The original Moxie is a big part of the story behind Black Forest Farm, LLC.  I first saw her half sister Voodoo when she first came from Idaho.  I was so impressed with how she looked, but couldn't afford to buy her.  I asked her owner where one could find a horse like her.  She told me Voodoo was a daughter of this nice Quarter Horse stallion, IM Magic who was a son of Impressive.  I asked if there might be other horses at this ranch that would be like Voodoo.  When she revisited the ranch, Moxie was one of the horses she found, Calypso was the other.  That trip was the fateful trip when I purchased Magic and most of the other horses and brought back Moxie. I I finally got Voodoo in 2002.

Only five weeks after I brought Moxie home, I lost her.  It was one of the very saddest days on the farm.

The day started with my dog frantically jumping all over me in bed.  I thought she had to go out, so I let her out the front door.  There was a deer standing in the driveway.  She ran out and chased the deer.  The deer ran toward the horse pasture and jumped the fence.  I couldn't see everything through the trees, but  the then 5 horses ran a little and stopped.  I couldn't see them all and I wondered if they were all OK, but they were quiet now, and I was still so tired, so I went back to bed.

That morning was unusually busy with phone calls, so I didn't get out to feed right away.  At one point I carried my African Grey parrot downstairs.  Her wings are clipped and she can't fly, but that day she flew 60 feet across the lower level, then flew up and hit a glass plate that was hanging above the window.  It had an image of a horse and rider on it and is the only plate that has a horse on it in the house.  It fell to the floor and broke.  I just picked up the pieces and set them aside for the moment and went on with my work.

When I went out to feed there were only four horses grazing in the pasture and no Moxie anywhere in site.  My heart sank as I knew something was terribly wrong.  I got help and we started combing the pasture for her.  We found her across the pasture on the other side of the fence with her back up against the fence.  Her feet were up hill, so she couldn't get up.  You could see she had been thrashing and had pulled herself along the fence line.  There was blood on the non climb fence (small squares).  I couldn't tell where the blood came from yet.

We frantically called the vet and got a wire cutters.  We cut the fence and rolled her into the pasture fully expecting her to now get up.  About that time the vet came.  She wasn't getting up.  He looked very grim and my heart sank again as I somehow knew inside we were going to lose her.

The vet gave her some medication to keep her comfortable.  He said he would come back in a little while to check on her and see how the medication was working.  We tried desperately to get her up.  The other horses came by and looked helplessly on.  The vet came back.  She had made no progress.  He did some tests to see if there was any hope.  He started poking down her spine to see what she could feel.  At one point, the twitching stopped.  She was paralyzed.  Then I realized that in all the thrashing, I had never seen her hind legs move.  At the accident site, she had pulled herself along the fence so far that the disturbed dirt could have come from either the front or rear legs.  He suggested we put her down.  There was just no hope.

I wasn't quite ready to let her go, and I asked him to make her as comfortable as possible and give it just a little more time.  He did so, and said he would be back soon, but if there was no improvement, there was no chance of saving her.

I guess that time was for our good-byes.  I had heard about animal communication but hadn't done it before.  I heard that when it's time to put our pet to sleep, they will tell you when they are ready to go.  This is absolutely the most miserable time about owning a pet.  Making the decision to kill your friend.

I had already brought a blanket out for her head and set up a tent to shield her eyes from the sun.  As she was thrashing, she beat her face on the ground and her left eye was badly bruised.  Periodically, we had to roll her from side to side.  The blood came from her head scraping the fence.  There were no other marks on her underside, legs or hooves.  Moxie had been running up hill at an angle and cleared a four foot fence.  On the other side, she apparently lost her balance, fell over backward and broke her back.  She was only 2 years old.  What a wonderful talent she would have had if she lived.

I spent our time together telling her that she was hurt very badly and what happened to her. I told her that I was so sorry that I couldn't fix her and so sorry I didn't find her sooner.  I knew it wouldn't have made a difference in the outcome, but she wouldn't have suffered as long.  I thanked her for being here on the farm with me, how much I loved her and how beautiful she was.  I thanked her for adopting a little weaning colt and being his mom when he first came to the farm and was lonely.  I explained to her what was going to happen, and that if she couldn't get up, I was going to help her cross over to a place where it wouldn't hurt anymore.  I told her that when that  happened, we couldn't be together anymore and she couldn't be with her horse friends anymore, but she was going to be OK.  I told her that I would stay with her and hold her the whole time.

When the vet came back I held her for the first injection that just put her out.  I again told her I loved her and that she was going to be OK.  I tried to choke back the tears but there was no way to hide my emotions.  The other horses watched from a distance.  The vet gave her the fatal dose and my beautiful Moxie passed quietly to another place.

When the vet left, I just bawled.  The other horses came around and smelled her body.  The little weanling was visibly lost and depressed.  All of a sudden I remembered the broken plate and in an instant I knew where the image of the horse was broken on the plate.  I ran back to the house and picked up the pieces of the plate.  Sure enough, the break in the plate severed the horse's back where Moxie's back was broken and the hind quarters were broken off.  There is one piece that is the whole hindquarter.

I got a chill.  I know all this stuff.  The animals were trying to tell me all morning what had happened and I didn't listen.  I saved the plate.

A few days later, I got to thinking of how I could replace my loss.  Certainly, I could not have this horse back, but I did have her sire, Magic.  I looked on her papers to see who her dam was, Tippys Classy Babe.  i called the former owner and asked if he knew where this Tippy was.  He said, "Oh sure.  She's in a pasture in West Yellowstone.  She has a black filly at her side by Magic and she is in foal to Magic."  I immediately told him I wanted Tippy and her filly and bought them sight unseen.

The filly is Moxii Magic, the namesake for my Moxie that died.  The unborn foal is Cayenne Magnum Magic (Cay) and Sable Sensation (Sable) was a black filly born in 2002.  She will eventually be a broodmare for the family that bought her.  And the legacy continues.  Had it not been for that terrible tragedy, I would not have bought Tippy and Moxii and two local families would not have found their special horse in Cay and Sable. 

Tippy will continue to be bred to Magic as long as she can have foals.  She and Magic share a special bond also.  They seem to like each other no matter how pregnant Tippy is.

My thanks to Maximillion Magic (Moxie) for the love and light she brought to this farm and for the legacy she created .

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