Gypsy Wind, 1982-2001 Arabian chestnut mare, owned by Esterly Flores

Gypsy Wind left her body to go to greener pastures, at about 8am Sunday morning, November 25, 2001, at the Schmickle stables in Las Cruces, New Mexico. She died quietly after appearing to be recovering from a 24 hour colic vigil.

The first foal born to Esterly Flores out of her Courthouse mare Nina, Gypsy was raised by Esterly’s daughter Ariana. She was shown quite successfully in Western Pleasure as a young mare. She experienced a difficult time with a shift in trainers, and subsequently went back home to have a series of 4 foals. As she approached the age of 18, during January of 2001, she left Flores’ Gypsy Wind Farm in my care. I am Grace Ann Rosile, a Ph.D. professor of business management and former owner and operator of my own full-service stable. My Arabian stallion Nahdion was all I had kept of the 40 stalls, indoor and outdoor arena, and (up to 17) horses of my own I had raised and trained over 10 years time. I leased Gypsy to breed with my stallion Nahdion, who was then 20 years old. Nahdion and Gypsy seemed to like each other, and the breeding appeared to "catch" as Gypsy did not cycle for the next several months. However, about a month after her last breeding dates, Gypsy acquired a mild case of laminitis, making her foot-sore for several weeks. A small dosage of Bute seemed enough to ease Gypsy’s symptoms, and she recovered quickly. Since she did not resume cycling, I assumed she was pregnant. Then in August, while I was away on vacation, Gypsy appeared to come into a heat cycle for only 1 day. Then she had another day of showing heat in October. To determine her status, on November 17, when Gypsy’s pregnancy should have been 6 months along, Dr. Pritchard palpated her; he found no pregnancy. I planned to re-breed her in the early spring.

Gypsy Wind was a very sweet and affectionate mare. She was very gregarious with people, and always wanted to stick her head out of her stall to join the barn conversations of Grace Ann and friends Kathy and Ellen. Ellen, owner of the stable, loved Gypsy because she kept a very neat stall, with all her manure in one spot. She had no vices like kicking the walls or other horses. She was good-tempered and easy going. She had been the dominant mare in the herd at Esterly’s farm, but at Schmickle’s she remained a bit aloof from the rest of the mares, not really afraid of them but also not willing to fight for status or position. She would run from the other mares when they challenged her, but she never looked worried or afraid, she looked more like she was humoring the rest of them by allowing them to be dominant. Her look was always wise and patient. In fact, it was that look in her eyes which was the main reason that Gypsy stood out among the more than a dozen horses at the Flores’ farm. Both myself and my friend and riding buddy Kathy agreed, that while Gypsy was a beautiful and athletic mare, it was the knowing look of wisdom in her eyes that convinced us both that she should be the mare for me to breed to Nahdion.

I learned quite a lot from riding Gypsy Wind during the year 2000. Gypsy was the total opposite of Nahdion in temperament. Nahdion was extremely lazy except on the occasions when he was self-motivated, when he would perform brilliantly. His default response to everything was to stop or slow down. Gypsy, on the other hand, was a bit nervous, always trying very hard to please her rider. Her default response to everything was speed. If she was worried, afraid, tired, or confused, her tendency was to speed up. Gypsy’s responses were the opposite of Nahdion’s. I learned a lot about how my riding had evolved since leaving my former stable and dressage coach. My prior life of training several horses per day, had been followed by six years of mostly trail riding, almost exclusively on Nahdion. My ability to adapt from horse to horse had become rusty.

It was a big challenge to discover and interpret Gypsy’s prior training. At first we scared and worried each other, until I learned to communicate my wishes to Gypsy. Then she still required a skillful rider, but our rides became much more fun, became adventures of discovery. For a while, she was more fun for me to ride than Nahdion. She would come up to me when I approached her in her turn-out area. She loved being groomed, especially with soft brushes on her face. She seemed to like to be ridden, and always had a willing hard-working attitude. Her gaits were very rhythmical, her legs swinging like pendulums with an effortless look. Her walk was big, and her trot and canter were very smooth to ride. She could speed up with no change of elevation or other signal, simply this powerful forward thrust that was so subtle yet strong that the increased speed was almost unnoticed, and usually a surprise. She was a bit spooky on the trail, and sometimes would do "splits" or a double-take startledness, causing us to laugh at her and ourselves. As we rode through the mesquite and arroyos more often, she became more calm and relaxed on the trail, walking on the buckle-end of the reins.

She loved to talk and visit with Nahdion, whether or not she was in season, and he felt the same about her. In spite of her "Carol Channing" gravely whinny, she frequently uttered a high-pitched absurdly feminine little nicker whenever Nahdion was near. As I rode Nahdion out, she would follow us along the fence line for as long as she could. All during her last day, in spite of her colicky discomfort, she constantly looked at and talked to him.

At 7am on Saturday, November 24, Ellen found her down and colicky in her stall. She called the vet immediately, and on his advice, Ellen administered Banamine until the vet could get to the stable. Around 8am, Dr. Pritchard palpated Gypsy and gave her a gallon of mineral oil through a tube, and gave the usual instructions for colic: no food, no violent rolling or thrashing, and try to keep her hydrated and drinking water. Dr. Pritchard felt that she probably had an impaction rather than a twisted intestine, because she was not thrashing violently. Ellen, my friend Kathy, and I, each took turns either walking Gypsy or just keeping her from thrashing around, all day and through the night. Then I watched while she stood sleeping peacefully in her stall from about 4am to 6:30. Then around 6:30am she began walking from her stall into her pen, taking long drinks of water with each trip. Happy at her apparent improvement, I went to the house while Ellen fed the other horses. At 8am I returned to the barn because I had not seen Gypsy walking nor drinking for about 15 minutes. I found her at the end of her pen closest to Nahdion. I had to look closely to see that she was dead and not just sleeping. She was lying on her side looking calm with no signs of struggle in the soft dirt around her. On hearing this report, Dr. Pritchard concluded that Gypsy either had a leakage in the intestine causing peritonitis (which normally should have been accompanied by extreme sweating which she did not have), or she simply died of a heart attack from the stress of the event. We also wondered if her history of colic and even her prior cancerous lesion may have also contributed to her death.

Gypsy was loved by all of us who knew her. Her spirit is with us; yet the memory of her still and shrouded body brings waves of tears with remembering the loss of her daily physical presence.