Rest in Peace Sophie

When many people were enjoying backyard barbecues, swimming and other family recreation over the recent long Labor Day weekend, we, here at Warmblood Tack Store, were saying "Goodbye" to our beautiful Percheron, Sophie. 

Sophie was a "husband horse"... she was sweet, gentle, loving, curious, beautiful and had a great sense of humor!  She had this big lower lip that would flop around loosely.. and when she trotted, well, she looked like one of those old wooden "dummies" that a ventriloquist would use in their act way back when.  When she drank water, she would move the water around and splash it all over with that big lower lip until she started sucking the water in ..... then, of course, she would stop drinking and walk up to you looking for love while still holding about a quart of water in her mouth.  As soon as she got near you, then she would "let it out" by rinsing her mouth out.. all over your boots.  The three years we had her we sure enjoyed her as did the other horses.  She went on many trail rides and was very well taken care of her last few years on Earth.

Sophie has had several bouts of colic in the past three years, but the one over Labor Day weekend was different.. nothing was helping and surgery wasn't an option.  Although we reside in Michigan, we would have been about 2+ hours away from Michigan State University where they perform surgeries on a routine basis.. but she wouldn't have made it.  She was in extreme pain and we did the best thing we could for her by eliminating the pain all together.  

Letting go of a beloved animal is such a difficult thing to do.  We were all very saddened by her departure as were the other horses.  Anyone that says horses "don't understand" are WRONG.  Our remaining horses were "off" and really knew she was gone.  Her boyfriend, Storm, rarely left the barn and would only pick at his hay for a couple of days (of course, this started to worry us as well!).  The horses would call for her and kept looking over where she had laid in the grass when the vet was here.  The horses knew she was gone, but they missed her and wanted her back. 

Today, it's now over two weeks since her death and the remaining horses are back to normal (whatever that is with the remaining jokers in the herd), but we are still missing her every single day.  Sophie was a model for Warmblood Tack Store's draft products and she did a lot to promote the heavy breeds... she will always be remembered with fond memories!  Rest in Peace Sophie.... until we meet again.