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| Luna (Zahara) left us on May 4th 2011 aged 8 years old |
We have had to have Lunar destroyed last Wednesday. My poor OH is still pretty much devastated. I think we - family and volunteeers - all are too.
We all know she was the most difficult of little mares but because of her background and her past history we forgave her most things and made allowances for others.
What happened? - a freak horrible and probably preventable accident which has brought me up short, hindsight, tragic hindsight is the best of teachers.
Lunar had come on so well lately. From being almost impossible to handle at the beginning and difficult to trim her feet and things my OH had worked long and hard with her, he because this mare simply did not like female humans at all and would react violently towards us girls.
Lunar was booked to go to our great Patron, Janet George, who had so kindly offered to start the little mare under saddle ( re-starting after a botch job early in her life) and increase her education giving her options and seeing if she could be brought into work and if she would begin to accept women in her life.
Then we decided to postpone her going for a bit as suddenly things were going well with the mare and our general concensus was to keep going as we were and don't rock the boat. She was allowing all 4 hooves to be trimmed and picked out daily and this was a huge step forward for her.
We all know she was the most difficult of little mares but because of her background and her past history we forgave her most things and made allowances for others.
What happened? - a freak horrible and probably preventable accident which has brought me up short, hindsight, tragic hindsight is the best of teachers.
Lunar had come on so well lately. From being almost impossible to handle at the beginning and difficult to trim her feet and things my OH had worked long and hard with her, he because this mare simply did not like female humans at all and would react violently towards us girls.
Lunar was booked to go to our great Patron, Janet George, who had so kindly offered to start the little mare under saddle ( re-starting after a botch job early in her life) and increase her education giving her options and seeing if she could be brought into work and if she would begin to accept women in her life.
Then we decided to postpone her going for a bit as suddenly things were going well with the mare and our general concensus was to keep going as we were and don't rock the boat. She was allowing all 4 hooves to be trimmed and picked out daily and this was a huge step forward for her.
Then out of the blue Lunar rocked the boat herself last weekend her strange and disturbed mind went haywire again and she attempted to seriously kick my OH. She had no, obvious to us humans, reason for this and had almost become a 'normal' horse, it was the first time she'd done anything like this for a long long time. Once again we forgave her, passed it off as weather provoked, it was very windy, although I was in the same field as her, doing long line work with Beanie, Lunar's 2 year old filly - and volunteer Maria was near the fence line though not touching Lunar at all - all these things could be trigger factors for a small pretty arab mare with a very odd mind
She was fine again on the tuesday, had her feet done by OH, no probs, you could say she was back to normal.
Her sweet-itch had gotten a little worse in the last week or so and OH has been diligently plastering her in de-itch stuff to back up her herbal supplement...she had been rubbing a bit and made herself a bit sore...and this is the where the end of this devastating story began from.
Where she chose to rub was the only weak spot in the fence. It was weak because of a previous break in from neighbouring horses back last autumn. I'd put a hurdle in the fence, put there to stop any further break in or out. I'd been going to move it for weeks ... but I hadn't moved it..
It must have worked loose with her scratching and this is how we saw the deadly progression that followed.... We found her early on Wednesday morning on three legs with a mess of blood and skin and bone..
We assume the hurdle had fallen and she got her back legs through it and then blindly panicked..
It had taken all the skin off both her back legs right down to the bone, clearly bringing her down, and when she got up it must have caught her pastern,smashing it and opening her tendons and doing unbelievable damage her fetlock. My God, it was a blood bath that greeted. Poor Lunar.
With her known handling history and her many other ongoing problems we made the massive decision ( vet backed) to PTS immediately.
I feel sickened writing this as I know it's my fault. I always wanted a pure arab though maybe not one with such problems but hey! thats what we do here at EMW-UK and so she was my dream, a mad infathomable woman hating stunningly beautiful 8 year old arabian mare...She is gone now...and I won't wish again, I'm devastated as much as I was when we lost our oldest lad Tanna, 2 years ago, but with Lunar it should never havve have happened and poor Lunar has paid the price with her life.
Too late for her, we have since gone round the whole place securing fences , not that anything really was a problem or needed changing at all, just that one bloody place, just that.
She was just 8 years old and had been with us for 2 and half years. Beanie (Dragons Flight) is now an orphan, albeit a big one she will be 2 on 28th July, and has now gone into the big herd to integrate and is happy enough though still looks bewildered. She did get to spend time with her Mother after she was PTS and come to terms as much as any mammal can , the death of her mother. She neighed just once when Phillip took Lunar away and so knew her mum was gone.
R.I.P. Lunar...no pain where you are.
She was fine again on the tuesday, had her feet done by OH, no probs, you could say she was back to normal.
Her sweet-itch had gotten a little worse in the last week or so and OH has been diligently plastering her in de-itch stuff to back up her herbal supplement...she had been rubbing a bit and made herself a bit sore...and this is the where the end of this devastating story began from.
Where she chose to rub was the only weak spot in the fence. It was weak because of a previous break in from neighbouring horses back last autumn. I'd put a hurdle in the fence, put there to stop any further break in or out. I'd been going to move it for weeks ... but I hadn't moved it..
It must have worked loose with her scratching and this is how we saw the deadly progression that followed.... We found her early on Wednesday morning on three legs with a mess of blood and skin and bone..
We assume the hurdle had fallen and she got her back legs through it and then blindly panicked..
It had taken all the skin off both her back legs right down to the bone, clearly bringing her down, and when she got up it must have caught her pastern,smashing it and opening her tendons and doing unbelievable damage her fetlock. My God, it was a blood bath that greeted. Poor Lunar.
With her known handling history and her many other ongoing problems we made the massive decision ( vet backed) to PTS immediately.
I feel sickened writing this as I know it's my fault. I always wanted a pure arab though maybe not one with such problems but hey! thats what we do here at EMW-UK and so she was my dream, a mad infathomable woman hating stunningly beautiful 8 year old arabian mare...She is gone now...and I won't wish again, I'm devastated as much as I was when we lost our oldest lad Tanna, 2 years ago, but with Lunar it should never havve have happened and poor Lunar has paid the price with her life.
Too late for her, we have since gone round the whole place securing fences , not that anything really was a problem or needed changing at all, just that one bloody place, just that.
She was just 8 years old and had been with us for 2 and half years. Beanie (Dragons Flight) is now an orphan, albeit a big one she will be 2 on 28th July, and has now gone into the big herd to integrate and is happy enough though still looks bewildered. She did get to spend time with her Mother after she was PTS and come to terms as much as any mammal can , the death of her mother. She neighed just once when Phillip took Lunar away and so knew her mum was gone.
R.I.P. Lunar...no pain where you are.
Elaine what a wonderful write up! Brought tears to my eyes as I can feel yours and Pete's pain at this tragic accident! and that's all it was a tragic accident! One which you should not blame yourself for.
ReplyDeleteHuge hugs to you both...
Julie xx