Snazzy

It has been a few weeks since I last blogged, and during that time our family said good-bye to our dear horse, Snazzy.  Before I post anything else, I wanted to do a tribute to her.

(Sorry to my Facebook friends for the repeat.)

Snazzy was thirty-one years old (one year younger than me), and even though I did not own her

her whole life, she has been a major part of mine.  

I have said that losing her is the end of an era:

She was mine in my teens, twenties, and thirties.  

Before I left home for college, got married, and had a baby.  

I gave riding lessons on Snazzy to countless little girls at the barn in Raytown when I lived there with my mom, and she has always been in the backyard of the only other home that I have ever known.  

She was the first horse that my own little girl rode and the best one that any of us have.

Jeremy and I had just started dating when he borrowed his parents' truck and trailer to help me pick her up, and he was by my side all of these years later when we made the decision to let her go.

She made my childhood dreams come true when she had her own baby, Derby.

This painting, done by my Grandma Dixie, is of one of my favorite moments in time.

Some more wonderful memories:

 Snazzy during her racing days:

And, the heart birthmark on her leg that never faded:

Similarities in appearance to Snazzy's world-famous grandfather, "Easy Jet" (from the Western Horseman "Legends" books):

This is a picture that Ashley drew of me riding Snazzy, the night that we told her that Snazzy had gone to heaven.

Good-bye, my friend.  Wait for me at the Rainbow Bridge.