From: pallas@CEPHALO.NEUSC.BCM.TMC.EDU (Sarah Pallas)
Newsgroups: rec.equestrian
Subject: Re: sentementality
Date: 5 Oct 92 19:16:28 GMT
Article-I.D.: gazette.1aq4acINNi9n
Organization: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston,Tx
NNTP-Posting-Host: cephalo.neusc.bcm.tmc.edu

In article <Bvnt2A.3pC@knot.ccs.queensu.ca> woit@qucis.queensu.ca (Denise Woit) writes:
>In article <1992O> GC.SUL@forsythe.stanford.edu (Sullivan) writes:
>
>>                                              ...  My horse was
>>really my best friend for 7 years and I feel really sorry for the
>>way I let her down in the end
>
>This brings to mind an article I just read in the paper. The headlines said
>something about a guy stipulating in his will that his horses be shot when
>he died.
>
>Like some of the others who have posted on this subject, I too have
>agonized over the fate of my ex-horse.

This is a really tough thing for me to think about too.  My first
horse (finally purchased just about 14 months ago) died of surgical
colic (it was an intestinal tumor that had choked off circulation in
the gut) only 12 DAYS after I bought him, leaving me so depressed that
I couldn't work, and so broke (I had spent my life savings purchasing
him, and gone into hock trying to save him through surgery) that I
didn't know if I'd be able to ride again, not that I could bear to
anyway.  A few weeks later, the lady who sold me the horse said that
she felt really bad, and wanted to give me a horse that she'd had
trouble selling because he had navicular changes.  I took him only
witht he idea that I could train him some and sell him to pay off my
debts, and I started out rather hating him, not wanting to let him
replace the other horse in my thoughts.  However, I soon enough fell
in love with him in spite of my intentions never to get attached, and
when it came time for me to move from Boston to Houston, it was very
hard for me to think of selling him.  However, he had the ttype of
personality that didn't deal well with lack of exercise, and I knew I
wouldn't have time to give him the attention he needed after I took my
position here.  So I went about trying to sell him, somehow avoided
selling him to a woman who the horse really hated, even though she
offered me lots of $$, and sold him to a 16 year old as a first horse.
It was a great match, and I was so relieved to see him in good hands.
Then, tragically, only about a month later, he broke his pastern 
playing in the paddock one day, and had to be put down.  

I've been confused about why I didn't mourn over him as much as I
thought I would, but this thread has shown me.  I was so relieved I
didn't have to worry that he was OK, and if he was dead, I didn't have
to worry about him.  And I felt that way even though I had first
refusal rights on the sales contract, and though I knew he had a great
home. So I can really understand why the guy with the Percherons
wanted his horses killed after he died, even though it sounds really
strange when you first hear it.

And now I'm afraid to get another horse, so I'm hoping nice lease
arrangements will keep coming my way!

Sarah Pallas and Monty (my half-leased horse who is owned and loved by
somebody else!)
Newsgroups: rec.equestrian