A Farewell Tribute to a good friend

Omaha

Gaizi joined me at the age of 6, a teenager in horse years, back in 1985. She was a brat from the first, always checking to see how much trouble she could get into. I was supposed to learn how to keep horses with her, something I never expected to be doing until I moved to Nebraska and found myself around a bunch of horse people. Anyway, I started learning how to ride her - or at least how not to fall off. I was helped by using an Australian saddle I bought after seeing "The Man from Snowy River" (check it out sometime, it is a fun movie.)

The riding lasted until my schedule changed at SAC headquarters in Omaha, and I found that I could not ride her much. Some silly bell went off and we decided to breed her. Boy, was that an interesting experience! It takes 11 months to produce a baby horse, and Gaizi knew something important was happening right from the start. She got pretty fat, as all expectant mothers do, so riding her pretty much stopped.

When it got close to time, we started sleeping with her in the barn, so someone would be there when the new baby was born. (Did you know that horses like to stick their faces into their water bucket in the middle of the night and blow bubbles? Neither did I!) The minute Gaizi gave birth, two things happened. She shed her teenager ways and became a full-fledged momma, and she adopted me as another of her children. From that point on in our relationship, I never quite knew if I was in charge, or she was just letting me think I was.

Her new baby, a filly we named Gai-Defire and called Cyra, was a joy to help raise. I will never forget Cyra's first day. After foaling about 2 in the morning, we let her and momma alone to bond and to let Cyra figure out how to stand up. About an hour later, and after about a dozen tries to get up, which did not succeed, I finally went in and lifted Cyra to her feet and aimed her at her first meal. That was the moment Gaizi adoped me.

Later that morning, when both were doing well, we took Gaizi and Cyra out into a small pen next to the barn. The pen was fenced with three strands of rubber coated wire. As soon as we released both of then, Cyra took off like a shot, with Giazi close behind screaming all the while! Imagine how much fun it would be raising human babies if they could outrun their mothers as soon as they were born! Anyway, Cyra had no idea what a fence was all about, and could not see the darned thing anyway. So, she ran full speed into the fence. All I can remember about the collision was that heads and feet were flying everywhere and when the dust cleared, Cyra was on one side of the fence, and Gaizi was on the other - and really upset. I scrambled over the fence and got hold of Cyra and finally lifed her up and carried her back to momma. What fun!

Gaizi was such a good mother, that we decided to do the whole thing again. This time she produced a colt we named Clip. This little fellow had an interesting habit that we needed to break right away. If I went up to him he would dance around me and eventually jump up and end up with both front feet on my shoulders. This is not bad when they weigh around 100 pounds, but when they grow up to 800 pounds, that could be a problem.

When we decided to wean Clip, we also decided to move Gaizi into a big pasture with about 30 other horses. She threw a fit for over a week, running back and forth along the fence closest to the barn screaming for her baby. The other people at the barn had had about enough of this when she finally decided she had died and was not getting her baby back - and wandered off to explore this new thing called a herd. Clip grew up to be a fine horse, eventually getting sold to some folks in north Omaha who wanted to show him.

Funny thing about horses. They have a pecking order where each horse knows who is above them, and who is below. Higher level horses can walk up to a patch of grass or a water tank being used by a lower level horse, and the lower level horse just walks away. Now, you would think that a new horse would just walk up to the group and find out who to push between and all would be well. Not so! Throw a new horse into the mix and the entire herd runs around like a bunch of idiots while they re-fight among themselves to define a new order that has little to do with the old order. Gaizi lived through several rounds of this over the years, eventually working up to a pretty high level.

After her two babies, Gaizi and I started riding again. Eventually, we took up an event called competitive trail, where you ride about 40 miles a day over a weekend and get graded by judges along the way on how well the two of you do in everything from climbing impossible hills to setting up a camp-site overnight. On our first try at this event, I woke up the first morning to discover that Gaizi had figured out how to unhook her lead-rope and was off wandering around the camp ground visiting all her new friends. How they do this is a mystery. They have no thumbs they can use to figure out how to open a "child-proof" clip on a rope and get free!

