Excelsior Bijou died August 3, 2003
(5-3-00 to 8-3-03)

Excelsior Bijou  joined us on May 3, 2000. Her name is pronounced "bee shoe" it is French for 'Jewel' to go with her little star.  She is full sister to Ryanday's Excelsior Babette and Excelsior Bonhomme.  Like her sister and brother, she is a heads up, leggy filly with some sweet, sweet hocks! We are really happy to have her join our Percherons.
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			Stelle 24579

Excelsior Farms August 3, 2003

a Colt of 357

I put the lead shank on Bijou,
picked up the lasso and mounted my four wheeler.
Bijou took a step, stopped, looked at me and asked,
“...did today really have to be the day, was I sure about this?”

Javoni, whinnied several times to her as we started down the lane,
persuading her mom to come back, “Please!”.

Volunteer in bewilderment stormed up to his gate snorting,
head up, stomping, “Where are you going with one of my mares.”

Pasture buddies Babette, Lu, and Levi all bid her farewell at gate’s edge.

Bijou kept looking ahead. Step, after step, after step.
Halfway down the lane she stumbled in the slick mud,
caught her balance and kept walking.
Through her pain, her ears perked up faintly,
she heard the now distant whinny of Javoni;
last time her daughter’s voice
would grace those ears.

Crossing alongside the pond she thought it rather ironic
her final travel would not have her paired with her sister as a teammate,
no, she was teamed with a loud, indifferent, unfeeling four wheeler.

Step after step we drew nearer to her destination.
Halfway along the woods, her teammate quieted down,
slowed
and finally stopped.
Bijou’s head stayed lowered;
she stood by rows of corn for the last time
and absorbed the last sunshine peeking from the lingering clouds
of this morning's direful rain.
We turned to the woods.
She hesitated at the trees’ edge
not wanting to enter the darkness
“Come on Beesh; just a little farther...”
neither of us were in a hurry.

Reluctantly, with resignation she stepped into the dark cool woods.

I found the large spreading tree under which she would stay
and led her to it.

I slipped the lasso around her neck and tied her to the tree.
She looked east and blinked.
Then she looked to the west and sighed.
       I let her.
It was a peaceful spot; were it not for this day
it should have been very pretty.

“Yep, this is as good a spot as any.”

She look at me as I pointed the cold steel tube directly at her beautiful star
- whiter than I ever remembered it in the past -

“Good-bye old friend.”

The piercing crack echoing through the woods silenced all life
as her knees buckled making it easy to hear the hollow thump
as and she and the ground kissed.

The blood filling her with life, now spilling from her nostrils
into the ground; I wish I could put it back.

She gasped to hang on to life
as all living creatures grasp to hang on to life.
There was shudder.
A long pause.
After two more gasps it was finished; I think.

After several dark moments the thick and heavy silence
was broken as sounds of the woods-in-wonder,
ever
so
slowly,
began to return.

I slipped the lasso from her neck. I saw her blood on my hand.

I took the halter off her head. I was thief
stealing something that didn’t belong to me...
a derelict pilfering a scene after the crime.

Roger Bannister, August 3, 2003.