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| Discovering Our Visions through Equestrian Services |
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| Jingo |
A Tribute to an old Friend
By Gayle Oxford
The tears start again, and I get all choked up just thinking about what I
want to say about that an old gray Appy named Jingo. A precious friend
who for three decades spent his whole life as a trusting and faithful
mount to Shannon, myself, my children and grand children!
How can a horse’s life be measured? They are not a person, and some
say they don’t even have a soul, so why is it so easy to give our hearts
and care to these magnificent creatures we call horse?
It was a cold crisp night on February 23, 1975. There was a full moon,
and Freckles was giving birth to a long awaited foal. I can remember how
excited we all were. The anticipation is great while waiting for a foal to
come, what will it be? A colt, a filly? What color and what markings? It’s
always a mystery as to what to expect when it’s an Appy foal coming. No
telling what you will get in color if any colorful markings at all!
By Gayle Oxford
The tears start again, and I get all choked up just thinking about what I
want to say about that an old gray Appy named Jingo. A precious friend
who for three decades spent his whole life as a trusting and faithful
mount to Shannon, myself, my children and grand children!
How can a horse’s life be measured? They are not a person, and some
say they don’t even have a soul, so why is it so easy to give our hearts
and care to these magnificent creatures we call horse?
It was a cold crisp night on February 23, 1975. There was a full moon,
and Freckles was giving birth to a long awaited foal. I can remember how
excited we all were. The anticipation is great while waiting for a foal to
come, what will it be? A colt, a filly? What color and what markings? It’s
always a mystery as to what to expect when it’s an Appy foal coming. No
telling what you will get in color if any colorful markings at all!
Well! When that big foal hit the ground and the moon shown bright on that big white patch of a blanket on that foal’s rump, we were so proud! A colore
dfoal! And what a beauty he was, even the vet, Dr. Laub was impressed! Big hopes and dreams started swarming our minds as we watched this big
black and white colt take his first taste of his dam’s milk. Wow, what a show horse we have!
Adam’s Jingo Star was what we named him, Jingo for short. Jingo grew into a beautiful horse, but we decided to geld him so that he would be a safer
horse for our girls to be around. Jingo was trained for western riding and trail riding. It seems looking back now; the years went by so quickly! Raising a
family, and horses at the same time was challenging, but we had fun! Most of our time was spent with the horses and our girls showing, than later trail
and wilderness camping with our horses. We had Jingo’s sire, Adam, who had been gelded shortly after Jingo was born, a half sister to Jingo, Lucky
and a solid colored appy mare Lady. These were our family riding horses.
Jingo was the favorite; he was easy going and always trustworthy with our daughters. His coloration always made him stand out, and where ever we
rode him people would comment on how beautiful he was! Jingo had many trail miles under his saddle before all our horses got too old to take up to the
high country any more. So all were retired to the pasture for an occasional pleasure ride around the ranch. Eventually one by one of our beloved horses
passed away, until we just had Jingo left.
My daughter’s grew up and married and started families of their own. Once in a while we would put a grandchild on Jingo for a short ride. The kids loved
it and Jingo was so patient, never objecting to being brought out of the pasture to be saddle and lead around. He was getting old and gray, but he was
still our trustful stead. Looking back on all the years we had horses, and especially Jingo, we were so blessed to have such healthy horses and to live to
an old age with hardly a health concern. Jingo was no exception!
Appaloosa horses are hardy by nature and Jingo was a shinning example of that. Strong big bones, tough hoofs and easy keeping.
When Jingo became our only horse he seemed depressed being out to pasture by himself. Horses are herd animals, very social and they need and
thrive with company. It was a hard decision, but we decided it would be best if we homed Jingo with a friend of mine. She had an old mare in her pasture
that also needed a companion. We sent Jingo off to live with them. It was only down the road, and I could drive by any time to see him. But still I could not
hold back a tear as my friend drove off with Jingo in her horse trailer.
It was the first time in 28 years we didn’t have a horse in the pasture.
A couple years passed, and my friend, who had Jingo, acquired a couple more horses. She called one day to find out if she could bring Jingo home.