Funny thing about owning horses. The price you pay for the horse is just the tip of the iceberg. Since you want to move the critter, you need a truck and trailer. Did I say Truck and Trailer, I meant big buck TRUCK and TRAILER! This is the rig we bought to move horses around. We even slept in the front of the trailer at horse events!

I also discovered a new fact about Gaizi - she loved going on the rides, but wanted to be first. Any time she found herself behind another horse, she would try to charge to the front. It was reported that I spent most of my time in the saddle yelling "Gaizi, you stupid horse, SLOW DOWN!" - with little success! Overall, we did get several ribbons in the dumb-novice-rider-with-the-silly-horse class.

Albuquerque

When we moved to Albuquerque, Gaizi and I took up riding along the bosque - the trees that line the Rio Grande river, and up the Sandia mountain. Gaizi actually looked forward to our rides. At least she did until she figured out I got to sit and she did all the work. When she got tired of all that nonsense, and she figured out we were aimed in the general direction of the barn, off she would go. Her daddy was a Polish race horse, and Gaizi inherited his speed. Boy could she run when she wanted to! The first few times I went through this my eyes were probably pretty big! Sitting on a horse running at a full gallop is an experience. Sort of like being on ice skates for the first time. Everything is moving fast, you don't seem to be able to stop, and you are not really sure you are going to survive without falling on your keester or something else that is bound to hurt.

I found out that she hated certain kinds of animals on these rides. For some reason, llamas were very scary. I remember riding along a trail that went behind several very ritzy houses ( including Al Unser, junior's spread) - one of which belonged to a llama breeder. When Gaizi saw those funny looking critters, she would not proceed unless she was facing directly at them. So we went sideways past an entire pasture, again at a pretty good pace. Try that sometime!

Another time, we were trotting along and I noticed that she was slowing down a bit. Also, her ears were focused behind her intensely. When I looked back, I discovered that we were being trailed by a coyote about six yards behind. The coyote probably thought Gaizi looked something like lunch. Gaizi on the other hand, wanted to practice her dental skills by removing the coyote's entire mouth with one swift kick!

I got to the point where I felt reasonably secure on her back. At least I thought so until we were wandering down the bank along an irrigation ditch and the trail turned off of the bank into some soft sand. Gaizi fell on her front knees, and I did a half gainer over her head and ended up on my backside facing her. She stood there looking at me with her best "only an idiot would do that trick" look. She never even thought about running away, I was much too amusing to be left alone!

Albuquerque is famous for its balloon fiesta, held every October. Over 700 balloonists show up for a week of flying all over the valley. One year, I took Gaizi on a ride that went west, away from all the balloons. We rode for several miles up to a set of three small extinct volcanoes that overlook the valley. By the time we turned around, all 700 of the balloons had launched and the sky was full of funny shapes of all kinds of colors. Gaizi had the most interesting stunned expression I have ever seen when she saw all of that. And, she wanted no part of heading in that direction. So, we enjoyed a few hours of just sitting there until she calmed down and the balloons drifted away.

Gaizi figured out an interesting trick that she used on me on another ride to the same volcanoes. When you put a saddle on a horse you have to pull the cinch up pretty tight to keep the saddle in place. (The cinch goes under her belly and connects to both sides of the saddle. Of course, Gaizi would take a deep breath while I got ready to do this and then stand there with this innocent expression while I pulled as hard as I could to get the saddle on tight. Once I was done, she would exhale and loosen the cinch.

Now, I don't' know how many of you have seen John Wayne just walk up to a horse and step into the saddle. I think all of his horses were midgets! I had to really work to get one foot up high enough to reach the stirrup and then almost jump up to get on her back. On one of these adventures Gaizi's trick worked really well. I got my foot into the stirrup, and did my best jump up, putting my weight on the stirrup so I could hoist myself over. Gaizi simply exhaled, released the cinch and the saddle spun off of her back, under her belly and I ended up flat on my back. I later found out the real cowboy trick to get even. As you get ready to pull on the cinch, you jam your elbow into their belly and they exhale in surprise - leaving you with a saddle that does not do this stupid trick!

