End of my Cowboy Life

Cyra

Raji was part of a deal we made when we traded Cyra, the first born filly from my mare, Gazi.

Gaizi's dad was a Polish race horse with an outstanding track record! This image shows Cyra at the Iowa State Fair where she was entered in a class of two-yer old fillies. She was too young to ride, but she was starting to look pretty good. Sometime after this show, we ran into some folks from Fort Worth who wanted to raise Arabian race horses. Cyra had had an illness before she was one year old, which softened the tendons in her rear legs, so she was not going to be a race horse, but she had the right blood lines to raise babies who could race!

So, we negotiated a trade, Cyra would go to Texas, and we got Alietta, a show quality Arabian mare and her current baby colt named Raji. We also go a rebreading for another baby as part of the deal. Three for one, not bad (until you have to pay the bills).

Moving to Council Bluffs

Raji was barely a year old when we got him, and he moved to Council Bluffs Iowa with his mother to join our small herd of Arabians at Pony Creek Farm.

Quite a shock to end up in 200 acres of Iowa grassland after living in a small ranch in Texas!

Raji lived most of his life at Pony Creek with many of his friends. I never wanted him to live in a small stall, so he was able to live his life the way horses are meant to live, free to roam as he wished and hang out with his friends.

When I retired from the Air Force, I moved back to Omaha, and Raji had grown up into a nice horse. But my time was limited, and I never got around to trying to ride him. Raji stayed a horse! I am sure he was fine with that!

Here he is in training to make sure he got first dibs on carrots whenever I showed up. I went through one or two bags of carrots whenever I visited, so I was pretty popular!

Wedding Visit

When Cheryl and I decided to get married, we took many of the wedding party to visit the horses at Pony Creek. Raji thinks my sister's leg smells funny!

It sure is tough being in a horse family with folks who have never seen a horse before. My nephew is not sure he likes this.

(Actually, that is not Raji there, but one of his friends)

It does help if they keep feeding you, always a good way to get on a horse's good side!

Raji in his later years

After Cheryl and I moved to Texas, we left Raji behind, along with my other horse, Gaizi. They both continued to live in their favorite pasture. Jayna was a good substitute mom for both of them, and made sure they were well cared for. We exchanged letters to make sure things were going well. Here is one from just before Gaizi moved back to Iowa.

We both have a weird sense of humor, that is why we have worked together for almost 30 years! There is no place I would rather keep a horse!

Here is my pal on one of my irregular visits to Omaha after moving to Texas:

That muddy mess in the middle is Gazi, my favorite mare!

Trials and tribulations

Raji went through a number of trials in his life, but was a strong horse through it all. He managed to poke a stick into one eye when eating in a hay bale, and had to suffer the indignity of wearing a bottle strapped to his head with a tube on antiseptic fluid dripping down onto his eye. He had a bright red ACE bandage holding the entire thing on, and looked pretty silly. But it saved his eye, and all he ended up with was a cloudy spot on one side, which did not hurt his vision.

What was weird about this, was that Raji was actually taking after his mom! We moved her to Albuquerque and placed her in a small horse farm near the Rio Grande River. I kept Gaizi there as well. One day, we turned Alietta loose in a sandy pen and she took off running as fast as she could. Her feet slipped out from under her and she fell on her side and slid head-first into a fence post. It almost knocked her out! When she got up, her forehead was kind of caved in a bit. Yikes!

We called the vet who examined her, eventually doing an X-Ray to make sure nothing was really seriously damaged. As it turned out, we had to wrap her head in a (you guessed it) red ACE bandage with a small sponge to make sure the skin over her new head dent stuck down while the whole area healed. Like mother like son! (She was fine after that, just no good for racing, but she was a show horse who did not run much.)

Another time, he got a bad case of Strangles, which is a nasty illness horses get that makes it tough for them to bend over to eat. MY wife and I were visiting him during this time and he walked over to a water tank which was pretty low on water. He looked at the tank, then looked at us, and staring us directly, kicked the tank to let us know we had to do something for him. Smart little critter! We filled the tank so he could drink!

I visited Raji a few months ago and he bounded over to see his favorite person (with the ever present bag of carrots!) He brought a few of his friends along to share the feast. He seemed pretty healthy, although he was getting along in years. I did not know it was the last time I would see him.

Raji's time

Jayna, his care-taker for most of his life, called me this morning to tell me of his passing. We both knew this day would be coming soon. She said he was in charge of the herd the day before when she checked on things, and she found him this morning, laying peacefully in the pasture. His friends were with him, and no, he is not in this picture! It just seemed like a good view of Raji's world.

It was his time to go, and he went with no pain.

Thanks, Raji, for all the times we spent together, I will miss you. I hope you had a good life, at least as good as I could give you!

Say hi to Gaizi for me, and I hope you find all the carrots you want.

Your carrot man: Roie