Well, down to six horses now.

[QRTRHRS]

Sorry to hear about that. My daughter is a "horse person". She is married now, in her twenties. She has been into horses since she was 5 or so. She does 3 day eventing. Did it in college and still does it some now. I am not a horse person. I like horse. Love to look at them. Loved going to the events. Even love being around them.

But they are an unusual addiction that I do not understand. That is not to say anything negative about them or people who love them.

Anyway, my wife and I were the enablers. We bought her her first horse and then her second and then helped pay for the third even after she got married and moved to the country (where she is perfectly happy).

It all came to roost when her second horse got kicked in the leg in a freak accident in the pastures. My daughter was in high school then. They nursed and watched the horse for a few weeks but X-rays showed no healing. The horse had to be put down. My daughter was there for all except for the final event, administered by the vet. She helped arrange a back hoe and picked the spot. It was hard on her but she dealt with it.

Last Christmas her first horse, very old by now, got bad colic. She was too old to treat, it was Christmas eve and things were getting bad. Fortunately, her horses now stay in her father-in-law's pastures. They live right next door and her father-in-law is a very kind, very down-to-earth guy who grew up around cows and livestock all his life. He put the horse down on that night since there was no getting a vet out there and nothing the vet could do. He used a rifle as he had been required to do many times in his life. My daughter dealt well with that as well.

My daughter has bred her third horse and they now have that filly. She will train it for eventing. Her husband recently got a Marsh Tacky and they have a fourth horse that is a border. These horses seem to take up all of their time and money but it makes them both happy.

All of this is to sat that I don't necessarily "get" you horse people. But, I've been on the margins of that lifestyle and it has served my daughter and her new husband well and in that regard I can sympathize with your loss having seen them deal with it up close.

My wife is the horse person and I am just along for the ride, lol! Honestly, I do not really care to ride much but I like being around them. About the only thing I don't like is the money involved but hey, you cannot take it with you.

Over the years, I have learned a lot of skills, many of which come to play to either set up or maintain a property to keep horses on. I have had to learn new skills while remembering the forgotten ones.

I have met many people over the years with only one or two that I had to restrain myself rather than ask them to get off of my property. Some have been clearly out of my league but friendly none the less. The ones I do not care for are the ones do not properly care for their animals or the one's who breed "mutts". I used to have two stallions (both whom I kept until their death) but I stopped breeding them when a. the economy got bad and b. It was obvious that people did not have a clue and were approaching the prospect like they were going to breed their dog.

Anyway, I agree that horses are livestock albeit more shall we say personable than a cow (though some of my farmer friends would dispute that). As with all livestock, there are good days and some not so good days.

 

[N80]

Agreed. My daughter has learned to install and maintain fence lines, they built a run-in shed/barn for the foal to be born in, she has learned a serious number of veterinary skills. She was pre-Vet in college. She finished Clemson in 3 years and got in to UGA vet school but decided she just liked living in the country and declined.

As far as attachment to the horses, for her there is definitely a connection that is much closer to the way most of us feel about beloved dogs and cats. I have a hard time seeing it but she is extremely attached to the mare she uses for jumping and dressage and is getting very attached to the filly from that mare. Losing horses has been tough on her. The first one was the hardest because it was not old and the injury was sudden and unexpected.

She also worked at a thoroughbred training and therapy center for several years riding and rehab-ing thoroughbreds. She liked the jobs but found the thoroughbred racing horses to be very temperamental and hard to deal with. She was the go-to rider for the nasty ones.