said goodbye to my beautiful girl yesterday
Yesterday, I made the decision to put my beautiful friend to sleep. I got her when she was 4 and I was 10, and yesterday she was 27, and I am 33.
In our 23 years together, we competed in 4-H shows doing barrel racing, making it all the way to 4-H States and placing in several events. We then switched to 3-Day Eventing when I was a senior in high school, where we competed in the Beginner Novice division. She came with me to college, to graduate school, and finally to Western NY where I've been for 10 years. I haven't shown her since high school but we kept on riding (mostly trail riding) until a few years ago, when I finally retired her due to arthritis. She's lived out her retirement at a small barn with 24/7 pasture access from her stall, maintenance Bute, and lots of love. We were worried about her survival of last winter, since she had gotten stuck a few times laying down, but we removed her blanket and she did really well, exceeding our expectations.
Her arthritis got worse over the summer, and she was struggling to put any weight on her bad leg, which was taking its toll on the rest of her legs and she had lost weight (which says a lot since she is the easiest keeper in the world).
I had to make the truly horrible decision to put her down before some sort emergency happened. We put her on a nerve blocker for her last week and she did amazingly well. She was laying down and rolling in the pasture. It was heart-breaking to see her doing so well, knowing that she was never going to get any better. Saying goodbye to her was one of the worst things I've ever done. I couldn't watch when they put her to sleep, but they told me she went down peacefully, and then kept eating grass until it was over. I'm glad she as able to bring some brevity to such a sad situation. It was a beautiful fall day.
I am going to miss her so much. She was an amazing friend and partner. She was such a fighter and she would do anything for me. She tried so hard to do anything I asked of her, yet she was so sweet and gentle. She got so many treats and kisses this past week, and I am so thankful that I got a final week to spend with her. My heart is broken and I feel like a piece of my soul is gone.
Submitted October 15, 2017 at 08:11AM by JustJumpIt17
via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/Horses/comments/76j53j/said_goodbye_to_my_beautiful_girl_yesterday/?utm_source=ifttt
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