SS Fajulya

Registered name	SS Fajulya		Additional Information:
Registration #	0357029		More about Julya
Gender	mare		Pedigree
Color	bay		Pictures
Height	14.2h		Progeny
Breeding Groups	AK
Strain/Substrain	Maneghi Hadruj

It is with a very sad and sore heart that I sit to write this. As Anne has mentioned, on Weds. Feb. 3rd 2010, at 3:30 in the afternoon, we gave SS Fajulya our final gift--that of a peaceful and easy transition to the Summerlands, where it is forever green, the grass is lush, and the friends and family are many.

She had apparently been developing liver issues gradually over the last few months that would come and go, along with what appeared to be a touch of colic now and then that would respond to a shot of Banamine, and she'd bounce right back and go back to being her same easy going self. On Saturday afternoon, I had the vet come out to verify that Julya had a bad tooth. Her nasal breath was still sweet, but her mouth breath was extremely foul, and the verdict was, yes; a bad tooth. During the over all check, Diane mentioned that she thought the mares gums looked a little jaundiced, but she felt that would go away once we got the bad tooth out, some antibiotics and soft foods in, but again, no serious flags raised.

So I had called the horse dentist and coordinated the coming visit between the vet and dentist, so Diane could trank Julya, while Mike did the extraction and floating. The dentist arrived, and my husband, George went with him out to the barn so they could at least get a lead on Julya, and start getting ready to do her teeth. I was a little slower to get out, since I had to put on the current version of a walking cast for the ankle I broke on Christmas Eve.

When I got to the barn, I found Mike and George trying to get Julya to her feet, and she did not look good. She appeared very weak, dehydrated and shocky, and unable to get up. Then I saw something that just sent my heart and my stomach down to my cold feet. On the outside edge of her left front cannon, Julya had cut herself, deeply--down to the bone, about 8 inches long. And the cut was dry, indicating she'd done it a while before. She must have gone down earlier in the day, and caught her left front with a hind foot, trying to get up. The vet was en route, and I ran to get some banamine and a blanket to cover the mare. When the vet arrived, at first she felt that if we could get Julya into a stall, we could clean the leg up and bandage it. We were trying to get IV fluids into her, but her heart rate was over 80, and her blood pressure was almost non-existent, making it even harder to try to get a needle into a vein. And worse....we couldn't get her up at all. We listened for gut sounds; there were none---anywhere that we could hear. And her gums and whites of her eyes were yellow. She was going into acute liver failure, and was shutting down on us. The vet felt that there wasn't much more we could do, and that had we come out to the barn even a few hours later, she might have been gone on her own. Given that the ground was frozen, and it was cold, I made the choice to let her go with the vet's assistance, rather than suffer any longer. I held her head in my lap, as the vet gave her the shots, so I was the last thing she heard, saw and felt, was my crying, and my tears on her face.

Julya was only the second mare I had ever ridden. Given that the vast majority of her life prior to coming to Anne, and then me, was as a broodmare. Minimal handling. She did extremely well as my trail companion. She would carefully study the situations she found herself in, and would calmly accept directions to get out of things. I rode her most of last summer, because she didn't spook or bolt. She would calmly cross bridges and streams, whether as the lead horse, or as part of a group equally happy in either spot. Over the years with her here, she found a way into my heart, and settled down there. From the moment I left the house, until I poured her grain in her feeder, Julya would keep a deep rumbling nicker going. She'd come on the run from the far end of the field, just to take a peppermint treat.

She lives on in my heart, and in her son for us, GTS Hawa el Adhar. But she will be sorely missed.....very sorely missed.(written by Terri)

On February 3, 2010, SS Fajulya moved on to greener pastures. At this time, Terri is too upset to talk about Julya so, as the person who trained her, I'm going to share a few memories about training her.

I acquired Julya when she was in her mid-teens and she had never been started under saddle. When Terri decided that she wanted Julya, she asked that I train her under saddle. Julya was not a mare that 'put herself forward' so I was a little concerned about how she would act when I started training her. Apparently Julya had a word with the other horses when I wasn't around and heard all she needed to know about being trained. If you ignore whatever strange nonsense the two legged critter is doing, she'll leave you alone more quickly. Make a fuss and she will keep flopping the small square blanket over your back FOREVER. I don't know what she was told by the other horses, but Julya accepted being saddled with a minumum of fuss. She accepted being sat on with no fuss worth remembering (I believe she moved once - maybe twice). Actually riding her - with saddle and bridle - was not eventful even during the first rides. Because Julya was to go to NJ early in the spring (to all her to settle in before being bred), Julya was being ridden in some fairly miserable weather. Since I didn't want to ride with my 'big ole boots' banging into her sides, I would take them off and stand on them in the snow or mud while mounting. The goal of the rides was to get close enough to the boots at the end of the ride that I could dismount without getting my feet wet. That didn't always happen at first (ESPECIALLY when her dratted 1/2 sister would pick one up and play with it). As Julya's experience increased (and the weather improved), the rides involved trotting as well as the original direction control. Throughout all of the rides, Julya never bucked, never tried to dump me, never created any trouble. She put up with things that she had to have considered incredibly strange with patience - and the occasional strange look at me.

Julya could be as annoying as any other creature (human or equine), but overall, she was a patient, kind mare that I will always remember with love for the many happy memories that she gave me and then Terri. (written by Anne)