Retirement

No, I don't mean me. I'm not feeling that old on my first full day of 39! Yesterday we drove in my friend Jamie's swanky truck with Graham's horse Kane Creek Kaos boppin' along behind in the trailer to his retirement in Descanso.

Descanso, indeedy. Descanso means "rest, relaxation. break" and that's just what Kaos needs. We purchased him for Graham to ride in the show arena. Within a matter of months, lameness appeared and despite valiant efforts by Dr. Colburn, we could not block the pain. We knew the best thing for this guy was an early retirement.

It's not so easy to find a forever home for your old, lame or otherwise "unuseful" horse. Harder still, finding one within visiting distance. Luckily, we have a resourceful friend in Debbie Rocha, who came up with a lovely solution. Her involvement with Lions, Tigers & Bears in Descanso proved to be the ticket. Lions, Tigers & Bears (LTB) doesn't just house the animals in its name - Kaos gets to live on about 10 rolling acres of oak-tree-shaded, boulder-outcropped land, beside a full menagerie of animals that includes llamas, goats, a miniature donkey, chickens, pigs, a miniature horse, and more.

Of course, the whole mission of LTB is, as the name suggests, to provide a refuge for lions, tigers, bears and other large cats wronged by human interaction and educate us on these magical, WILD creatures. You may remember a bear in the news recently in the LA area named Meatball. He has his own Facebook page, I'm told. He now resides in a fabulous bear habitat at LTB, complete with waterfalls, an enclosure with radiant heating and lounge nets made from interwoven, donated firehose.

So it was a joyous, if freezing cold (yes, no hyperbole there - ice in SoCal!) day as we launched Kaos in to a happy, rider-free life in Descanso, CA.

Here's a shot of the whole greeting committee coming out to welcome the new resident.