This was a strange week. On Tuesday the farrier came and we had the horses feet done. The pony Chance keeps getting out of the field. Jodi spent over 10,000 dollars to fence in the two pastures. The little bugger keeps getting out, its always better outside the fence for him.
Well Jodi decided enough was enough and had Annie (a friend) come and get Chance that same evening.
Halo, the thoroughbred is very possessive of his little herd, consisting of Chance and Lady. So he clung to Lady next day.
Thursday morning it was Jodi's day to do the barn and she went down around 6.30 to feed the horses. Lady was her usual obnoxious self banging the door to get out and
her usual "I want my breakfast" routine. Jodi fed them, went up to the house to get her little girl ready for school, she is 6. Riley was not upset too much about Chance leaving, he was her pony, and she was to have real lessons on him until she outgrew him. He would be safe at Annie's
So anyway, at 7.30 Jodi went back down to let the horses out before taking Riley to school. Lady was laying down in her stall and had not eaten breakfast. That's a big concern for us because, well Lady lives for her food. Jodi called me...........as we were talking on the phone Lady got up and went outside and ran up the hill. So Jodi said, "well....maybe everything is OK after all". Then Lady laid down again, so I said call the vet (they had to have spring shots anyway) and I will be right there.
Gerry and I got Tobin (he is 3) ready and off we went.
Well, she was still laying down and Jodi was with her when we got there....she asked a friend to get Riley for her and take her to school so she could be there with us. We could not figure out what was wrong, lady did not seem in pain, but kept getting up and laying down and was getting weaker. Thought it might be colic but it just did not seem to be that and Lady never had colic a day in her life. Jodi gave her something to relax her in case that was it and we watched and waited for the vet petted and rubbed her. When he got there I had pretty much decided this was it for Lady. We had dreaded this for many years, she was after all 41 years old. Ancient for a horse.
Dr Rabb said "boy she looks in good shape" but......whats wrong?. He had not seen her since the Autumn of the prior year. He checked her out. I said " I think this is it?" and he agreed, it may have been a stroke and a blood clot or something like that.......anyway we petted and fussed her she knew we were there and Jodi thought she had just been waiting for me to get to the barn. Riley said good bye to her before she went off to school and hugged and kissed her face. Poor kid was upset all day wondering about her. Lady has been at jodi's since before Riley was born.
So meanwhile Halo is freaking out at first and being protective of Lady, but then he resigns himself to it and lets us alone. He kept coming over and nuzzling her and sniffing her nose to be sure she was breathing.Trying to encourage her to get up.
When Dr Rabb gave her the euthanasia she just went to sleep. Jodi and I hugged each other and cried........an end to an era.
When I first brought Lady from the big barn (where I boarded her back in the days when we rode) it was to a small barn with just a few horses including Halo. Then that barn closed and Jodi and I fenced in her 5 acres for Halo and Lady. She later bought more acreage and got that fenced in. Lady was in heaven with all that great grass. In return for keeping her there I did the barn work and bought the food. It worked well for us all. I loved it there and all summer I went every day and cleaned and played with the horses and walked in the fields. Jodi brought them in at night and when summer was over she did two days a week of cleaning. So we could have time off. So not having to do that any more leaves a big hole in my life. I have been with Lady every weekend almost since 1985 as well as during the week.
Meanwhile after Lady was dead Halo hung around her for a time, would go off and graze and come back to check on her. Jodi said during the day she was lying in the field he would go lay with her and nuzzle her. Poor guy, he loved her. Eric had to bury her that night after he got the equipment to do it. They had to go get Chance back for a time so Halo had company on Friday. Chance and Halo went in the other field together but on that Thursday Halo was with his Lady until she was buried.
Poor Riley was just so sad, she cried and cried and said to Jodi " I dont want Lady to be scared in that big hole in the dark" So Jodi had to explain that it was just the body in the hole that Lady was not old any more, she was off playing with her long lost buddies Spyder and Gibby in those fields beyond in that other world where they wait for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment