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Maureen's story, Part 2 |
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| Chronic degeneration is another reason to look at having your horse euthanized. A horse with severe navicular changes or crippling arthritis may be in so much pain every day that their whole way of life changes. Do you remember when Tina told us about her friend's gelding, who had a heart murmur (link ) and he became increasingly difficult to handle? Part of that may have been due to the pain and discomfort he was in. Horses are no different than people in that chronic pain shapes their lives. A horse who may have been a great kids horse may no longer be safe for experienced handlers. A once sunny disposition may turn sour. Pain does that - it takes the joy out of living. "Quality of life" is a very important phrase to consider when thinking about what to do with your older horse, or any horse that suffers from a painful condition. You have to balance the quality of life with the usefulness of the horse - for instance, it may be worth keeping an older, arthritic pony for your young children to learn about horses with, as long as you do what you can to alleviate the pony's discomfort. However, once those same kids move on to younger horses, the time has come to change your view. Once the kids change up to different horses, that same pony no longer has a job or purpose, and therefore there is nothing to balance against it's pain except the emotional attachment of the owners. And as much as I hate to say this, even knowing how emotional most of us are about our horses, that isn't enough to be fair to the pony. Another example would be keeping a valuable broodmare who founders during her pregnancy. Keep her as comfortable as possible, and then as soon as you can after foaling, it may be time to say goodbye. It just isn't fair to keep them for our gain when they are that much pain. Starting next week, actually dealing with having to put your horse down.
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Last week, Maureen came to the painful decision not only to have to put down the horse she had owned for 26 years, but also to have to take matters into her own hands when the vet was unavailable.
---- The vet suggested having the mare shot to put an end to her suffering. So I got one of my neighbours, who hunts but is not a horse lover, to come over with the gun that he uses to shoot big game with (like moose). The vet told me how to find the right position for the shot. I stayed with the neighbour and Apache. It went just like the vet said it should, bloody but painless. She never moved or even twitched a muscle, so I am sure that she never knew what hit her. I know that some horse lovers will be horrified at how I handled this. They will probably want to know how I could be so barbaric as to shoot my oldest and dearest horse friend. Well here were my alternatives: Watch her go into shock with no more pain killers to ease the suffering until the vet arrived several hours later. Put her in a horse trailer in her condition with no pain killers and drive her 4 hours to a large animal hospital where she would have probably waited until Monday morning for them to try to operate on her. Or shorten her pain and bury her on the home place. I thought about trying the surgery, my vet felt that she would probably not survive the trip let alone the surgery. I live in north-eastern Alberta and we are a long ways away from any large centers that deal with horses. Being as old as she was, there was no telling how much longer the surgery would prolong her life, and to what purpose? Although it was terrible living through the experience of having her shot (I collapsed afterwards), I am glad that I was there; the last thing that she felt was my hand on her neck and I know without a doubt that she did not suffer. I do not have to wonder if I was told everything went fine to spare my feelings. I witnessed the whole thing. My neighbour, God bless his soul, brought over his big tractor and we were able to bury her in the pasture by some trees. For people with older horses, you have to have some kind of plan in place. For myself, I had decided while she was still healthy just how far I was willing and able to go before I decided to end her life. I did not want to have to try to make all the hard decisions when I was perhaps too emotional to make the decision that was right for my horse. I wanted to ensure that when that time came that I doing what was best for her, not what would ease my sorrow. I did not want her eking out an existence with only one or two teeth in her mouth and looking like a hide thrown over a rail fence. I had decided that when she no longer took an interest in her surroundings (she was always a very inquisitive horse) or when life was becoming a burden to her that I would help her out with dignity. This horse saw me through my teenage years, a broken relationship, the death of my father; she started me roping, she was my trail horse, 4-H horse, show horse and chore horse. She taught many other children the joys of riding a horse. She asked for nothing other than food and love. I owed her a quick, merciful end to any pain that she had. I still cry when I think about that day and it has been nearly 2 years. I still miss her in my pasture, my step daughter misses riding her. I miss talking to her about my ups and downs in life. But in the end, I still feel I made the right decision for her. Maureen |
The next dilute gene I'm going to cover here is the dun gene. Not to be confused with buckskins, which we now know are a result of the cream gene acting on a bay, a true dun will have a dorsal stripe, usually leg barring to some degree, and possibly many other dun characteristics called factors. In fact, there are Dun Factor Classes set up specifically to measure the amount and intensity of dun factor on a horse. The International Buckskin Horse Association (which registers buckskins, duns, red duns, and grullas) recognizes nine different dun factors, and during a dun factor class, the horse with the highest number of factors wins. If two horses have an equal number of dun factors, the judge must then look at the intensity of the markings, and if still considered equal, the judge can use conformation as a final tie breaker. Unlike a halter class, in which conformation is paramount, in a Dun Factor class, conformation may only count for up to 20% of the final mark. These dun factors include: dorsal stripe, leg barring, ear tips and edging, face masks, facial cobwebbing, mottling, shoulder stripe or shadow, neck striping or shadow, and mane and/or tail frosting. The dorsal stripe refers to the dark line which begins at the poll, running through the mane along the crest of the neck. Where the mane hair ends at the withers, it appears vividly along the spine and runs through to, and sometimes into, the tail. Dorsal means basically to do with the line of the back (in fact, many duns are referred to as linebacks). The dorsal stripe is probably the most recognized marking of the true dun - but there can be a hitch! There is another gene, called counter shading, which mimics the dorsal stripe quite effectively. The counter shading gene causes a line that actually appears to be a dorsal stripe, but with one simple difference - if there is no dun parent, the horse with the dorsal stripe cannot be a dun. Many foals are also found to have a dorsal stripe which fades as they mature, they too can be incorrectly classified as duns. Even with one dun parent, a horse that has a dorsal stripe may actually have counter shading and not the dun gene - if no other dun characteristics are present., chances are the horse is not a true dun. Next week, more on the dun factors!
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If you have tips or questions you'd like to share with other local equestrians, please mail them to kristi@hiway16.com
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