Michen
Well-Known Member
Is being put down this week on Thursday at midday. It's been a seriously emotional few days trying to decide what the best thing to do is. I've swung from PTS, to sending him to a retirement home as a last ditch attempt, to taking the easycare shoes off again and trying once more to see if he comes through the hobbling stage, to medicating his hocks etc etc.
It wasn't until yesterday that I really decided that enough was enough. It came down to the fact that I would never expect him to stand up to the level of work I would want him to do and at the end of the day he's an off the track ex racer that hasn't been retrained and is somewhat unknown. He may or may not make a quite safe hack for me to loan out to someone but lets face it- he's not a low maintenance horse and how many people want a TB as a quite hack that needs meticulous management? It would be different perhaps if he was already an established riding horse, that I knew would be good for X Y and Z but I don't. I don't know if his KS will rear it's ugly head, whether he will always be ulcer prone, whether the hocks are going to worsen quickly as they seem to be at the moment. I know we are slowly winning the battle on the front feet, the x rays proved that. And if it was his only issue then I'd be more inclined to give him more time.
So he's going to go here, before the flies get horrendous and whilst it's sunny and he's fairly comfortable. He will have to walk about 100 metres from his best buddy (though sadly it's rather unrequited love!) and he will go with a carrot in his mouth. I'm not going to be there, I know many people would but as he's going by gun it's just not something I am willing to see. I'd rather remember him in the field and luckily I have an awesome friend who is going to sort it for me. I'm off to scats now to buy him a bag of mollichaff apple- because he loves it and can eat whatever sugary rubbish he wants for a few days!
I can wholeheartedly say that more tears have been shed over this little horse than any boy, and that I'll never forget him or his ability to make me smile even on the worst of days. I've learnt so much in the last 7 months from him, and people on here, and have had amazing offers of help and advice that I will always be grateful for.
The day he retired from racing and arrived here!
It wasn't until yesterday that I really decided that enough was enough. It came down to the fact that I would never expect him to stand up to the level of work I would want him to do and at the end of the day he's an off the track ex racer that hasn't been retrained and is somewhat unknown. He may or may not make a quite safe hack for me to loan out to someone but lets face it- he's not a low maintenance horse and how many people want a TB as a quite hack that needs meticulous management? It would be different perhaps if he was already an established riding horse, that I knew would be good for X Y and Z but I don't. I don't know if his KS will rear it's ugly head, whether he will always be ulcer prone, whether the hocks are going to worsen quickly as they seem to be at the moment. I know we are slowly winning the battle on the front feet, the x rays proved that. And if it was his only issue then I'd be more inclined to give him more time.
So he's going to go here, before the flies get horrendous and whilst it's sunny and he's fairly comfortable. He will have to walk about 100 metres from his best buddy (though sadly it's rather unrequited love!) and he will go with a carrot in his mouth. I'm not going to be there, I know many people would but as he's going by gun it's just not something I am willing to see. I'd rather remember him in the field and luckily I have an awesome friend who is going to sort it for me. I'm off to scats now to buy him a bag of mollichaff apple- because he loves it and can eat whatever sugary rubbish he wants for a few days!
I can wholeheartedly say that more tears have been shed over this little horse than any boy, and that I'll never forget him or his ability to make me smile even on the worst of days. I've learnt so much in the last 7 months from him, and people on here, and have had amazing offers of help and advice that I will always be grateful for.
The day he retired from racing and arrived here!
