Life and Death

    So I went on another college visit today and I think that I am about ready to decide where I want to go for college!! AHHHH crazy!!!
    So on to my project. I am still reading "Chosen by a Horse" and I love it still. Actually scratch that. I just finished it and I bawled my eyes out. The way that Richards was able to convey the loss and love of a horse is amazing. I have worked with three horses that had to be put down.
     Snickers coliced and had to be euthanized, we had sent him to Cornell to see if he could be saved but unfortunately his owner did not want to pay for the surgery bills. This was when I was a camper at Misty Hollow, we lease the horses from April to October and therefore his owner had the final say. For those of you who don't know, colic in a horse is when there is a food blockage or other obstruction in the intestine. Horses are not able to throw up and relieve themselves of the blockage that way so the only thing to do is walk them, the walking helps to move blockage sometimes resulting in passage of the blockage. In extremely bad cases the intestine can twist itself so that even walking does not help. Snickers had a pretty bad case, all riding was canceled that day and our barn staff stayed up the entire night walking him. Unfortunately the next morning he was sent to Cornell and didn't come back. I had been riding him the day before and was really sad to see him go, he was a spirited little horse.
     Then there was Zoe. She was the oldest most decrepit mare in our barn. She had a limp when she walked and we fed her so much food to keep weight on. Zoe was narcoleptic, which means that she falls over when she falls asleep. To be sure that this wouldn't happen we had to watch her constantly while she was being ridden. Sometime during her journey back home she must have had a narcoleptic episode because when her owner had gotten home and opened the trailer she was down. Unfortunately she didn't get up and they presumed her dead and therefore left her in the trailer overnight until a grave could be dug. When her owner went out the next morning she was standing up eating hay that was left in the trailer. Her owner then decided to let her live out the summer at pasture and then would put her down before winter
    Baby was a polo horse that I just met last year. She was so inquisitive and full of life. She had a tick in which she would always play with her bit and flap her lips together. She got an infection in her eye and had to get medication. She went blind in one eye and was moved to a different barn to live out her life. Unfortunately she then went blind in both eyes and had to be put down. A horse can live blind in one eye, we have one at my barn, but being blind in both eyes is a death sentence.
      It sucks to see all these gorgeous horses put down before it was their time to go but  its nice to know that they didn't have to suffer anymore than was necessary.