Posted 2015-05-05 9:00 PM Subject: Lost a Great One.
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Posts: 1368
I had to put my 13 year old barrel horse down this weekend. We'd been battling ringbone with him for months and nothing we did could get him sound enough to give him a quality of life. He was a horse that needed to work and have a job and he couldn't. We had to have a necropsy done on the affected foot and I'm glad I did. It was so much worse than we thought or than any of the tests or his lameness showed. No one can ever tell me that it wasn't the right thing.
When I got this horse he was 'crazy' and borderline dangerous and with some great training help from a friend of mine we turned him into one of the best horses I will ever swing a leg over. We were just starting to pick up the speed and pull checks when this all started but I have no doubt that he would have made it to the top. He was all heart and try. By the way he acted the first year I had him I know his life had not been easy. He was not a horse that had known love, or had ever felt good at anything. He got to leave this earth knowing what it felt like to be good at something and to win and be loved and I'm so glad that I got to be the one to love him.
Posted 2015-05-06 2:30 PM Subject: RE: Lost a Great One.
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Posts: 1898
I am so sorry. We just lost my daughter's pony as well. I hope you find peace in your decision, which it sounds like you did. Even with all the facts in front of us it is never an easy one to make.
Posted 2015-05-06 2:43 PM Subject: RE: Lost a Great One.
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Posts: 4766 Location: Bandera, TX
It was your love for him that brought him to final Peace. I've held several horses for my friends that couldn't hold their horse for the vet or husband during those final moments and I guess its the "gift" that God has given some of us horse crazy women but I could feel them relax knowing that the pain they thought they were going to have forever was being set free. They were at Peace...
I'm sorry for your loss. May God grant you another nice horse for you seem to be a gal that knows how precious a good one is.
Lost a Great One.
