Take the Picture Anyway.

In the past I have taken my horse out during their last few weeks to let them graze the better patches of grass. I stood and watched them, remembering our time together. I took photos, lots of photos and the odd short video of them grazing.

I decided to take a photo each day I took Brat out to graze this year. It's a record of the year, and also a challenge to not take the same photo over and over. Two weeks after I started I'm already feeling like I'm just taking the same photos. Yet I keep taking pictures.

Several years ago a friend and I did a photo day for our horses. She wanted a nice portrait shot to hang on her wall, and I was always up for taking photos of my two. The horses were good - not entirely cooperative all the time, but I kept taking pictures. Digital cameras are a wonderful invention! In the end the best photos of the day, the ones we had enlarged and printed on canvas, were not at all what we had in mind when we started. They were moments where the horses weren't posing the way we wanted, they were doing something else and I had continued to take pictures.

I remember that day's lesson every now and then. On the day this photo was taken I thought I had missed the light, took a few photos hoping one would be okay. Then the sun set, the last light of day came through under the clouds, and I took this picture.

Take the photos. Keep shooting even if you don't think it will turn out. You might just get something special.

The Long Slow Build To Euthanasia Part 4

It's been three weeks since Brat got his Osphos injection, and two weeks after starting back on Previcox. The ground is drying up, despite the frequent rainy days. And in the last week spring has reached the tipping point as things begin to grow again.

Last week green started to appear in the fields of dry, brown grass. Seemingly overnight they turned more green than brown.  A few days ago I spotted the first pale green fuzz of new leaves on the willow trees that I drive past on my way to the barn. A couple of days ago there were a few more trees waving tiny green leaves in the woods along the road. In past years this was the time Brat's winter trace clip changed colour as the dark summer coat grew through the pale clipped areas.  I haven't clipped him in the last two winters as he hasn't been working hard enough to need it.  I kind of miss watching the clipped maple leaves on his shoulders disappear. 

We have had more very warm days than cold in the last week and Brat's breath rate has been higher than it should be. His lungs sound all right, leading me to conclude that he's just been too warm. So today I gave him an apron clip. I'll do more if necessary. I want him to be comfortable.

Comfortable and happy. The next six months may be all we have left.  While I hold that tiny hope for more, I don't want to miss out on what time we do have. The grass is growing, and I have started taking Brat out for a walk and half hour graze. I hope to take him out to graze every day (with as few exceptions as possible) during the next six months. Today we got wet.  I'm sure it won't be the last day we're standing in the rain while he picks out the best bits of green.