For some reason, muddy water is very scary to horses. I believe I have heard it actually dissolves them. Whenever we went riding, I would have to scout out water crossing before we got to them. If she could see to the bottom of the water, all was well and she would happily walk through the crossing. But if the water was muddy - well...

We were riding along a dirt road near the barn when we needed to cross under a major road. The road was nearly level with the bridge, so they had dug a dip so cars could drive under the bridge. The road had a vertical bank about three feet high in the middle of the dip. Oh, and it had a pool of muddy water in the middle. Gaizi was sure that that water was over 100,000 feet deep and she would surely die if she stepped into it. So, instead, she approached the water, slowed down, then leaped straight up and landed on the bank. Since I was on top of her, I was left with my head between two steel girders wondering why any sane person would sit on top of a horse! After climbing down, and with some effort (did you ever try to get a horse to crawl on its hoofs and knees) we managed to get past that very deep water crossing - all six inches of it!

Our trips up Sandia mountain were always a treat. I would get off work, dash home to get out of my uniform and head out to the barn. There I would hook up a trailer and lead Gaizi out for 15 mile drive to the base of the mountain. Actually, I hardly needed to lead her. Once she figured out where we were going, she would lead me to the trailer. Once we got to the mountain, we parked in a picnic area, unloaded, mounted up and headed up a 10 mile trail that climbed up the mountain. The view from the trail was spectacular. I could see the tram to the north, and to the west had a beautiful view of the city and the desert beyond. Gaizi memorized the trail so she knew where every choice patch of grass was all the way to the top. As we got close to one of her salad bowls, she would dash the last few switchbacks, then screech to a stop to munch away while I took in the view. We often ended up near the top in time to see the sun set over the desert. Then I could pretty much just let her go, and ride down the mountain in the dark. Horses have excellent night vision, so I learned to just trust her not to dump me over the side of the mountain (she wouldn't do that, right? Yeah - right!) and she would take us back to the truck.

Another thing Albuquerque if known for is hosting the US Arabian National Championship horse show every other year. The year just after "Dirty Dancing" came out, Patrick Swayze, the star of that movie, showed up and actually rode several of his horses in events - not like other famous people who just own horses and pay others to ride for them. Unfortunately, when he was riding in one event, about 10 million women started taking flash pictures of him - to the point where they had to beg the people to stop for fear that riders would get hurt by spooked horses. Later that week, I got Gaizi ready for one of our rides along the Rio Grande, only to find our trail closed by Hollywood types. Patrick and Maria Schriever were riding on OUR trail doing an interview and they would not let us by. I did manage to get invited to a barn party Patrick threw later on - he is really a nice guy.

Back to Omaha

When I retired from the Air Force in 1993, I left Gaizi with a good friend on his four acre ranch just south of town and started looking for my new life. I eventually ended up working back in Omaha, where I met Cheryl, a very nice lady who I am proud to say is now my wife. After about two years, I finally bought a new pickup truck and went back to Albuquerque to get Gaizi and we spent two days driving back to her old home.

I will never forget the first time I took Cheryl out to visit her after we put her back in her old pasture. We both walked out into the 225 acre pasture and could see a band of about 20 horses about a half mile away. I told Cheryl that Gaizi knew I was her favorite person (or at least her source for carrots) and she would come running. Sure enough, I called out to the horses, all with their heads down munching grass, and one lone grey head popped up. Gaizi blew past all the other horses and charged our way. Not to be left behind, the entire herd charged behind her. Cheryl watched this with some horror - for surely we were about to be trampled by a raging herd of wild horses. But they all screeched to a halt surrounding us and started begging for attention. Gaizi got first choice from the 6 pounds of carrots we brought, and the others got left overs.

Cheryl survived with a new insight into my love for Gaizi. Actually, I had enjoyed this same ritual many times over the years - going through so many carrots I cannot quite believe it.

