Oh no. I am so sorry @clanter, I had been following as a lurker here. What a devastating loss (losses). I admire your strength and your family’s, but the Good Lord knows I wish you didn’t have to have dig down and find it.
Fig looks like a lovely young animal
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Such tragic news to read just now; so very sorry for your daughter and all of you for this tremendous loss. I truly have tears streaking down my cheeks upon reading your post.
I know that Socrates had the best life a horse could possibly have and wish it was many more years of love and joy for him and his people What a beautiful animal he was, in addition to everything else.
Glad your daughter has Lexie to focus on right now while she waits for Figment to come to her.
You are all in my prayers.
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My condolences. What a wonderful breeder and glad that your daughter and you have a bit of room left in your hearts for another one. Fig looks magnificent (and a bit mischievous).
Susan
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our nearby friends who have horses all were asking what they could do to help. We kind if cover for each other and are always willing to help if needed. Danele just happened to be home as her racehorse string was having the day off, she was here in a heartbeat, pain meds ready.
Garn, for him to have beat the vets here speaks highly of him. Garn is not my daughter’s day to day “trainer” it is more like they assist each other, my daughter exercises the horses in training at Garns when Garn is out giving training seminars (which is often). He is a highly respected trainer in the Morgan world and an outstanding cowboy dressage clinician.
The Morgans, the Morgan community is pretty close. The “girl” who was national youth director when I was regional youth direct and wife was youth club director for the local group is now the head of the registry, we have know each other since the very early 1990s (Peggy Hatfield who is not running most of the Grand Nationals was then a regional youth director also)
There are some who are very rich but most are regular people who enjoy the Morgan’s heritage. We have found over the years for the most part the majority of owners really are very good people. If I was to make a list I surely would forget or inadvertently leave people off that should be on the list of greats there are so many. (At Nationals I did once see my son Mark taking with an older man while they were watching our older daughter work Foxie. I asked him did he know who he was talking with? No, they were just admiring Foxie … Mark , that man is Herbert Kohler he owns Kohler Industries and the whole town of Kohler Wisconsin …oh he is nice man who likes Foxie, so on with other stuff of the day
Just a small community of good people
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I noticed that also, but most Morgans are…they all seem to want to help and will be right there looking over your shoulder whispering advise
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I’m so sorry to hear of your losses. My heart is broken for you. I’m writing with tears in my eyes as I understand your feelings of grief at such unexpected and brutal tragedies.
Feeling the level of grief that you feel for Socrates is in no way a comparison to or a diminishment of your grief for Mark. We have large and deep hearts. Animals are God’s creatures every bit as much as humans are, and all life is precious to Him. We should never feel badly for the level of grief we feel for our animals. It is based solely on our endless ability to love them.
I am so happy to hear the beginning of Fig’s story. He’s just a little doll and, as @candyappy said, he has that special something in his eye. He’s going to be a spitfire. Looking forward to more photos and stories as Fig, Lexie and your daughter progress in their exciting (and long) adventures together.
Love and prayers to you and your family. 
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Clanter, I am so sorry about Socrates. I had read the news on some Facebook page but thought that you, when you were ready, would share the news with us. I, also am a Morgan owner, and know well the Morgan personality that draws you in and envelopes you. May your daughter and your family have many decades of fun and success with Fig.
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the breeder of our first two Morgans, Shamrock Farms in Smithfield Kentucky evidently saw that then contacted my daughter. The Wilson’s had recently closed the operation, selling all the horses but a few, she offered one of the remaining keepers to daughter at no cost, also was going to pay shipping from Kentucky to Ft Worth…then Garn and his wife offered Lexie.
Lexie was nearly in our backyard so it was simpler to accept that offer.
When I say the Morgan community has great big heart that is not an overstatement. We will be competitive when displaying our horses in the arena but afterwards it is What can I do to help from nearly ever one.
