Mother & daughter question

[Gorvie]

My first ever post on this forum is a bit of a morbid subject but it's something that crossed my mind this morning and which I would value some opinions on. I have an 18 yr old TB mare from which I have bred a super daughter, now 4 years old. I was chatting to a friend the other day who had recently lost her old mare and she had decided against the vet's advice to show the mare's body to her gelding son who was her constant companion. My friend is convinced the gelding knew what had happened and that this approach helped him settle after the mare was taken away. I am interested on anyones view on this situation as I would like to think that if I was in this situation, I would do the right thing by either of my two girls. They get on well together, have been together most of their lives - they can be separated for work and competition pruposes but are clearly happier when in each others company. Any advice or previous experience on this issue would be very interesting.

 

[forestfantasy]

Definitely agree with your friend.
We always have our dogs pts at home and the other dogs are then allowed in to sniff the body & accept that their friend has gone.
I will certainly do the same with our horses if possible as they are a very close knit group.

 

[Tinsel Trouble]

We were advised to do this. Our old horses had been together for over 20 years. When Otis died on a hack we brought him home (to be buried) and left him in the field and turned Jeremy out with him (with our 11.2hh pony too). Jeremy was calling and calling like he always did when Otis was out on a hack, and then must have spotted him becasue he calmed down.
Our vet recommended this as he said that horses understand death, they don't understand them disappearing into thin air!

When our 11.2hh had to be pts she was down in the field and was not interested on getting up the other two ponies were nuzzling her and comforting her. They understood what was happening, they left the vet to her business and came back later to have a quiet look.

 

[Flummoxed]

Yep, I'll do the same with our two inseparable geldings in the hope that it helps the survivor to understand that their friend hasn't just gone away and left them.

 

[Thistle]

Yes, with horses and dogs I always let the others see where their friend has gone, they seem to understand once they have seen and touched the body.

 

[Skyebald]

I had only heard about this recently. I had my old mare pts 5 years ago and wasn't advised by my vet to let my other pony come over and see her body. The other one galloped around like mad screaming for ages so it may have been a nicer thing to do . Obviously hard to know what they are thinking

 

[montysmum1]

My mare was PTS at the vets, to save her going through an unnecessary journey home, and my poor gelding, who had loved her and been her companion for 10years was screaming and looking for her for days and days, at one point i didn't think he would ever settle. I would definitely give them the chance to see what has happened if it is possible.

 

[Gorvie]

Thanks to everyone for their comments on this subject - its clear to me what I will do when the time comes which hopefully won't be for years and years and years!!

 

[cronkmooar]

Just to show a different experience.

I had a mare (21) and her daughter (13) and another horse.

Stables were daughter, other horse, mare - all with talk grilles between them.

Mare and daughter had been together 13 years.

One morning I went out and found the mare on the stable floor with a broken leg. Obviously the daughter could not see the mare. Horse next door could if he looked in - he didn't really though, only when I was in there

I can honestly say that when I turned the two out after having mare PTS they didn't really notice. They waited at the gate for a few minutes then the urge to graze took over. There was no histerics just the odd small whiney.

It isn't what I would do in ideal circumstances, I would do as previously stated, however, sometimes things don't work out as planned and this post is just to show that if things don't go to plan it can work out OK