it is with great sadness that we mark the passing of Rio....
Carol · Jun 15, 2017
a couple of weeks ago he received routine sedation for a simple medical procedure. the sedation hit him way to hard and we almost lost him that day. i knew at the time that it was most likely related to an asymptomatic cardiac dysfunction. rio was an extremely old horse, and extremely old everyones have weakened and compromised hearts....the hearts just start wearing out. it looks like sometime during the night, rio suffered a major heart attack and swiftly passed away. the sudden-ness of it left us all reeling this morning.
rio was what i called "a dime a dozen" horse. there was nothing special about him and because of this, i believe he led a life of insignificance...nothing special, no real value, just a slightly boring/cheapo kind of guy who ended up being passed around, over and over to anyone who had any kind of use for him for a while.
the reason i believe this is, rio struck me as a horse who while accepting his life of servitude with multitudes of various humans, had little faith that he could expect anything better. i don't think he even knew that life could in fact be better, that's what happens in loveless existence.
even horses like gideon who came here neglected and uncared for...at some point in his long life, he was loved and cared for so he understood that he had found that again once he was here.
rio, on the other hand, didn't really seem to know the difference.
in the end tho, rio was loved. he was provided with the best of care and a great deal of concern and effort to ensure his life was valuable.
he was a very old horse who i think lived a long and difficult life. i believe he was happy here and enjoyed his last few years of life.
what makes me sad tho is...to a certain degree, rio came by this by accident..it wasn't that this was what he deserved, it was simply that he was lucky.
what rio deserved was a lifetime of what he found here...love, care, concern...he had great value to all of us here.
rest in peace rio...you are loved and will be greatly missed.
Dear Rio:
I pray that you are embraced and so very loved at the Beautiful place you are at now. No pain, no disappointment, no grueling through a hard life. May you live a life of full potential and grace. XOXO
Thank you to everyone at Saints who provided a stable life for Sweet Rio. I am so sorry for your loss.