I just read that William (Bill) Shatner's (yup, that would be our famous Captn Kirk of the USS Enterprise) prized American Saddlebred stallion (Revival) went on to greener pastures at the young age of 15. He was just starting to realize his potential as a great sire of show horses. Bill loved that horse dearly and drove him to an amateur World Championship (Saddlebred show in Louisville). The trainers loved him and the stallion manager - he lived the last few years occasionally driving his people around and making babies, most recently in his newest home in Scottsdale.
Bill says "I had a chance a month before his death to drive Revival. Out of the stall he came - as proud as he's ever been, as sound, and that beautiful, soft, loving eye that uniquely marked him. I patted him and then got into the cart - and away we went, over the desert, along a trail that was barely marked...Revival and me and the sun and the sand. He was glorious. That was the last time I saw him, and I will remember him that way as long as i live."
Horses are only with us a brief while - they commonly live well into their twenties and if we are lucky and they are healthy, into their early thirties. To be taken away so soon is heartbreak. But, even if they were to live one day before our own death, it would be too soon to lose them. I don't know Bill personally or the horse, only through what I have read and seen. Bill is a true horseman and Revival a once in a lifetime miracle. I can't imagine a heaven where our horses do not roam waiting for us to join them....
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