Austin, Texas

Cheryl and I had moved on to Austin, Texas and I decided to just let Gaizi live in peace where she had spent most of her life. Besides, owning a horse in Texas is expensive. It turns out Texas is inedible - they buy hay in Colorado and ship it in. Who would believe that after all the cowboy shows I watched as a kid!

Back in Omaha, As Gaizi got older, she started having problems with her teeth. Eventually things got bad enough that we decided to bring her back into the barn where we could make sure she got enough to eat. I was always unhappy with keeping a horse in a 10 by 10 foot stall, but they actually like it. Gaizi was happy to be back in the barn where she had closer contact with humans.

Eventually, Gaizi met a very nice 12 year old girl who started hanging out in the barn exploring her new illness - horse fever. This sickness seems to hit all girls at some point in their early lives, and this kid had it bad. Gaizi and her new friend hit it off so well that I decided to let Gaizi adopt her. The girl's parents agreed to the deal and Gaizi had a new companion to ride, brush, feed carrots to - all the fun things you get to do with a horse. She was still my horse so I could make sure she was well cared for no matter what, but she had a new best friend.

For her last two years these two had a fine time together. I got back to Omaha several times to check up on things, but we kind of parted ways toward the end. When she broke her leg, she was one of the most popular horses in the barn. She was always friendly and fun to be around. The girl was devastated when the accident happened. So was I, even though I missed the entire ordeal. The girl is arranging to have a plaque put up in the barn for her. Me? Well, I have all these memories. Now you can share a few of them.

Postscript

We sold Cyra to some folks in Fort Worth who wanted to raise Arabians for racing. Gaizi had outstanding bloodlines, so we worked a deal that got us three horses for the one. (At least I thought it was a deal. When the board bills came I had other thoughts.) Cyra was sent with two other horses to a breeder with a racing Arabian stallion, under the arrangement that the stallion owner got his pick of the babies. He picked Cyra's baby who was clearly the best. So good in fact that the folks who owned Cyra wanted her as well, and fought to get the stallion owner to take one of the others.

Shortly after Gaizi's daughter and grand-daughter returned to Fort Worth, I found myself in Dallas on business and arranged to visit to see Cyra and her new baby. I drove up to the fence where they both were, got out of my rental car and walked up to the fence. I had not seen Cyra in over two years. But I called to her, and just like her momma, she came running up to see me, and immediately started searching for the carrots. Suddenly, she realized she had left her baby alone while she came to see me and charged back to round up the kid, bringing her back to the fence as well. In the meantime, I went back to the car for the 6 pound bag of carrots, and we spend several hours visiting once again.

I still have another Arabian, a colt named Raji who was one of the three we got for Cyra. I never quite bonded as closely to Raji as I did with Gaizi. Raji is living out his days in the same pasture he shared with Gaizi and all their friends. I am making sure his needs are being met and he is well cared for, even though I don't see him very much anymore. My horse days are probably over. But I would not have missed them for anything!

Do horses go the Heaven. Of course they do. Gaizi can now be found in those famous greener pastures, running over the hills with her tail straight up in the wind, her ears pointed eagerly forward, mane blowing back, looking to that great source of all carrots. Or me - I can always hope. I trust the llamas get to go to some other pasture.

Take care good friend. And, happy trails!

Another lonesome cowboy (wannabe!)

From Melonie ---

Ghazi

When I first met Ghazi I new I wanted her. She was so beautiful. For a few months Ghazi and I spent a lot of the time bonding together. This was no ordinary horse. Ghazi was more than that. I remember when I would brush her she would turn her head around and nuzzle me on the elbow. When we would be doing ground work she would come up to me and nuzzle my shoulder from behind. Like she was playing hide and seek. Or in her own way she would make it vary clear she didn't like being away from me. From the first day I got her she would fallow me anywhere and everywhere! Like a puppy dog! She was so cute and she new it.

