|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
 |
|||||||
|
|
Chris's story |
|
|||||||
| So the decision has been reached, you are going to have your horse put down. Now what? How do you go about doing this? Of course, the severity of the situation may dictate how you will do it. If your horse is suffering a broken leg on the side of the highway, you are going to have him put down any way possible, not haul him to some vet clinic to be euthanized. Any horse that is in serious enough trouble to need an immediate release from life deserves a quick and humane end - you'll have to deal with the rest of it after the fact. Basically, your choices in large animal euthanasia are the vet administering a fatal dose of drugs, or having someone shoot your horse. Both have their pros and their cons. The vet's needle may seem to many to be the cleanest and quickest way. It is relatively painless, a quick pinprick and the drug immediately begins to work on the horse's system, shutting down his heart and his brain. A horse may lunge or stumble around somewhat as the drug takes effect; handlers are warned to stand well back once the shot has been administered. Vets can also choose to administer a first dose of enough drugs to put the horse on the ground, much like the same dosing they would use to put a horse down for gelding, etc, prior to giving the fatal dose. A gun may seem to many like a cruel way of finishing a horse's life, but it is actually even faster than a fatal drug. The key is to know where to shoot, and how, and to have someone who will do it. The ideal spot to shoot a horse to kill it immediately is found by drawing an imaginary line from the base of the left ear to the right eye. Draw a second line from the base of the right ear to the left eye. Where these lines intersect (approximately 1-2" above the eyes in the center of the forehead ) is the best spot to place a bullet. Some people prefer a shot behind the temple, but most people I talked to recommended the first method. Use a large enough calibre gun to make sure it is instant. Most horses will not even bleed after being shot in this method, nor do they feel a thing. The mare that we put down in October bled heavily but only because the aneurysm had filled her skull with extra blood. Expect muscle spasms, movement, kicking out or lunging forward - these are all normal responses of a body that has been dealt a fatal blow. However, either method should be over very quickly for the horse, and the owner. Next week, dealing with the disposal of the body
|
Chris recently wrote this to the reining list I am on and I asked her permission to use it for this series.
----- Today was a sad day for me, I had to put down my old gelding, Duke. He began to colic sometime during the night and was off his feed this morning and laying down. I knew he was very ill, because normally, every morning he would gaze anxiously into the kitchen window waiting for the lights to come on. I tried to put him out in the pasture, thinking that maybe the green grass would pique his appetite, but I knew in my heart something was very wrong. He began to look at his side and was walking with his head down, looking for a place to lay down. He ignored the two mares when they ran up to him, something he would never had done if he wasn't sick. I watched him for a few minutes from the window and decided to call the vet, as I knew he would not get through this alone. By the time the vet came, he was drooling and mucus had begun to come out of his nose. He was a valiant old horse and he never broke a sweat, even though the vet said he was in terrible pain. He lived a long and full life; I wish he could have talked to me about his adventures. I knew from the brand on his side that he came from a ranch in the Colorado Mountains. He came into my life in the winter of his years, a starved and pathetic creature, covered with sores and bites from other horses, his back legs were down in the pasterns, he was no longer ridable, his neck popped when he moved it, he staggered when he walked. Yet there was a fire, a gleam in his eye, he was a proud old horse and I was also proud to say he belonged to me in those last few years of his life, I was able to give him a home and the peace that he probably had not had in a long time. He had his own pasture, all the feed and water he could want and a big bucket of senior feed every night. He fattened up and slicked off and he was the most beautiful copper colour sorrel with gleaming highlights. I could once again see the remnants of the beautiful horse that he once was. My little grand nieces were lifted upon his back and he would walk stately around the farm, thrilling the children, who had longed to ride a horse when they visited. Just two days ago, he nickered at me for the first time in the two and a half years I had owned him. It sent a special message to me, he was saying that he finally accepted me as his human caretaker. The vet had estimated his age to be 35 years the last time I had his teeth floated. How short life is. I will miss him dearly, his face was a gnarled old face, old, and long, scarred, his teeth long and some missing, but it was a strong face, a face that had dignity, and it was with dignity I had to let him go. So now he is on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge, and he is joined there by the little colt that I lost this year at two months old, and they are both running and playing in the tall grass, they don?t feel their injuries anymore, their bodies are whole again and they are free at last. No more pain. I will miss them always. Chris |
Leg barring is the next really obvious dun characteristic. Also called tiger or zebra striping, this refers to the lines found most commonly on the forearm and gaskin of the dun gened horse. These leg bars can range from a subtle difference in colour to vivid and obvious stripes. The transverse withers stripe is another common dun factor. Originally found in the more prehistoric breeds (Mongolian, Fjord, donkey, etc), the transverse withers stripe can also range from a very minimal darkening near the withers to an obvious line running across the withers from side to side, running down into the shoulder area on both sides. Transverse basically means across, so the transverse withers stripe runs across the withers. Neck shading is kind of like a continuation of the transverse withers stripe, but found partway along the neck. If the horse has neck shading, it may be more obvious underneath the mane - try flipping the mane hairs up about half way along the neck and look for a darker area there. On my red dun mare, the neck shading is very obvious. Ear tips are quite commonly found on dun gened horses. The top half or third of the ear, as seen from the back, will be the same dark colour as the other points of the horse (ie, red if a red dun, black if a black dun, etc). The ears may also be rimmed with the dark colour if viewed from the front. Interestingly enough, the dun owners on the dungenes mailing list I am on have also been noticing that many of their duns have a tiny light coloured dot at the very tip of the ear - they are conjecturing that this is also a dun trait as they have not yet found it in the non-dun horses they have checked. The face mask is something many horse people don't actually see without specifically looking for it because they take it for granted as part of the dun horse's colour. Yet if you actually study the horse in question, you may find that there are areas of the face that are considerably darker than others - for instance, on my filly, they are black. Cobwebbing refers to the lines found on many dun horses' foreheads. Often hidden by the forelock, if you pull the hair back and look, you may see shaky little lines in the center of the forehead. These can be very difficult to spot, or they can be quite pronounced - same as most of the dun characteristics! Next week, wrapping up the dun gene.... In the meantime, please feel free to link to this site: LINK
|
|||||||
|
If you have tips or questions you'd like to share with other local equestrians, please mail them to kristi@hiway16.com
|
|||||||||
