23/09/2022
Know that old gelding of yours? You know, the trusty gelding who taught you to ride. We all have one in our pasture. He was the first horse you trusted with your kids. Everything this horse has done has had a purpose behind it.
Now his joints are starting to show arthritis from all the learning you two did together. He probably has slowed down and needs a little extra food. Your family is ready for something with a little more speed and he doesn’t fit the bill. So you convince yourself you are letting him go so he can help teach another child. In your mind, you see him happily trotting down the road with a sweet little girl on his back.
In reality, that little girl will ride and enjoy him for a few years. However, she eventually outgrows him. He’s even slower and she’s ready to run. Her family is not bonded with your horse like you were. They sell him to the inexperienced family down the road.
This family knows nothing about horses. They don’t know how to feed an aged horse. He looses weight. Soon it’s so bad they keep him in the back pasture where no one can see him.
Finally, they take him to a sale.
No one at the sale wants a neglected, aged horse. So he goes through the ring and sells for $400 to a killbuyer. The killpen is where I find him. I know nothing about his history and nothing about his health. All I can see is the wisdom and pain in his eyes. I take him home and hope I will have the opportunity to help him.
As much as I love what I do, I would love to never see one of these poor old guys again. It breaks my heart to know that this is the story of so many animals out there.
So please, please if you can no longer afford to keep your older horses, lease them to a friend or put them down. No one deserves to be forgotten in their elder years.
Writing/photo by Shishana Rourke
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