Masquerade’s Farewell, sadly, Masquerade passed away on Monday at 11:30 am.
Lori and I laid with him and talked to him and stroked his neck and forehead and his crazy horse swirl in the special way that only he loved until he took his last breath and then we closed his eyes for him and kissed him on his muzzle one last time.
He had a tumor growing inside his spinal column and it was compressing the nerves to his legs so he could not walk, his condition worsened quickly over these last few weeks and so we scrambled to find experts in this field to team with us and quickly forged plans to take him to Santa Barbara and we were optimistic, but he began to spiral and ultimately in the end, we could not fix this for him and now our hearts are broken in unimaginable ways.
Memories of him and our time together are now all around us, the barn, and in our home, little bits and pieces, wisps of memories of him everywhere you turn and now when we drive up the long road to Promise Ranch only two horses raise their heads to look in our direction, his stall is empty and there is still water in his trough and shavings on the ground, his halter hangs in the same place it always has, his mash pan marked with blue (his favorite color) tape is still on the ground next to his hay box and his blue hay net still has hay it, even his special supplements and his blue syringe for his daily medication sits in the same place it always has.
He is everywhere, pictures and paintings of him and us, always with his head up and ears pricked forward, awards and buckles he earned, everywhere we turn he was there and now he is not and the quiet is deafeningly loud.
Sandman and Diamond stand like statues staring often at his stall or down the road at every car, wondering where he is and when he is coming home and especially in their turnout where they used to have so much fun chasing each other, he’s not there to play with them or to boss them around and now they walk around aimlessly, stopping to smell remnants of his toys and longing for some understanding of what has happened to their leader and friend.
Lori and I talk with them and let them sniff the remnants of his tail and mane, but I don’t think it helps them understand and for this reason it is even more sad I feel for them.
Our barn is very lonely now and eerily quiet with only Diamond and Sandman, he was the boss and the patriarch of our little herd and all of the shenanigans revolved around him. Nobody moved or did anything until he moved or gave them the go ahead. He would always make his presence or demands known with a chortle and a nicker of recognition to us in the morning and especially at night when we brought them all in for their night time snacks.
Lori took this photo of our “best boy” just as we were going out for a ride on Father’s Day two years ago. He “lit up” like a racehorse on that day, like he was going to the starting gate, when I pulled his saddle out of the barn, he knew we were doing “our” ride and that he was special. He always somehow just knew everything and what to do, and especially so, when we had family tragedies.
When my brother passed away in 2017, my Mom in 2018, my Dad in 2019, Lori’s Mom in 2020 and then another family issue in 2021, our little family was slammed with punch after punch, but Masquerade was steady always, and on more occasions than I can remember, he would walk up to us in his stall and lay his head on our shoulder and he would breathe deeply and take it all in and consolingly he wouldn’t disengage with us until the tears stopped. Somehow, he just knew
We had Masquerade for 20 years and for Lori and I both, he was a constant in our lives and our world revolved around him and our exciting adventures. For those of you who’ve been following our posts over the years, Masquerade is my “best” boy and his story goes way back to Al-Marah Arabians and my friend and mentor Bazy Tankersley who brought us to her ranch in 2005, because she knew in only a Bazy sort of way that I needed to ride again, so she told me “come to the ranch, I’ve got someone you need to meet” and that was that and we’ve been together now ever since.
In 2016, he was diagnosed with Cushing’s and then over the next few years, we did a few 50’s and a couple of 30’s and more recently we would just ride our neighborhood trails or in the arena and enjoy our time together and our memories and boy do we have some great memories of our amazingly strong, sensitive, and stoic best boy ever.
Our Endurance career together could best be described as consistently inconsistent due primarily to various ill timed injuries to us both, but we enjoyed riding and training together out on the trails. I rode 1000’s of miles with him alone in the desert and around our home with friends early in our career and they were the best of times, far more fun than the races were the training rides with so many friends and their horses to many to mention them all but they all are warmly remembered.
