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~*~ Forever Tango ~*~ 1980 - 1999 the best horse in the whole entire world ~*~ I love you Tango ~*~ I miss you ~*~ Hi everybody, my name is Brooke and I'm 16 and I live in Kentucky (yes, horse country, ha ha). This page is for my horse Tango, who I got when I was 11 and who taught me pretty much everything I know about riding and also a lot of stuff about life. He died this spring and I miss him every single day. My mom says it might help to write it all down, so here it is. Sorry it's so long. I didn't want to leave anything out. (I have SO many pictures of him but our scanner is broken and my dad says we're not getting a new one till Christmas. So for now you'll have to use your imagination. Picture the handsomest red horse you've ever seen. Okay, now make him a little bit fatter.)

~ All About Tango ~
Show name:	Doc's Red Tango
Barn name:	Tango, Tang, Tango Mango, Big Red, Chubbs
Breed:	American Quarter Horse
Color:	Chestnut with a star and one white sock (left hind)
Height:	15.1 hands
Favorite treats:	Starlight mints, carrots, apples, and my granola bars if I wasn't looking
Worst habit:	Untying my lead rope with his lips. He was a genius about it.
Best friend (horse):	Pokey, an old pony at our barn. They were inseparable.
Best friend (human):	ME!!!

How we met I took lessons at a barn near us for two years on the school horses and begged my parents for a horse of my own the WHOLE time. When I was 11, Mrs. Albers who owns the barn told my mom about a 14-year-old gelding whose owner was going off to college. He was already a little bit gray around his eyes and he was not fancy. My mom asked me if I was sure. I had already named all my future children after him. I was sure. The first time I rode him I fell off. He stopped and waited for me and then put his nose on my helmet like, are you done? That's pretty much how the next five years went.

Our ribbons!! We did 4-H shows and the county fair every summer from 1995 to 1998. We were never the best, but we were the team that looked like we were having the most fun, and one judge actually said that to me, which I think is better than a trophy. Showmanship: 3 blue, 2 red Western Pleasure: 1 blue, 4 red, 2 white (he was a little slow at the lope, OK a LOT slow) Trail: 4 blue!! He was amazing at the bridge and the gate Pole Bending: 1 yellow, and one time we knocked over every single pole, which is honestly kind of hard to do All the ribbons are on a bulletin board over my bed. The blue one from Trail in 1997 is the one I'd grab if the house caught on fire.

The night he died On a Saturday night in April, Mrs. Albers called our house at eleven because Tango was lying down in his stall and wouldn't get up and wouldn't eat. That is colic, which is a stomach ache in a horse, but a horse's stomach ache can be really serious. We drove out and walked him and walked him until the vet got there. The vet said his intestine had twisted. She said there's a surgery for that at the horse hospital in Lexington, but that at nineteen, with how much pain he was in, it would be really hard on him and he probably wouldn't make it. So my parents and I decided. I held his head. I told him he was a good boy and that I'm sorry I fell off so many times. He wasn't hurting anymore at the end. My dad cried, which I had never seen before in my life. If you have a horse, learn the signs of colic. Ask your vet. Please.

Things Tango taught me If you fall off, get back on. (He really waited every time.) Nobody's perfect at the lope and that's OK. Always check the gate latch. ALWAYS. He's a genius, remember? Being patient is a way of loving somebody. Old doesn't mean done.

A poem I wrote for him Your stall is swept, your halter's hung, your name is still up on the door. Pokey calls for you at supper time and I don't know what to tell him anymore. But when the field goes gold at night and the grass is long and sweet, I think I hear you, running free, with four good, strong, un-lazy feet. © Brooke, April 1999. Please don't take it, it's for him.

Now Update 9/6: I'm half-leasing a mare named Rosie at the same barn, just for the fall. She is NOT Tango and she is not supposed to be. She's a nice girl and Pokey likes her okay. Mrs. Albers is keeping Tango's nameplate on his old stall door, which I think is really nice of her. Thank you to everyone who has e-mailed me about your own horses. I've read every one. It really helps to know I'm not the only one.

You are visitor # to Tango's page!! Tell me about your horse! [email protected] Last updated: Monday, September 6, 1999 (Labor Day, no school!!)