The story of Herioco

We were on the lookout for a horse for my husband John. His trail horse developed RA and just could not do the trails anymore. We received an email from Ann Garcia about an andalusian that was up for adoption. Joyce, his owner, was not able to ride as much as she would like and was looking for a home for him where he would be ridden more. She loved him dearly enough to let him come to our house and be our dream horse. He was too. Rio was one of those horses that is once in a lifetime. A dream to ride, silly enough to make us laugh, and so beautiful that words could not describe him.

He did come with advanced melanoma, a condition that plagues most white horses especially Andalusians. We had some removed, and the rest was chance. We knew when we brought him home we could have 6 days or 6 years with him. Yesterday, as a result of internal tumors that we suspected were there but did not know for sure, he colicked. It caused an inoperable tear in the colon and he was bleeding internally. We made the terrible decision to put him down.

Words can not describe the sorrow we feel. He was only in our life for 6 months but made an impact that will last a lifetime. His previous owner had him for years, and her pain at his loss is immeasurable.

Hug your loved ones, and never take one day for granted. God knows that when we went out to feed yesterday, we did not know what was in store for the day. As we dressed to go out we talked about where we were going to go this weekend for our trail ride.

Good bye sweet Rio. 

Herioco 1995-2014

Thank you Joyce for giving us this joyful spirit, and your photographs of him.