This post has been brewing for a long time, and I hope that it doesn't offend anyone. Rest assured that it has not been precipitated by any particular event (beyond me being in Toronto without more tangible material).
If I am ever forced to give up the horses I will have Tonka euthanized without debate, and I will have Raven euthanized if I cannot find her a perfect free lease. According to my own moral code I am responsible for these two in perpetuity, and I would rather subject them to certain death than to uncertain life. Without conditions similar to those at Farcical Farm Tonka would probably founder, fail and be sold for slaughter. Without an experienced, level-headed rider Raven could easily be shuffled from inappropriate home to inappropriate home, probably making babies along the way (another reason I would like to have her spayed). Euthanasia may sound extreme to you, but the alternative sounds terrifying to me.
.JPG)
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32 minutes ago
4 comments:
I understand where you are coming from. I feel the same way about my boys. They have great show records and outstanding breeding but that still means nothing if they were ever to come into the wrong hands. If I couldn't find the perfect fit with knowledge that they would be taken care of and loved then I would like you do the same. I am not a person who can let go of something and then think sunshine and flowers, I think of the horrors that would befall them and uncertain futures.
You're totally right, especially with your two.
Ugh, wait, I don't mean that like it probably sounds - I mean you have special needs horses, and it's EVEN HARDER to find a good home for them. I have three that could probably find good homes and one old mare with a rather broken spirit and congestive heart failure. I might, if forced to, take the chance with the other three, but there's no way I could sell the old mare.
Thank for the comments and the comprehension. Let's hope that fate will never force my hand.
zrsbkgdOh, I sooo identify with your situation of thinking about what the future might hold.
I 'support' a closed and useless-but-much -loved herd of ponies, and week before last had to make that horrible and inevitable decision regarding the futures of three of them.
Euthanized the chosen ones because of
(1) melanoma (older gray mare), (2)pre-cushings syndrome (laminitis and subsequent abcesses) and (3)intractable laminitis in a correct- weight young mare.
It was like cutting a piece of my heart out, but afterward there was such a feeling of release, knowing there would be no more hurting for that gang.
BUT, that said, there are several left who haven't had the degree of laminitis and I'll carry on managing that day by day (which becomes years).
My greatest fear is that if I should pass one of the ponies on to "a very good home", chances are that within a few years those folks would pass him/her to yet another home, and so on and so on, because ponies frequently live for 35 years or more. The chances of finding truly good homes for aging equines goes down in inverse relation to the increase in their years.
In my narrow little mind, I'd rather they had an instant and painless death earlier in their years in my hands than have years of suffering in the hands of unfeeling others.
So I say, have great fun with them, enjoy every day, bury your face into that little spot just below the ear where it joins the neck and take a big sniff of wonderful.
They'll tell you when it's their time to go.
Good luck with your pair. They're lucky to have found their way to you !pchwvj
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