She was born in the spring of 1982, almost 32 years later I had to say goodbye. She was a pretty young thing, that matured into a reliable partner, a good mother, and finally a sweet old lady who had to retire from doing the things she loved. Most of all she was a great teacher of children.

I was there when she took her first wobbly steps, but I wasn't there to say goodbye when she took her last breaths. It is always hard to see a good friend grow old and pass away before you are ready. You always wish for more time, but at least I can say most certainly her passing was peaceful.

She wasn't a big lady, very athletic, and moved like a cat at times. She stood barely 14 hands tall, with the heart of champion. Her name was Taffy, daughter of Bucky, and grand daughter of Silly Filly. An eclectic mix of quarter horse, thoroughbred, and appaloosa, but she turned out a buckskin with a small blaze.

She never was my horse, I was already had an assigned horse on the ranch as I was 10. However, she was the first foal I remember being born. She was a smart horse that was easy to train, and I can't remember her ever trying to buck as we were breaking her. She just seemed to sense the ability of the rider on her and did her job accordingly. Because of this my younger sister who had struggled with other horses soon adopted her as her horse.

She had her quirks, she wouldn't let you catch her until you yelled "whoa" at least three times, and ran around the pen at least twice, then she would happily stick her head in the halter. Very quick on her feet, and probably could have made a great cutting horse if she had the trainers, and wasn't unaccustomed to dragging 60+ head of calves a day to the fire. Unfortunately after about 10 years of 4H and gymkhana's she became arena sour and had to just go back to the ranch full time.

My brother and sisters grew up as I did, and Taffy got older. She taught at least three of the grandkids to ride, and was the horse we put anyone without any experience on. The great thing about her was she'd never let anyone get in trouble on her. Plus we still all enjoyed riding her from time to time, as she would still give you everything she had.

In her final years she became more of a pet than anything else. She had free range over the ranch and was rarely ever in the corral. The only time she'd ever want to be in the corral was when she wanted water, other than that you'd see her grazing mom's lawn or down at the hay stack. Her last years it was tough to keep weight on her even though we spent more money than we probably should have on senior horse feed. A lot of the times she would be in the way more than anything else but you'd always give her a pet or two, then walk around her to continue on whatever task you were on while feeding the rest of the animals.

I was out helping dad on Saturday planting wheat. I guess Dad had got the call that Mom had called said that Taffy was dead in the corral. Dad and I came home to take care of her, it looked like she had just laid down and went to sleep and never woke up. No signs of any kind of struggle to get up or anything like that, what more could you ask for than a peaceful passing of a fine old girl.

Hate to hear this, but 32 years is a good long life for a workin' horse!!!

Sorry for your loss. Glad you had so many good years with her. She sounds like a good 'un.