Jessie Anne born June 6, 1999... died March 1, 2022

 Tragedy struck the farm on the last day of February. Jessie Anne colicked. I walked her as I had done with her two years ago and she came out of it then. But not this time. So I called the vet who came out and did what she could. Although Jessie seemed a little better in the morning, it did not last. We took her, at my vet's recommendation, to the Oregon State University veterinary teaching hospital in Corvallis. The news was not good. She most likely had what apparently is common in middle-aged and older horses: a strangulating lipoma. And the blood and other work-ups did not look good. They recommended euthanasia. And so my beautiful palomino mare is gone. Her daughter Nightingale has been devastated, but is gradually getting used to having to pal around with Mr. Smith instead of her mom.

Jessie Anne was a very sweet tempered horse, always willing to do whatever was asked of her. I miss her terribly. I thought the best way to memorialize her is with a few previous posts from this blog.

 Polly, Jessie Anne's mom, was an older registered Morgan mare when she came to us from friends to be company for Mr. Smith. Polly was much more than Mr. Smith's companion. She took care of whoever was on her back, no matter their level of experience.

 


And she gave us Jessie Anne, my first palomino. That was in 1999, before I started this blog. Someday maybe I'll tell the story of my coming off Mr. Smith and landing in the hospital for a week with a partially collapsed lung... missing Jessie Anne's birth. (Not Mr. Smith's fault... rather my own recklessness.) 

The reason I have this photo of Jessie Anne on the day she was born is because my dad drove here from his ranch two hours away to take photos of her, drove back to Salem an hour away to get them developed (this was before film-less cameras), then to McMinnville to the hospital to give me photos of my new baby on the day she was born. He knew I was devastated to miss her birth. Daughter-in-law Jessica had talked my husband, a non-horse person, through the birth over the phone.

 The following photos and captions are mostly from 2012...

Polly's daughter Jessie Anne is a sweet, gentle soul, and anxious to please whether you're riding her or on the ground.

Her daughter, however, has a different personality. She loves people, so long as they are petting her and admiring her, but she has not yet decided that the person on her back is in charge of where she should go or how fast. Nightingale, I think, was allowed to get away with murder by her sweet mother, Jessie Anne. She lets me know by her singing neigh if I'm five minutes late with her meal. Or if she wants out of the paddock *now* to graze.

But she is a beauty...

In this post, Polly, Mr. Smith, and Jessie Anne give summer visitors rides:

https://lindafink.blogspot.com/2010/07/summers-on-farm-always-bring-city.html

 

 

 

 

 June 2020:  Jessie Anne was being closely attended by a family of Brown-headed Cowbirds. They happily gobble up all the insects Jessie Anne stirs up for them. I'm sure she's happy to have them do that.

 

 

 

 

September 2020 with daughter Nightingale

 

 May 2021... perhaps a foreshadowing of trouble to come... "...On the morning of the 20th, I went out to feed the horses and found Jessie Anne down, unable to rise, with her back legs on the wrong side of a pillar so when she tried to stand her legs crashed into the pillar. From the abrasions on her legs, she had tried many times and was now exhausted. All I could figure was she had rolled in the soft dirt in the open horse barn and landed in an impossible position. If we had rolled her as one does a cast horse away from the obstacle, we would have just turned her into the wall. Johnny went for ropes and we tried to figure out what to do. We decided if we could get her legs in front of the pillar, she might be able to get up. However that proved difficult. Eventually, between her thrashing when we tried and our rope pulling, we did get both legs in front of the pillar, but she was so tired that she could not stand when she tried. Her daughter was standing nearby. It occurred to me if her daughter went out into the field, Jessie Anne might get motivated to try again. So I opened the gate and Nightingale went out but stayed close to the gate, nibbling grass. That worked! Little by little, Jessie Anne thrashed her way in the direction of her daughter. When she had worked her way to where she was headed downhill, she was able to get her feet under herself and stand at last. She walked very unsteadily toward her daughter. I cleaned up her many abrasions and put healing Balm of Gilead on them. She spent the day standing near her daughter. Her cowbird friends kept her company and kept flies off her back.

Now she is all healed and had a wonderful time yesterday rearing and kicking and acting like a wild thing, happy to have muscles no longer sore."

 

2022... But perhaps that, or the mild colic in 2020, was the beginning of the strangulating lipoma that would take her life. I will always remember her as the sweet, cooperative mare who loved her daughter Nightingale so very much.

What a privilege to have shared the life of this beautiful, sweet animal. Nightingale and I will always miss you, Jessie Anne, and never forget you. Rest in peace.