Dear Friends

Recently, friends of ours had to put down one of their horses. The good news is that Brandy had lived a long, happy life. I'm not sure exactly how old she was, but she was very close to 30 years in age. And it was one of those deals where she was loved so much that she may have lived a bit longer than she should have. But for those of us who know how difficult it is to make that decision, we can completely understand how a bit of selfishness creeps into the equation.

Thirty years allows for a lot of bonding. Brandy was just a bit younger than the two children she grew up with, and they're now in their late 30s. She was fortunate enough to know four generations worth of family, and the youngest is probably just old enough to understand why the horse he's grown up riding was ready to move on to a different existence.

There aren't really many options when it comes to putting down a horse. They're not like dogs and cats -- you can't take them to the vet and the privacy of an exam room. And they're a little more difficult to dispose of, for lack of a better way to put it. Horses weigh an average of 1,000 pounds, and while one could call a vet to euthanize an animal, that incurs expenses that to many would seem relatively unnecessary. The alternative, however, means that someone in the family has to be the one to end the animal's suffering. And this alternative also means that the family is left with the carcass. I have most often heard about families finding a backhoe to dig an appropriately sized hole, but that only works when the ground isn't frozen. If a horse needs to be put down in the winter, the animal is most likely left in the hands of nature. (And as hard as it is for me to think about it, such an ending isn't all that bad when I think about a final resting place in the peace of the hills.) That said, I've also heard about difficult decisions that need to be made if people are traveling with a horse that becomes critically injured in the backcountry, too. You're not allowed to leave a dead animal in a national forest, but as you can imagine, it's not exactly easy to haul it out either . . .

Either way, I can only imagine how agonizing it was to put Brandy down, but I can also say that she lived in a beautiful place all of her life and she was well-loved. And can any of us really ask for much more?