| Losing Another Friend |
February 13, 2008
by Bonnie Davis
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Last week decided to bring my 4-year old Morgan gelding into barn. He's been in stall off and on all year. It's not like it's a new stall or Scooter doesn't know what the barn routine is. He does.
Brought him into barn, fed him his dinner, put his blanket on and gave him a good-night 'pat.' Checked all the horses going out of barn and then shut barn doors.
Next morning, you know how you drive up the barn and feel something isn't right? Can't put your finger on it. But something is just 'wrong.'
Opened the barn doors and all the horses whinnied. Even Scooter. First thing, get all horses unblanketed. When I opened Scooter's stall door, knew it was him that wasn't right. He was standing in stall corner, hip against wall and just looking at me. Didn't want to move.
I took his blanket off and saw it. His right hind leg didn't look 'right.' He wasn't putting his weight on it. I felt around leg and hip and could feel a definite break. When he move, he hopped on three legs.
The vet was due that morning to give some other horses a couple shots. I fed Scooter (he went to eating pellets like nothing was wrong). By the time the vet got there, Scooter was standing square, eating and just looked at us when we went into stall.
Scoot wouldn't move. After a careful inspection, the vet found the break too. Scooter had broken the knee cap on his right hind leg. The break was such that when the leg turned one way, the knee cap would come 'back together' to suppose the joint. When Scooter turned another way, the 'cap' parted so he couldn't walk on it. But through all this, Scooter never seemed to be in pain.
We all talked for awhile on what the best course of action was for Scooter. And after Scooter finished his pellets, I gave him his favorite treats and made that decision every horse owner hates to make -- put him down. There isn't much one can do with a broken knee cap.
The vet, my daughter Becky and I all inspected that stall top to bottom, wall to wall. We could find nothing that Scoot could have hurt himself on. No kick marks. No marks like he got his leg hung up somewhere. He had 12 inches of shavings in stall, mats in paddock. Scoot has "just" broken the knee cap.
The vet said he had never seen an accident like that before. He'd seen broken knee caps but never on a horse in a stall. We theorized that maybe Scoot had cracked the knee cap when he was younger and somehow, someway he had broken it completely when getting up or down or around in his stall.
We'll never really know what happened. But things happen to horses. Regardless of how much we try to protect them in accident proof stalls they still get hurt. About the only explanation Becky and I could come up with was that be it God or a Higher Force, Scoot was needed to be somewhere else for something else. For me, I find comfort in knowing that right now Scooter is grazing with Bud and Sig, Flint and Sam being the obnoxious 4-year-old gelding chewing on everyone's tail, stealing plastic feed tubs and chasing stray chickens that wander into the pasture........
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| Hi Bonnie - We've never met, but I know of your work, and was looking forward to reading your blog to get to know you. I read about your shovel and chuckled, knowing how much I get attached to my tools, too. But I was really sorry to read about Scooter. I think your line, Things happen to horses, is right on. Who knows why one lives to 30 and another has a freak break and dies at four? We love them anyway. I'm sure horse lovers will share your sense of loss for Scooter as they read your blog. Maureeen |
| Posted by Maureen Gallatin www.inspiredbyhorses.com |
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