A Day of Firsts

    Yesterday was a sad day. As we were returning from our ride at Camp Howqua with about 10 kids we noticed Rex, our old appaloosa was lying down on his side in the pasture quite a ways away from the rest of the herd. Shaynee whistled and waited for some response. He remained motionless on the ground. I stayed with the kids as Shaynee went to check on him. As soon as she reached him she looked like she was going to be sick at what she saw. I got the kids off the horses and out of there as quickly as possible. As soon as they were gone Shaynee radioed me to tell me Rex had severely broken his leg and that we couldn’t wait for a vet. She called Warren and asked him to come with a rifle. I brought a bucket of cold water and we sponged him down and kept him cool until they got there. An agonizing and emotional 10 minutes later they arrived with a gun and a selection of bullet sizes. Shaynee asked that they just use the biggest one to be sure. With a 303 bullet, big enough to take down an elephant, they asked us to move away quickly so he could get a clean shot before Rex had a chance to move and try and get up and mess up the aim. We were probably not even a meter away when he pulled the trigger. I couldn’t hear out of my right ear for the rest of the day. The image I saw when I looked back at Rex after the rifle shot is a sight I won't soon forget.
    Luckily, this sad day happened to fall on a very sunny Australia Day, January 26^th. In honor of the occasion, Sandy, Gray, and Shaynee took us out on the boat and we got to make our first attempts at water skiing. Emily of course managed to pretty much stand up on her first attempt and on her second looked like she could already be winning awards for her expertise. I managed to get up and stay up for 1 second the first time and 2.5 seconds the second time and then proceeded to get dragged like a torpedo with a trail of first one ski and then the other being shed in my wake. I was laughing so hard I almost drowned. I’ll be better next time- you are goin’ down Em.
  
 Somehow, my first Australia Day turned out to be both the saddest and one of the most fun days since our arrival.