This morning at 6.30, Mike had to go upcountry, so Tori went out early and found my 19 yr old Arabian, Ali, unable to get up, in the barn. He had been having increasing problems, since he had an accident 4 yrs ago, when he punctured the tendon above the hock. Even picking out his feet was a problem and to try to trim him, Laura had to lean him against a wall. Last time she tried a couple of weeks ago, she had to leave the off hind as he simply couldnt stand on the near to take the weight.
Yet, he wasnt really lame when walking ot trotting round the field, and he looked an absolute picture of health. You would never have thought him to be 19. He had an accident as a 2 yr old up at Halsdon Arabian stud, where he went over backwards trying to get to a mare, and caused some neurological damage, which was like stringhalt. Nevertheless, I trained him to quite high levels, which he found so easy. Ali was the lightest horse that I think I have ever ridden, it was like touching him with a feather, whether hand or leg.
But as he got older, it wasnt fair to ask him to do the more collected work, although he had found even piaffe as easy as falling off a log. So I loaned him to SueC for 6 months and she just hacked him and gave him light exercise, but sadly she couldnt keep him for various reasons and so he came back and was retired. So, he had 7 years in retirement here, but it has been an awful wrench to have to make the decision for him.
It would have been so much worse had he not been able to get up in the field, our land being very hilly for the most part, and could have rolled down the slope, which would have been terrible. I didnt feel that he felt ready to go, that was the hard part, my old horses usually tell me, but no way we could get him up this morning, between Mike, Tori and myself, so we knew that we had to do it for him.
My thanks to Tori for dealing with the moment for me- I am hopeless when it comes to losing my animals, I can stay with dogs and cats, but I find it so hard with the horses.
