I knew this day would come but I was hoping it wouldn't be this year. We had to put our sweet miniature horse Desi to sleep. He'd been battling laminitis for years, hobbling around on sore front feet. He had foundered in his previous home before we got him in 2006 and was never 100% but he got around ok in his earlier years. It was selfish to ask him to go through another rough winter. He was 24 years old.
Our little Desi didn't get to eat lush green grass very often since he foundered, the sugars in the grass make the condition worse. But he got to free graze for 20 minutes before the vet got here, I'd like to think he had a pretty good last day.
We'd never had to bury a critter of his size, he was around 250 pounds (down from 330 a few years ago). I was prepared to go out with a shovel and just start digging but Sean talked me into renting a mini excavator instead. It was $110 for a 4 hour rental and we got the hole dug in about an hour.
We have two miniature horses and I've got to say I was worried about going down to only one mini since they are herd animals and have been together nearly their whole lives. Rocky is doing ok though. He was pretty concerned while the vet was here but I walked him over and let him see Desi once the vet left. That seemed to calm him down. It makes me sad that he's out there without another horse but he aren't getting anymore horses. This property is not good for horses. Rocky is doing pretty good with his goat buddies and whines when they go out in the grove to graze.
