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I never met Joie, so I'm going to let my human Mom tell you about her in her own words:

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This is Joie the first time I saw her, in June of 1988. I had decided that it was past time I had a purebred replacement for my old stallion, Fershan, so I started looking around. Responding to an ad, I found this 3 year old filly.

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The filly was very friendly and very hungry. Here my mother is feeding her tufts of grass.

I talked to her owner and found out that she had never been registered. The horses had been mainly the wife's interest, but they had split up and were recently divorced, so the husband was selling the horses. The filly's dam had died from colic when the filly was a weanling, but they still had the sire on the premises.

I really needed a registered mare, so after I went home I called the Registry to find out the procedures for getting papers on her.

The next day I was back to do some negotiating. We agreed that the current owner would supply the completed registration application and transfer form and I would pay him half the purchase price now and the other half when the registration papers were in my hands.

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So, I fetched the trailer and brought the filly home. Since she didn't have a name, I had to come up with one. I thought about it on the way to pick her up, and the name "Joie De Vivre" came into my mind, so she had a name even before I brought her home. The little girl seemed to be such a happy little soul, trusting and loving, in spite of her poor condition. She had never been off the property before, but loading her into the trailer was no problem; she trusted me and walked in after only a couple of minutes.

Here she is right after I brought her home. The other horses were very happy to meet her, and she fell in love with Fershan right away.

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Joie was true to her name, always a joy to work with and always happy and loving. In this picture, taken about 3 weeks after she came home, she is trying a saddle and bridle on for the very first time.

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Joie got special treatment. Here my mother is feeding her lettuce and carrot pieces.

Joie's story is a sad one. She was getting along fine, was making friends with the other horses, was beginning to look a little less sad and was beginning to cover up those ribs. One day I had her out in the yard for a little while, playing with the other horses, eating what little grass there was. The next morning when I came down to feed, she was dead. She had died from colic. I don't know what caused it; possibly a surfeit of good food, in spite of my care in that direction. I was too broken up at the time to even consider having an autopsy performed.

She was happy the last month of her short life, but God needed her. She's at Rainbow Bridge, waiting for me. By now all the friends she had found at her new home are there with her; Fershan, Fortune, Lucky and Sunshine.

I never got Joie's papers either, so you will not find her on the Registry CD. Seems the people who had bred her were buying her sire on time, and the transfer of ownership to their name had been made a couple of months AFTER the breeding took place. The previous owners of the stallion had died, and the registry had on file, as their agent, a woman who had never even seen the stallion in question, much less had any knowledge of the breeding. The Registry tried, and I tried, to find this woman so she could sign the service certificate, but she seemed to have fallen off the edge of the earth. We never found her, so Joie, whose registered name would have been ME Joie DeVivre, never was registered, all because of a missing lady who had never laid eyes on any of the horses in question.

Silly to follow up, for MONTHS after the horse died? I didn't think so, I wanted her to at least have an identity. It wasn't to be, but as long as I live, she will be remembered.

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Joie must have been loved when she was little. Here is a picture of her as a foal, which her owner let me have...

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... and one of her and Momma, K A Fadraleeseyn.

How sad that a divorce will affect everyone so profoundly. There are laws that protect the children, at least to an extent, but what happens to the animals in the care of the family?

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Joie's momma, K A Fadraleeseyn, back when feed was plentiful.

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Joie's daddy, GN Jozon, when life was a ball...

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... and as he looked when I met him. At least he wasn't as thin as Joie.