Departures

[glenatron]

Today was a day of goodbyes - this morning the little pony belonging to our yard owner, who was a little older than me and had taught generations of kids to ride, fell hard on the ice outside his stable and landed on his hip. When we arrived he was on three legs and the vet had already been called. Barnaby was a great character, a really good teacher and a classic pony, although he was pretty sure he was seven and 17.2hh rather than thirty four and about 12hh. The other evening he stopped on his way to his stable and stole a bunch of Small's dinner as he was passing, yesterday he took the little girl he was teaching for a ride and was a proper well behaved riding horse and today we said goodbye to him. He'll be sadly missed, but he had done well in a long life and been loved by many small children as he showed them what a good friend a pony could be.

This afternoon we took Donk off to a new home- he's been with us for six months or so now and the last month or two have been a lot of work in terms of mucking out and - naturally enough - he eats like a horse. A big horse at that, so it's been expensive to keep weight on him and now Small is coming back into work and daylight hours are few and valuable there hasn't been a lot of benefit for us in having Donk around and really not a lot for Donk either. He's gone over to a dealer friend of his owner to be sold on in spring and I think the full time work will really help him and he'll make for an excellent schoolmaster for somebody. That would be really great- he's such a sweet horse and he really deserves a person of his own to love on him and to appreciate his safe, good natured, schoolmasterly skills. He got quite sweaty in the lorry, but as soon as he arrived and had a haynet, he seemed settled and content and didn't really want to talk to us again, which was good in a way. He was a nice horse but I think part of what we've learned is that we like a bit more spark and a bit more intelligence to work with.

Comments

[skiesfirepaved.livejournal.com]

Oh no. That's awful about Barnaby. I know you said he'd led a good life, but I can't help but feel horrid when I hear a horse has had to be put down due to an accident. :( Poor little pony, it sounds like he was dearly loved though.

And no more Donk, either? Gah. :( I hope he gets the best of good homes.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

I really hope Donk does well too. He's such a sweet pony.