When I was in elementary school, my mom brought home a shiny new colt to our little horse farm. He was a spitfire - all gunpowder and lead. Growing up, we were never allowed to ride Cochise. We were barely allowed to be in the arena with him unsupervised he was just so wild.

Fast-forward about thirty years and here is Cochise today. Even the littlest kids can ride him with ease. He belongs to my daughter who is eight. He walks very very verrrrry slowly when she wants to ride.

Cochise has even played the part of a magical unicorn at Ava's birthday. Now listen, this was a few years ago before you could just buy ready made 'corns' and I had to figure out a way to make one from scratch. He was so kind to wear this stupid cone on his head AND be a gentleman to all bunch of little girls all day. -Ashley S
-Ashley S
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Cochise has even played the part of a magical unicorn at her birthday. Now listen, this was a few years ago before you could just buy ready-made unicorn 'corns' and I had to figure out a way to make one from scratch. He was so kind to wear this stupid cone on his head AND be a gentleman to all bunch of little girls all day.

Horses, like humans, slow down with age. Hearing goes, joints, go, all desire to be wild and crazy goes right out the stall door.

One Evansville equestrian knows the habits of an old horse all too well.

Joyce Molinet's horse Dixie is in her thirties and is well into retirement. Since Dixie spends a good part of her day snoozing, she lays very still out in the pasture and is apparently quite frequently mistaken for being... well... dead. And kind, well-meaning neighbors often stop to let Joyce know of her horse's demise. But thankfully, old Dixie is still with us - she's just being lazy as old horses should.

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Joyce posted this to Facebook today:

Joyce Mollinet
Joyce Molinet
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Ok Evansville area friends, If you drive by my house and see our horse Dixie laying flat out in our front pasture please don’t panic. I promise she’s not in distress. She’s just old (just days from her 31st birthday). She likes to stretch out and rest her old bones and give passing traffic a scare. Don’t bother yelling at her because her hearing isn’t what it used to be (again, she’s old). I promise we keep a close eye on her. I’ve asked her repeatedly to please do her sun bathing in the back pasture but she just ignores me and does whatever she wants. I’m posting this in hopes there will be fewer well-meaning folks knocking on our front door to report our horse is down. Again, I promise she’s ok!

So, if you see Dixie out having an afternoon snooze, no need to panic. She's perfectly fine. See, here she is standing up - such a beauty! Also, Tuesday, April 20th is her 31st birthday so feel free to leave her some happy birthnayyyy messages.

Joyce Mollinet
Joyce Mollinet
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