As for Morgans becoming a part of person, when Shamrock Foxie Joy died we received condolences sent from her “kids” who had grown up and were all around the world. Foxie had been in my daughter’s summer horse program besides becoming the friend of many of their school mates.
younger daughter in helmet, the other two were school classmates, this was taken in our backyard
This horse had a lot of people who took great interest in her, Again to me it goes back to the foundational training that Rob and his daughter put into Foxie. We kept Foxie at Shamrock for nearly two years since she was purchased as long yearling and was worthless without an education. (and Foxie’s groom was the greatest, I caught her giving Foxie some apples she said Foxie loved the apples and carrots she gave her… I asked Rob then started sending the groom a monthly stipend - and “suggested” to Foxie that she take her out for lunch at least once a week, as Foxie did have her own credit card)
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So sorry to hear this, such a tragedy. So sudden and so devastating. BTDT.
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I’m so sorry for the loss of your daughter’s beautiful horse, a tragic and devasting loss for your family.
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Oh Clanter, I am so sorry for your daughter, you and all your family and all the others who were in Socrates life. Little Fig looks like he’ll be a good addition to the family
There’s really nothing else I can say
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I’m very very sorry for your loss. My friend lost her young horse to a lightning strike about 20 years ago. She bought a foal for her daughter and they named the filly after the horse that she lost so many years ago.
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So sorry for you and your daughter, clanter. 
Fig has some big little hooves to fill.
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Thanks to all, the new foal is really a welcomed addition, we just are impressed by the kindness of so many.
I listed some up thread but I need to once again express my gratitude to Prairie Hill Morgans whose concern was What Can We Do to Help… they had five mares due to foal this Spring, they gave daughter the first right to any that would have been for sale (they retained overall first rights to keep a or even all foals for their breeding program)
And the trainer she works with, Garn Walker to have dropped everything and beat the vet here
Danielle Durham of Durham Racing Stables was here in a flash to help
We are not in the center of some horse mecca, just have some very good friends
Every one’s concern was Socrates’ welfare …we are humbled
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just got word regarding the gene testing of Fig, he carries no Dun or color genes (does the dn1 marking gene) so he is actually is the least desirable for retention into Prairie Hill’s breeding program.
(also makes him less expensive)
and… just heard breeder and her daughter and my daughter are skimming to enter Fig at Nationals in the Sport Horse Stallions In Hand which has no minimum age …after-all he will be there anyway is their belief
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That will be fun to watch!
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@Clanter - I just saw this post and so sorry to hear what happened to your wonderful boy. My heart is just breaking. I thought he was just so gorgeous and so very talented. Not ashamed to admit I am crying right now.
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Socrates was my daughter’s. I was just the daily care giver (he was a hand full as he really made a mess of his stall) (—and Lexie is not much better LOL)
She trained Socks with pointers from Garn Walker. Garn had recently relocated locally from California (I guess he was following his clients since many from California have relocated to north Texas …we have In-Out Burgers here less than a mile away) Garn is highly respected in Morgan community, a really nice man. Daughter reached out to see if he would look at Socrates, evidently he was impressed with her work as she now helps him.
Daughter is a disciplinarian with her horses, not in bad way but with Love… when she had Mulligan at College Station while she was at Texas A&M she had a vet doing something with him. Mulligan was trained to ground tie so she dropped the lead walking away , as she was stepping away she looked back at Mulligan who was picking up one foot to follow…with just a look from daughter Mulligan put the foot back down to stand frozen… the vet was very impressed
The Motters at Prairie Hill are very, very good with foals, Fig will come in with a great start. Socrates did not get his first exposure to the wildness of a large horse show until he was a yearling, Fig will be just under six months old when he is there with the 1200 or so others.
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When I lost a horse dear to me, and my heart ached, this poem by Robert Frost came to mind:
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
Socrates was your daughter’s golden boy, the one who couldn’t stay. May Fig soothe her heart (and I agree, he has a sparkle in his eye).
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Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken was how we described Shamrock Foxie Joy who was to have been our kids’ English Pleasure horse. All of her breeding suggested another great English Pleasure horse. The farm had nothing but English Pleasure horses. We specifically went back to Kentucky to find the kids an English Pleasure horse since nearly everything here is Western in some form or another,.
Foxie was bought as a long yearling, told my wife if we did not buy her now we would never be able to afford her later. She just had that Look. So we left her there in training.
Well it was very much a surprise to us to find her in western tack. The trainer. Rob Wilson, was correct as Foxie just was not an English Pleasure horse. She did EVERYTHING but English Pleasure.
So we just referred to her as the Horse that Took the Road Not Taken
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