Reassurance

Along with networking etc, we take a lot of phone calls on a daily basis.

Quite often we have to take them retrospectively as we are rarely in the office to take calls and even though we also have a phone in the main barn that rings 7 times before it goes on to voice mail, you don't always get there in time.

However I did get there in time this morning; as it happened I was cleaning out the stable that my goats are using temporarily.

It was a very nice lady from Leeds and she was asking for advice.

Apparently she had bought an elderly horse (she was told aged 20's, vet says 30's) from a dealer. It was not in very good knick but over a period of time she had nursed it back to full health, had it's teeth and feet done as much as could be, wormed it etc and she was very happy with the result. The mare was also very happy in it's new life and was showing how happy it was by greeting her at the gate, taking her children for very brief lead rein rides and enjoying her new found owner's attentions to the full. According to the caller, there are no physical problems with the mare that were causing any difficulties, all is well.

However, it is an elderly horse and she had been advised by various people that as such the only thing to do with the animal that old was to have it put down now. Get rid of it, chuck it out now, it'll never be of any use to you so save yourself money and do it NOW.

The lady was asking me if she should do what they said or should she keep it. I was a bit unsure of how to answer, after all I haven't seen the animal. So I asked her a few questions, the main one being "What do you want to do ?"

"I think she is fine and I would like to keep her."

"Then I would go with your gut instinct and keep her then. She may not last long, she may not last the winter but at least she will have had a summer of sun and love and when she gets to the end, that is what matters," is more or less what I said.

We have animals here of all ages, from 11 weeks old to 40 years old. Some animals live longer than others, some go before "their time" just like humans do. Just because an animal is over the age that we, the humans, have decided is their allotted span doesn't mean you automatically pull the plug on them. You don't pull the plug on your granny just because she hits 80 years old, nor should you assume that the elderly equine is incapable of enjoying their elderly life. Our 40 year old mares, Ginny and Lucy still canter around the field, bask in the sunshine, enjoy the food bucket and still try to graze even though they only have about 4 teeth between them. And indeed why shouldn't they? But one of the geldings who is only about 28, despite all our attempts, is simply fading away with old age. He is skin and bone. Nothing spare on him. But for the time being, he is as healthy as he can be, eats all the time, has a bit of a shine to his bony body and is himself. We will probably lose him this winter as he just isn't carrying enough weight now to get him through the cold weather no matter how many rugs we put on him. But we would no more have him put down now than fly to the moon. He is still himself and enjoying life and that is what counts, not the number of years he has behind him.

That was what I was trying to get the lady from Leeds to see and to be honest, she already knows what she wants to do. She wants to keep the mare until the end. All she needed was to hear it from someone else. You could hear the happiness in her voice.

So lady from Leeds, if you are in fact reading this, good luck with the mare, I am sure that she will give you great pleasure even for a short time and that when her time does come, you will deal with it in a compassionate way. It is the last act of kindness you can give any animal. She has been very lucky indeed to find you.