Thursday, October 2, 2014

Vale Bitchly


So today I farewelled brother Butch and gave him a dignified exit. He ran an incredible xc in the weekend to finish 3rd in the training class. The weather for cross country was hideously old and horrible. Never before have I been galloping along like I'm so cold I just want to stop. Everytime I looked up his ginger ears were hard forward. He was a touch sticky on the way out in horrendous footing, but settled in amazing and never gave me a moments hesitation. Had a moment in the water when I overrode it thinking he would suck back and we jumped in like we were trying to clear the thing. 

People must watch me dressage and lol but he is such a phenomenal jumper it makes up for the fact we or usually about second to last after te first phase. It breaks my heart a little I didn't switch him to eventing earlier. He loves it so much. He probably would have been a three star horse before his body was all messed up. 

The deal is he wasn't sound. He was a one out of five off all the time, he didn't respond to the coffin joint injection very much and his feet are so brittle he needs to go on to glue ons which I can't afford, even though my incredible farrier offered me an unbelievable deal. So while he is sort of comfortable enough and functionally sound on this round of shpes he was going to be crippled. I have to remind myself of this because this means he went out still functional. He was so much more fragile than last season and I wonder how comfortable he was in his body. At some point you just have to stop throwing money at the issue and face the facts. I still can't believe it's real, that I'll never see his gorgeous pink nose again. To the best xc horse and hunter I ever rode. Love you bitchly, please forgive me.

9 comments:

  1. Here's to a great big red horse! I'm glad you sent him off before he got sore or unhappy. Better to do it years too early than a day too late imho.

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  2. I'm so sorry for your loss, sounds like a lovely last ride.

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  3. I am so sorry, words are not enough :(

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  4. Hard choices. :-( Better to let him go than see him suffer. Hugs.

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  5. Ah princess! I keep remembering all the super fun times you got to jump 90cm on him when I still had Cow. That was 07. So sorry hon. Wish I could be there to squish you with love. You gave him the ultimate kindness. Don't forget!

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  6. sorry, he had amazing heart. Sometimes the best gift we can give, is to ease suffering and prevent it when possible.

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  7. Beautiful horse. Sometimes its whats best, Im sorry though *hugs*

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  8. I'm so sorry, Bex. You did the right thing for both of you. I'm so sad for you having to make the decision.

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  9. I don't know how I missed this earlier, but I'm so very sorry. I know how hard that decision is to make and my thoughts are with you.

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