It’s what you fear the most when working with horses. They take a bad step or get hit with a disease that makes them suffer or kills them outright. The latter may be more merciful to the horse and is certainly more merciful to the owner when the decision to euthanize must be made.

He was named after our dog, Cricket, who had golden eyes. Lexie renamed him Fluffy. He came down with colic a day or so ago. Horses get colic, an intestinal disruption, often, but mostly they recover. However, colic is also the biggest killer of horses. They were talking about trying a surgical solution, when Cricky’s suffering increased so much that Lexie had to make the decision to put him out of his misery. How traumatic!

Here he is winning. It was his only victory on the racetrack but since we knew him from the time he was a weanling, he found a way into our hearts.

Even after we had to retire him, he was close by, since “Lexie,” the school teacher who is an expert exercise rider and a horse — make that, “animal” — rescuer, took him under her wing, brought him to her farm about half an hour away from Saratoga and trained him to be a pony and a horse that even kids could ride on.

We got to see him last summer when he filled in for one of Linda’s injured pony’s at Saratoga Racecourse. He was good at it too. We got to feed him several times. He still loved carrots and devoured all we could give him. Now, he is gone. RIP, Cricky/Fluffy. You were loved and gave love to those who cared for you.

We also got problematic news about Ahvee’s Destiny, who has an abscess in her from right foot. Ellen said it is, “no big deal.” We sure hope she is right. Soon, we will have to try and set up another mating for her to take place next Spring. When we get past New Years Day, we’ll start to get excited about the foal that we hope will join us in February.

Hidden Music is entered in a cheap claimer Friday at Aqueduct. There were so many entries that she may not get in, which is OK with me, since she shouldn’t be running this cheap (or at least I hope that’s true!).

Linda has said nothing to me about Brother Bob, Arch Traveler or Executive Office. Some day she’ll probably let me know why she hasn’t been running them.

Have a happy Thanksgiving and Chanukah!