Shugha-Bugah. Tougy. Shuggy Mamma. No matter what we called her, we loved her from the moment we picked her up from Alamosa out by the Sand Dunes from the Zapata Ranch when she was no longer a good fit for giving people trail rides through the dunes.

My daughter, age 11, dreamed of her. Less than 2 weeks later, I was contacted on Facebook about a horse exactly matching the one in my daughter's dream, needed a new home. We got for $1.

She has been the best horse for us to safely use to train volunteers, to be around children, to just be the one we can count on that we knew would never hurt a person. We wanted to take her to the Rodeo Parade, but her stiff legs and advanced arthritis said no.

She and Dixie became pals, being the two little old spoiled ladies who ran the place.

I noticed her in the Dixie video, she didn't look so bad. In the weeks since Dixie's passing, she was really dropping weight, behaving more isolated from the herd, and even a few nights didn't even eat, drink, or poop while in the stall overnight.

Saturday we came home from work and she whickered as us (unusual for her) with her characteristic manly low voice which always made us smile, and then blocked us from parking (strange). She was trying to tell us something, but we didn't know what. She wanted to be in the garage, so we let her (until she broke in to the bird seed and made a mess so she wasn't that bad off!). I shortly later put her in the stall for the night, and she seemed fine, although again a little more thin than I would have liked. I drew blood to take to work. The next morning, Sunday, yesterday, I checked on her and she was laying down in the stall, but she had eaten well and drank water, so I let the lady rest, and let her sleep in.

I checked on her later and found a horror I would not wish on anyone. She was standing on three good legs, and her other one, was nonfunctional and bending at all kinds of crazy angles. No wounds, no indication what happened. My heart sank.

I gave her pain meds, and began the phones calls. We girls hugged each other, and her, and how much she meant to us, and then we helped her join Dixie.

I am crushed.

​We will miss you always SugarBear.

​​​​​​​​Check out my YouTube channel for more from the rescues and lots of free tips and training resources. https://www.youtube.com/@the1drq