~Anonymous)
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