Goodbye, friend.

On Monday afternoon, a mare that I've known for four years is going to be put to sleep.  Her name is Snap (Make It Snappy), and she is the best friends of one of my favorite people - one of the best people I've ever known - and it's absolutely breaking my heart.

Today I went out and spent some time in her field talking to her, scratching her itchy spots, and saying goodbye.  I'm stopping by tomorrow on the way back up to school to say my final goodbye. I just feel like writing about her now, because she is such an amazing animal, and I don't even know where to begin.

Snap's mom bought her less than a week after a race, as a four year old.  She had no idea that when she was told the mare was "off the track" exactly HOW off the track she was - and on their first ride, Snap dumped her on the ground.  Still, she bought the funny-looking chestnut for $600 and brought her home.

Snap's name was "Gingersnap".  It became clear very early that the hot-tempered red-head was not a "Gingersnap", and just the last part of the name stuck.  She's got a thousand nicknames: Snapping Turtle, Snapple Apple, Snappy Pants... I think the best part about her name is that she Snaps.  You know how horses sometimes chomp at the air when you're girthing them?  Like that, except randomly.  She'll snap when she's being groomed.  She'll Snap when you're petting other horses and not her.  She'll Snap for no reason whatsoever - she just does it.  She wouldn't ever bite, she just Snaps.  She had her name before her mom found out about this habit.

Snap is a mega-alpha mare.  She loves her mares and gets super close to all of them, but she has to approve everything in the field.  She's also a total mare-slut, and nickers and winks at "her" geldings.  She loves the barn owners' horses, Buddy and Lump, the most.  Lump is her Lump and they adore each other.  She also has a thing for Gali, and nickers at him constantly, but when they finally nose, she always ends up squealing and striking at him.  He loves her and wants nothing more than to puff noses with her, and he's always surprised when it ends with a squeal.

Snap takes such good care of her mom under saddle.  They're so funny, and such a team.  They both have attitude, but they also are both a little timid.  Her mom will say "No, snap, you jump that thing!" and Snap will kick up at her belly and stop and say "No, mom, YOU jump that thing!".  It's really hard to explain.  When Snap doesn't feel like doing something - usually lateral work - she responds to her mom's leg aids with squeals and pinears.  It's very funny.

Snap ADORES her mom's husband.  They get along so well and she carts him all over the place and follows him like a puppy dog.  She follows her mom, too, but she's really glued to his hip.  She loves to race him on his quad with her mom on her back clinging for dear life.

She's a lot like me, because we're both really timid riders, and because we've boarded together at two different farms, we've always worked together to push each other.

Last fall, Maria and Gali were out riding in the field with Snap and her mom, and Snap bucked her mom off hard for an unknown reason.  It's the only time Snap ever acted like that, and they had been slowly rebuilding their trust since then.  After that fall, her mom moved her over to our current farm - she was the one who introduced all of us to the farm, because she had known the owner and trained with her for years.

They had some issues over the summer, and it was found out that Snap had some conformation faults and wear from the track that was finally leading to her being in a lot of hip pain.  Additionally, Snap began to bleed from her nose.  With some medical investigation, it turns out that she has an sinus tumor causing her blood vessels to break and drain.  She's only 8 or 9, but she's having a hard time breathing, and she's not sound, and it's just not fair to keep her going like this.

Oh - she really, really likes coffee.  Only Dunkin and Wawa, though, she'll turn her nose up at any other brand.  And it has to have cream and sugar - the just-sugar coffee I bought out from Dunkin today wasn't acceptable to the princess mare.

I'm sorry if I'm rambling and not making much sense, but this is the first time I'm really dealing with a friend putting down such a young horse.  The only other thing I can compare it to was losing Halo's mom to colic over the summer, but I did not know Angel nearly as well as I know Snap.  I'm having a hard time.

I'm just going to load this up with pictures now.  Look behind the page jump to see just a small handful of the pictures I've taken of her over the years.  I'm going to miss her way, way too much.

What a gorgeous mare...

With such a funny attitude!

The Snap Attitude Series

They have the same color hair.

The attitude

Jude and Snap at a Foxhunt clinic last year.  Snap pulled a shoe 10 minutes into the ride and had to be walked back.

The Snap Attitude

Katie, Lily, Snap - mare brigade

Snap and her Lump (the Barbie horse is Colby)