It's a time we all knew would come. The 36 year old patriarch of our family herd is nearing the end of his days. Old Buddy is one of the original 2 horses my parents bought each other as wedding gifts (my mother always loved horses and wanted one of her own, but growing up with a single mother, had to be content with riding her friend's horses. My father always dreamed of being a "cowboy" in a western). Bud is dad's horse. Poco, my mom's original horse, passed on her own in the pasture back in '99.
I laugh when I tell people that Old Buddy has been in the family longer than I have!
We are Old Buddy's 3rd owner. The people my parents bought him from had bought him as a young foal from an auction at Unadilla where momma went one way and baby went another...so small that he fit in the back of a pick-up truck with a cap on it. 2 years later, my parents would pass his pasture on their daily walks and the horse would follow them along the fence line, and wait for them to return and follow them back down it. They decided they needed this charming unbroken 2y/o stud. They breed him to my mother's mare and had 1 foal...Fawn. Tragically, Fawn had to be put down as a 2 y/o due to severe colic. That was the first horse my father ever had to shoot (and she was his BABY! The horse followed him around like a dog).
Soon after Fawn was born, they gelded Buddy and he has since lived the great life...24/7 pastures, friends, only the occasional trail rides, and a very brief stint sometime in his 20s when I tried to turn him into a gymkhana horse when my show mare was down with Potomac horse fever. That failed miserably :-P
For the past 5 years or so, we have had to feed old Buddy senior "mush" 3 x per day as he lost his back teeth and couldn't eat hay or grass. He also developed a tumor right at his throat area, but it wasn't concerning to the vet.
Over the past day or so, he as stopped eating and drinking (no other signs of distress or high temperature). We had the vet out yesterday and she tried to tube him to see if it was a blockage. God Bless her, she tried and tried and tried and just couldn't get that tube down him (though he cooperated like a saint). We think either that tumor or another one that we don't know about has blocked him from being able to eat or drink. Dad tried feeding him a tiny bit and Old Buddy took a bite with gusto, but only one bite.
It's so sad because he is otherwise very energetic and seeing him in the pasture, it's like there's nothing wrong except he is starting to look a bit skinny (he has always been on the slender-side though). My poor father knows what needs to happen, but feels like he owes it to his old friend to do the deed himself, not the vet. Only a few weeks ago, we had to put my old QH (the one that had the Potomac Horse Fever years ago) down. She was in obvious distress (breathing issues) and it was still hard for my father to do. That night, I told old Buddy when he thought his time had come, could he please just lay down in the pasture and go on his own? No such luck.
The jingles are really for my father. How do you what you know needs to be done, to someone who has been your friend for 34 years?! I'm also worried that he is going to linger a bit as Dad was telling me that he will know it is time when he sees old Buddy in distress. I don't know if that will really ever happen without him really dehydrating and starving. I'm tearing up right now just thinking how odd it will be to not see that old gelding in our pasture. It will be the first time in my entire life.
Thanks for reading this rambling narrative. It has already helped a bit just typing it out. :'(
I laugh when I tell people that Old Buddy has been in the family longer than I have!
We are Old Buddy's 3rd owner. The people my parents bought him from had bought him as a young foal from an auction at Unadilla where momma went one way and baby went another...so small that he fit in the back of a pick-up truck with a cap on it. 2 years later, my parents would pass his pasture on their daily walks and the horse would follow them along the fence line, and wait for them to return and follow them back down it. They decided they needed this charming unbroken 2y/o stud. They breed him to my mother's mare and had 1 foal...Fawn. Tragically, Fawn had to be put down as a 2 y/o due to severe colic. That was the first horse my father ever had to shoot (and she was his BABY! The horse followed him around like a dog).
Soon after Fawn was born, they gelded Buddy and he has since lived the great life...24/7 pastures, friends, only the occasional trail rides, and a very brief stint sometime in his 20s when I tried to turn him into a gymkhana horse when my show mare was down with Potomac horse fever. That failed miserably :-P
For the past 5 years or so, we have had to feed old Buddy senior "mush" 3 x per day as he lost his back teeth and couldn't eat hay or grass. He also developed a tumor right at his throat area, but it wasn't concerning to the vet.
Over the past day or so, he as stopped eating and drinking (no other signs of distress or high temperature). We had the vet out yesterday and she tried to tube him to see if it was a blockage. God Bless her, she tried and tried and tried and just couldn't get that tube down him (though he cooperated like a saint). We think either that tumor or another one that we don't know about has blocked him from being able to eat or drink. Dad tried feeding him a tiny bit and Old Buddy took a bite with gusto, but only one bite.
It's so sad because he is otherwise very energetic and seeing him in the pasture, it's like there's nothing wrong except he is starting to look a bit skinny (he has always been on the slender-side though). My poor father knows what needs to happen, but feels like he owes it to his old friend to do the deed himself, not the vet. Only a few weeks ago, we had to put my old QH (the one that had the Potomac Horse Fever years ago) down. She was in obvious distress (breathing issues) and it was still hard for my father to do. That night, I told old Buddy when he thought his time had come, could he please just lay down in the pasture and go on his own? No such luck.
The jingles are really for my father. How do you what you know needs to be done, to someone who has been your friend for 34 years?! I'm also worried that he is going to linger a bit as Dad was telling me that he will know it is time when he sees old Buddy in distress. I don't know if that will really ever happen without him really dehydrating and starving. I'm tearing up right now just thinking how odd it will be to not see that old gelding in our pasture. It will be the first time in my entire life.
Thanks for reading this rambling narrative. It has already helped a bit just typing it out. :'(
Thank you for sharing your story.
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