The day you are never ready for!

[drpepper]

We lost an old horse yesterday. It was quite an ordeal. We had owned Duke for quite a few years. He was a good old horse. Best we can figure, he was 26 or 27. The wife called me at work that he was down. I rushed home, and there she was in the pasture with him. He could only move his neck and head. He was down on his side. It was obvious what needed to be done, but I called the vet to make sure. Besides, I couldn't do it myself. The vet is a nice old guy, with a heart of gold. Duke had most likely had a stroke, and in his opinion would not recover. We stayed with Duke while the shots were given. Cricket my little Arabian mare would not leave him. It was so sad! Of course, it was Good Friday and we had a heck of a time getting a backhoe out here to bury him. Duke is burried in the pasture he loved so much. The only thing we ever expected of him was to be a pasture ornament. Duke was the herd boss, and the other horses are missing him terribly. My wife is taking it very hard. She babied him a lot. He was her boy. Other than being old and stiff, he was doing well. No hints of a problem. We always gave him a little extra sweet feed to keep his weight on. Looked good for an old horse. You have to take the bad with the good, but **** sometimes it's hard.

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( sometimes it's hard )</font>

Indeed it is. I think most of us can sympathize with such situations.

 

[notamustang]

With all the other garbage in the world its funny how somthing as simple as a <font color="blue"> pasture ornament </font> can block that all out. We've all been there.
Steven

 

[gates]

Bob,

I have recently experienced the exact same scenario, except it was 3 days before Christmas. Need less to say the wife was crushed . Sug-E-Bear was her first horse, he was 36 years old.
My heart goes out to you.

Ron

 

[Unclebuck257]

Bob,

I missed reading this yesterday as I was away. My wife and I are so sorry to hear about your Duke!! We've been there ourselves and our hearts go out to you and your wife. We lost one of our little ones, a little 15 yr old Sheltie named Blossie, on Thursday too, and we can certainly sympathize with you two.

We have an older mule named Maggie, a retired cow mule who, in her day, was an award winner when it came to herding and working cows. She's just retired now on our place, and she does what she wants, where and when she wants to. Like Duke, Maggie is my wife's baby, and like Duke, Maggie calls the shots around here with the other horses on our place.

The only thing I can think of to say to either of you is that now Duke is running free, in the greenist, biggest, prettiest, pasture there ever was, with no illness or old age problems to slow him down. He'll be waiting at the Rainbow Bridge for the two of you some day.

Take care my friend!

 

[drpepper]

Thanks guys. I am going to print this off for the wife to read. She's taking it hard and I know it will perk her up to know people care. There is nothing more we like than to watch the horses out in the pasture. Talk about a stress reliever! Bob

 

[GaryE]

I am so sorry to hear of your loss... It is hard when you become so attached to a friend.

 

[drpepper]

Postscript. Things are still tough, and will be for a while. But the wife has informed me there will be another horse for her in the near future. I'm going to look for one young enough that he will outlive us this time! They give so much and ask for so little. People should be so generous.

 

[drpepper]

One last post guys and I will leave this alone. In my own self pity I lost sight of Sug-E-Bear and Blossie. From the bottom of my heart my condolences! Some will read this post and think me silly. You have to be an "animal person" to fully understand. Bob

 

[stevenf]

Bob, Sorry to hear of your loss, I'll have to say that I can truly sympathize my wife and I spent the day yesterday (weak stomachs should stop reading now) burning and burying our mammoth jack. I wish we had been with ours at the end as we may of gotten some comfort in being able to say goodbye, we allow our equines the run of a 347 acre hill country ranch and sometimes don't see them for a day or 2 so nothing was unusual when we woke up yesterday morning and he wasn't in the herd at the house. I had some hunters come out to tour the ranch and found him about noon a mile from the house laying in the road the bussards were already circling. The ranch tour was cut short at that point and I returned them to their vehicle and went back for the Jack but he'd obviously been gone for hours. Regretably he was only 10 so we decided it'd be best to burn not knowing what had happened as there was no apparent injury we didn't want to take the chance of a possible disease being spread if something managed to unearth him. He was a sweet old gentleman and allowed all the kids to ride him around bareback without need of even a halter for steerage. I haven't had the heart to tell my youngest son where Mel is and we just couldn't let him see the body after the bussards had had their way with him. This is our third to lose in as many years the others were easier as they were older retired horses that we knew we'd have to face their demise quickly although once you've had any time around an animal be it horse, dog or parakeet I don't think it ever gets easy to part with a friend as most pets are usually better companions then a lot of people and I miss them every bit as much. Give your wife a hug and tell her our prayers are with ya'll tonight.
Steve /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif