My friend, Sue, sent this tribute after the passing of one of her beloved horses. She gave me permission to publish it here.

We lost our family member Tank the horse this morning. He was 14 and I had him for 10 years. He got colic and we had to put him down. Colic can be caused from bacteria. We think he drank the water from the rain that collected in the field and there was bacteria in the water that his system could not handle.

He was given to me years ago after talking to a woman in a bar and me telling her how much I loved horses. When we went out to pick him up he was standing at the top of a large field and when he saw me, he whinnied and galloped in. I stood there with tears coming down my face thinking I hope this is the horse you are giving me, he was. What girl does not dream of a horse who gallops in to see her?

The woman who gave him to me gave me the reason that she did not like his color for giving him up, he was a red roan. Well if you did not like his color then all you had to do was wait for the seasons to change. In Winter he was a medium red, in Spring the sun beat down and bleached his coat white while his head stayed red, his legs were black and he had a white star, we called this his "stupid
phase" because it was very funny looking. In summer, his white funny coat would shed and he became a dark lustrous deeper bay.

He was a funny horse who liked mischief. He would suck his tongue when you gave him anything sweet and his eyes would roll back in head like he was drunk from the sugar. He liked to escape the confines of his field and go exploring. Once he went next door and unlike other horses who would simply look for food, Tank would look for trouble. He went into the neighbor's barn and squeezed all the grease out of grease guns. Then he took all the items that were hung up on the walls, blankets, garden tools and mushed it all together, the old farmer who lived there said he never saw a horse do anything like it.

Another time he escaped out of his pasture and went into a smaller pasture to be with another horse, he then had her escape and they went to Stotville. The mare he escaped with was pregnant and I think he thought they were eloping.

He liked to chew on anything that was left near or in his field, and once he ate the bicycle seat off our friend's bike. Another time I had warned the farmer who was mowing the field to take his tractor out of the field when he was through mowing. Well he did not heed the warning and Tank pulled the spark plugs out of it and ate the seat off too. Wayne's old Ford Festiva had many "track marks" from Tank eating the paint off of it.

He leaves behind King who was his best buddy. We used to call them the two gay geldings because the two of them bonded when they met and have been inseparable since. Anyone who has lost a pet knows how devastating this is. I am just beside myself with grief and thinking what if. We will miss him terribly and be enjoying King for the remaining years he has left.