It's been over 36 years since I've been without a horse in my life. But as of this morning, I am once again horse-less. Flash, my daughter's pony and our last remaining equine, was put down this morning.
This was taken the summer after Tara got Flash. We went camping and riding at Sand Ridge State Park. Flash was exactly what this kid wanted -- a blonde girl pony. Flash was kind but stubborn -- typical pony attitude. But she was a good ride for Tara, teaching her to read her horse.
We nursed her thru horribly chronic laminitis several years ago. Xrays showed that she had significant rotation of the coffin bone which usually is 'corrected' by trimming the foot at a more straight-up angle and corrective shoes -- expensive!. I researched and found another option for the rotation and if it worked it would be a permanent cure, not just a fix. It was labor intensive and I had to convince my farrier to trim her feet the way I wanted them, not the way he had been taught to trim foundered horses. After signing a release waiver, he did it the way I wanted. A year later, you couldn't tell that she had ever been foundered, and that continued the rest of her life. The farrier always commented on how beautiful her feet were each time he came to trim them.
My farrier was the one who tipped me on what was causing the chronic laminitis. Flash had thyroid problems. After starting her on medication, she had no recurrences. At the same time we found out that she had Cushings disease but the medication for that was cost prohibitive. So we decided to treat it with benign neglect -- doing nothing and letting her live as long as she was comfortable.
Tara & Flash in the summer of 1989
She was so pretty with that dark palomino coat.
Flash also was best friends with my gelding, Shettan, and when he died several years ago, she just wasn't the same. It wasn't just that she was an only horse, altho that played into it. The spark that made Flash Flash slowly eroded away. This past winter, she seemed a bit happier with the company of the ducks and chickens in her yard. She seemed to enjoy herding the ducks around the pen.
But when spring arrived and she lost what little bit of coat she was going to lose (due to the Cushings disease), I could see how much condition she'd lost over the winter. Then, about a month ago, she went completely off her feed. All she would eat was grass. And spring grass is not good for a horse to graze 24/7, and a couple hours of grass was not enough to keep her alive.
So I had the vet out. Teeth were rough but obviously not what was keeping her from eating since she'd eat grass all day given the chance. She wouldn't even come up at feeding time. I'd have to go chase her down to bring her in. That is NOT normal for Flash. The vet drew blood for lab tests, but nothing came back conclusive. I tried different foods to tempt her but the only thing she'd eat regularly was her bran (no nutritional value) and grass. The rest she'd eat when it was 'new' but after a couple days, she'd just quit eating it.
So the decision had to be made. Did we spend more money trying to keep an elderly (28yr) pony with health issues alive or put her down?
It's not an easy decision to take a life, even when it is the humane thing to do. I could have put this off as she had started eating some rolled oats mixed with her bran fairly regularly, but it still would have had to be done before winter. And she was still losing weight. Her backbone stuck up off her ribs about 4 inches and there was nothing but skin over those ribs. You could hang a hat on her hip bones.
And her attitude was just flat. No spark, no life, no will to live. So after discussing it with Tara and Mike, we decided to put her down now. There was no sense spending more money hunting down a cause for this.
So this morning, Flash was eased out of this life and into the next where she can eat all the grass she wants, where her coat is once again a dark gold instead of flat, dull cream, and where she can once again play with her best pal, Shettan.
