Have been living out of state for a while now while family has been watching my horses in Oklahoma. This week I got the call I have been dreading. One of first minis I purchased, See the Light, hadn't come up for her breakfast. She was found laying in the shelter, still alive, hungry and thirsty, but unable to get up on her own, or even with help. I had to make the decision that is was the right time to let her go. It was hard, not being there myself, but fortunately my daughter, who is a good horse person, was there to take care of things. I called the Vet and he was able to come out that day. My daughter stayed with her, giving her feed, water, and a treat of alfalfa hay until it was time.
See the Light, Sissy, as she was called, was probably one of the few Foundation Oversize AMHA horses still around. She would have been 33 in February. She has been healthy, but the last few years, had started to look her age and have trouble keeping weight on. I was concerned about her last winter, and thought it might be 'time', but she held her own and got to enjoy another year. But, when I heard that she was unable to get up on her own, I had to make the hard decision. We might have been able to get her through this crisis, but I couldn't bear the idea that if this happened again, it might not be when she was in the shelter on a nice day, but out in the field during an ice-storm. I didn't want to take that chance and allow her exit to like that.
I bought Sissy when she was 18, and she had a foal for me every year until she was 23. She loved her babies. I thought that would be the end of her reproductive career, and allowed her to be a companion to a stallion that needed a friend. Then she gave me another foal at age 25. Since then she has been the companion to weanlings and our little dwarf. She was always good with other horses, but was never one to enjoy people or being confined, but we had an understanding. She will be missed.
See the Light, Sissy, as she was called, was probably one of the few Foundation Oversize AMHA horses still around. She would have been 33 in February. She has been healthy, but the last few years, had started to look her age and have trouble keeping weight on. I was concerned about her last winter, and thought it might be 'time', but she held her own and got to enjoy another year. But, when I heard that she was unable to get up on her own, I had to make the hard decision. We might have been able to get her through this crisis, but I couldn't bear the idea that if this happened again, it might not be when she was in the shelter on a nice day, but out in the field during an ice-storm. I didn't want to take that chance and allow her exit to like that.
I bought Sissy when she was 18, and she had a foal for me every year until she was 23. She loved her babies. I thought that would be the end of her reproductive career, and allowed her to be a companion to a stallion that needed a friend. Then she gave me another foal at age 25. Since then she has been the companion to weanlings and our little dwarf. She was always good with other horses, but was never one to enjoy people or being confined, but we had an understanding. She will be missed.
