Chloe has been gone for a day or so now, and the farm feels peaceful, the animals have moved on. The donkeys switched feeders with the sheep this morning, perhaps they are reasserting themselves, they did defer to Chloe.

We are not planning on any more visits to Chloe in the near future, she is in good hands with Treasure and Donna, and we are not worried about her.  She needs to move along also, our presence would only be confusing, as I think it was yesterday. She needs to live her life, as we need to live ours.

It’s time to look ahead,  we both are much inclined to look ahead than backwards, and there are so many things we wish to do.

I enjoyed writing about Chloe, my continuing, and sometimes sparky dialogue with my readers is a good thing for me, and I h ope, for them. I learn a lot, and I hope to make people think a lot, however much they disagree. Everything involving animals seems to bring that opportunity, it makes my blog and writing life exciting.

The dialogue via e-mail and social media that I had with my readers and blog followers was both interesting and useful. There were the  usual kinds of responses – good wishes, kind thoughts, useful experiences, much empathy, beautiful and thoughtful messages that really made me think, and then, people disagreeing, people telling me how cruel and un-feelling I am,  telling us things we already know about horses, people reassuring us about things we were not worried about, people tell us what we should be feeling and are feeling, and people offering advice we were not seeking.

A rich tapestry, across the spectrum, I am flattered so many people care about me at all. And I am learning to live with the joys and trials of social media. I guess it would be hard for me to survive without it.

As I wrote yesterday, there is no reason for anyone to be sadder than we are, and we are not especially sad. It was the right thing to do. Chloe could not be going to a better place for her, we did have some kid-goes-to-camp jitters yesterday, they were gone by dinner last night. Every pony should be as lucky as Chloe is, living with Donna and Treasure, we are letting go, not looking for or needing more updates or offering many.

In a couple of weeks, we’ll go see her again, but it will be in a very different context, for her, for us. She will no longer be our pony, but somebody else’s pony. We will be visitors, we will give her some cookies and get on with our demanding and interesting lives. We don’t really need to fuss about it every day.

Chloe does not belong to us any longer, and is no longer really our business. Do not be steal our sadness, we can handle that ourselves.

We have lots to do. I am so grateful for knowing Chloe, horses are amazing creatures, she and the carriage horses and Rocky have changed the way I see the world. Maria can speak for herself, and will. Time for me to keep changing.

Bedlam Farm is an ever-changing landscape, it adapts to the track of our lives and growth and love. If you don’t like change and cannot bear to be around someone with whom you might disagree, this is not the place for you. Lots of people just can’t bear me. Our animals, like us, live very real lives in the real world.

Real life happens here, every single day. This is not the story of the perfect life for them or for us. But it is a pretty damn good one.