Jingo was not happy about having competition with “his companion mare” and my friend was worried that he was going to injure himself while trying to
be “herd boss”. We were tickled to get Jingo back. We now had gotten several new horses and we welcomed the thought of Jingo coming home! Jingo
was now about 30 years old at this time. We were happy to have him spend his last years with us, where he belonged.
For almost two more years, Jingo continued to be a trustworthy and gentle teacher to my grand children and dozen of other children. Both my daughters
home school and belong to home school groups. These school groups would have spring field trips to our ranch, where they learned about rural living,
sheep, lambs, sheep dogs and riding horses!
Jingo very patiently would give these school children a ride on his back. Many of these children had never rode a horse before. Jingo seemed to know
that this was his job. Even though he was an old horse, he still had a place in life. Many of those children he held on his back had never been on a horse
before. Oh what a wonderful experience for those kids! Jingo held his head up high and strode around while parents click photos of their smiling children.
About two weeks after we had a home school day here at the ranch and Jingo was carrying on his job of “Horse Ambassador”, Jingo had a bout with
colic. A bad case, and he wasn’t getting any better, despite all the effort of our vet, Dr. Laub, (yes the same vet that was at Jingo’s birth!). On Dr. Laub’s
third trip out to the ranch to treat Jingo, (he just wasn’t responding to treatment) it became apparent that Jingo did not have just colic, he had a large
“stone” in his stomach. This is very serious, only surgery can help, and Jingo being 30 years old, was not a candidate for surgery much less making it
through a difficult recovery involved with this type of surgery. Shannon and I had to make the difficult decision to help our dear Jingo out of his pain and
suffering. Dr. Laub said he would call us in the morning to find out what we decided.
Just as God is the keeper and provider of our lives, we are the same in a way to the creatures that are entrusted to us. Sometimes we have to make
difficult decisions about the welfare and quality of life for our pets. When suffering and pain is so great, when life holds no hope for their recovery, a
decision to help them gently move on is the best choice. This is what we believed was the best choice for Jingo.
A few days after Jingo died. I received a note from a mother of one of the children that was here at the last ranch field trip day. She wanted to thank us for
letting the families come to the ranch and ride.
Enclosed was a photo of her little boy on Jingo, all smiles and waving at the camera. They were not aware that we had lost Jingo.
The mother wrote that it was the first time for her son to ride a horse, he hadn’t ever been up close to a horse before the field trip, she was not even sure
he would get on a horse.
She went on to write that she printed the photo for her son to see, and he has been carrying it in his pocket ever since. She said that he would pull it out
of his pocket ever now and then, and exclaim, “ I rode Jingo!”
Of course it made me cry to read the note, but
it was really happy tears. Imagine, an old
gray horse, thirty plus year old in his last few
weeks of life, still at his job, making children
smile!
I don’t know if horses, or any animals for that
matter, have souls. I just know that they have
this uncanny way of making a place in our
hearts. God made all the animals of this
world to be companions to Adam, and he
gave Adam the job of naming them and
caring for them, God knew that animals,
especially pets could teach us so much
more then we can teach them! Perhaps as
ancestors of Adam, that natural connection
with the animal world will always be there for
some of us.
Just as God will provide for those who trust
and believe in him, the animals of God’s
kingdom don’t worry about the past or the
future, they live in the moment, they trust that
all their needs will be provided. And that, my
friends, may be the best lesson our animal
friends can teach us!
it was really happy tears. Imagine, an old
gray horse, thirty plus year old in his last few
weeks of life, still at his job, making children
smile!
I don’t know if horses, or any animals for that
matter, have souls. I just know that they have
this uncanny way of making a place in our
hearts. God made all the animals of this
world to be companions to Adam, and he
gave Adam the job of naming them and
caring for them, God knew that animals,
especially pets could teach us so much
more then we can teach them! Perhaps as
ancestors of Adam, that natural connection
with the animal world will always be there for
some of us.
Just as God will provide for those who trust
and believe in him, the animals of God’s
kingdom don’t worry about the past or the
future, they live in the moment, they trust that
all their needs will be provided. And that, my
friends, may be the best lesson our animal
friends can teach us!
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