The one thing that she would always let known to everyone was that she was lovable and she wanted attention. And she was the kind of horse that always gave it right back. In my eyes she will always be the perfect horse. I remember when a lot of the time when I would be riding in the arena, Jana's cat Charlie would run through the middle of the arena. Ghazi would take off running after him. When we would out in the field. Turkeys would come up behind us, and Ghazi always told me when they were close. She would stop and listen. And turn her ears back slightly and kicked out from behind. The stupid turkeys would just stand there and look at us. But Ghazi would paw the ground and walk off. Like it never happened. These type of things used to scare her. But later on she just stood her ground and they would walk away.

As Roy has already said Ghazi liked to run. But doesn't like to stop. I would find myself in this situation and find myself on the ground or holding on for my life. You could try to stop her but sometimes Ghazi could be quite stubborn. And I ride English so its not the easiest saddle to stay in. After a wile I had learned all Ghazi's pranks and tricks. I got to where I could guess what she was going to do before it happened. Jana would teach me how to handle them and what to do in ground work to prevent it. When we where both ready. We started showing. On owner first horse show was a 4-H mock show. We won two blue ribbons.

We could have done better but most of the mistakes where my fault. At the next few horse shows (Cisco shows). I was riding another horse for a friend in western classes. Before the western classes, Ghazi came out of the ring with several firsts and a few seconds and thirds which I thought was good for own first year showing. But I remember at the same horse show Ghazi was by the horse trailer tied up. And was vary nervouse. She couldn't figure out why she wasn't with us. And everyone else was at the riding ring. I could her her winning at the trailer and was looking for all of us. She didn't like being alone. When I was in my last western class Ghazi was getting really upset. So my mom brought her up to the arena. My mom wanted me to try to calm her down. When I walked out of the show ring with four first places. Ghazi tried dragging my mom over to see me and Ginger (another horse). But when that didn't work she placed her foot on my moms toes and put all her weight on it! Then pulled the lead rope free and trotted over to me and Ginger in her dressage trot and a proud arched neck. With the lead trailing behind!!! She could be so funny at times. But I cant say the same for my mom. She ended up with sore feet.

At another show I was riding the same horse in the western classes. A total of four first places for Ghazi. And again Ghazi wanted to be with everyone but was tied to the trailer. When I got over to the trailer. Ghazi kicked the trailer. Of course I scolded her for it but when she nuzzled me on the arm at looked so cute!!! HOW COULD I SAY NO TO THAT!!!! She was so adorable. What really amazed people about Ghazi was, she placed against 7 year olds! And horses that people had spent loads of money on getting trained. And most of those horses where at least 16 hands tall!!

But one thing that some judges held against Ghazi was she was an Arabian. And most of the judges where Quarter horse judges. But soon they saw how hard we worked. All of our hard work paid off. By the end of the summer Ghazi had won a total of two highpoint trophy's, eleven first places, and a grand total of twenty seven ribbons all together!!!!! And four trophies!!!!

Ghazi tried so hard to please me and she did. Ghazi always tried her best for me. And she certainly did. The hole summer was a lot of fun. And I will never forget the looks on peoples faces when an old Arabian won against big Quarter Horses. Since here is Quarter Horse country. Everyone who met Ghazi thought she was enjoyable to be around. And she always loved the extra attention. She was always enjoyable to be around. Without the lessons Ghazi taught me I probably wouldn't be a vary good rider at all. She made me work hard to improve my ring skills.

I know that up in horse heaven she is being well cared for. And that makes my happy to know that she is OK. There's no way I would rather have it. As long as I no she is OK my life can go on. Ghazi meant a lot to everyone in my family. And especially Jana and I. We both loved her allot. I know that Roy loved her deeply to. Ghazi was loved by all that new her. And I think that she had a wonderful life, with all that she shared it with. And the moments we shared together I would never trade for anything. She will never be forgotten. Ghazi would never want that to happen. And I know that she knows we all love her. I don't think anyone will find a greater horse than her. She was always called an overachiever.

To my best friend, Ghazi.

Thanks, Melonie, for sharing you love for Gaizi. I will be forever grateful for you and your family making my favorite mare's last years so full of fun and joy.

I know we will both miss her.

Gaizi, have you had your carrots today?