We lost him once in McDowell Park for a few days during an endurance race and I ended up in the hospital and he ended up lost but eventually (after posting a reward, getting 3 helicopters, two newspaper articles and multiple stories on the morning and evening news and 100’s of riders hunting for him) we found him three days later, thirsty, hungry and tired but none the worse and since then in Masquerade fashion he has repaid that favor many times over and specifically in two search and rescue endeavors he was credited with the “find” in that same park.
Once he found a hiker who was lost and suffering from heat exhaustion. The search team had been looking for this hiker for six hours and it was June and 115 degrees and as we were riding along the Pemberton, we stumbled upon him laying 50 yards off trail and under a cactus. As we were trotting along, Masquerade stopped and looked off to the left and wouldn’t let me move him forward and as I followed his eyes and squinted through waves of heat and sweat, there he was laying down under a cactus. I called the search and rescue team and Masquerade carried him back to the trailhead and we delivered him to the ambulance, his wife, and Rand the Park Manager.
In a second case, Masquerade on this same trail, was somehow alerted to noises across the north fence and pointed me at a house whereupon we discovered a wild horse who was trapped in a house that was adjacent to the park. The owners were in Chicago for the summer and this wild horse had somehow become entrapped in the structure of the home and would have ultimately died had it not been for Masquerades radar. This was an amazing story of an amazing rescue but requires time to explain, but suffice it to say, in both cases, within less than one mile of where we found Masquerade when he was lost, he in turn, twice “paid it forward” and alerted me as we were riding of this lost person and trapped horses and he was credited with the “find” in both cases.
He was our best boy and my “heart” horse and he was an amazing companion and ride partner, only three people have ridden him in addition to myself, Nicole, Susie, and Katie, and I have pictures of each of them in the saddle with him and we are going to make lockets for them with a picture of them riding together.
There are some very special people in his life, that we would like to thank because they took such great care of him over the years. Ashley Earick is a good friend and trimmed his feet for so many years and helped us thru his first Cushing’s episode and relate hoof rotation and injuries that he eventually overcame. Hillary who has been horse sitting for us and would carefully and competently syringe his meds and care for his various needs and the entire herd like they were her own. More recently, Christina worked with him on his last and most difficult trim last week when he was very wobbly and could not stand for an extended period on three legs, but her patience got him thru his last trim and then there is Mary Jane our longtime friend and riding partner who shared the trail with us over these past ten years and especially years ago with her horse Eclipse who trained with Masquerade often and more recently she did body work on Masquerade, which he thoroughly enjoyed and often he would dose off and fall asleep as she worked on him. Finally, our Vet Anastasia who patiently worked with him and his Cushing’s symptoms and more recently these last two weeks as his neurological condition worsened and the roller coaster began to careen out of control, she was available at all times to help and committed to go above and way beyond for him.
All of these people were in his life and in our lives as friends and they knew him as the amazing being he was, and we are so grateful for the role they all played in his life. These are just a few of the pictures we have with him and so many great memories of a very special companion. In the midst of all of this sadness, the one consolation that we have and something we will try to remember always, is that they know that we loved them and in Masquerades case, we hope he knows we did everything we could possibly do and most importantly that along the way, he lived a truly amazing life with us as our family and in the end, we didn’t turn away, and even though it was more painful than we ever could have imagined, we stayed with him to the very very end.
In closing, Lori and I want something good to come of all this so Masquerade will have for now a 3rd and final time, “paid it forward” so other horses and their people will benefit. With this in mind, we have contributed to the Tierra Madre Horse rescue here in Phoenix and Last Chance Corral in Athens Ohio and we also donated in Masquerades name to a friend whose horse is much younger and struggling with a neurologic condition as well and will now be getting treatment for his condition.
If you knew Masquerade or followed us and if you are so inclined, feel free to donate to these rescues or a rescue of your choice in his name. Or if not, maybe you’ll just take a second to breathe deep and smile and say, “I remember you Masquerade”.
From Promise Ranch and in loving memory always of our boy Masquerade, whose ride is now over, Lucian, Lori, Ms. Diamond, Mr. Sandman and Shadow Monster