IN
MEMORY OF MISSKY AND GINGER
 Ah - the excitement! Rivendell was offered the donation of a "bomb proof horse - a
mare who had been ridden in the Sheriffs Mounted Division. One of Rivendell's young riders asked to adopt her if we brought her to the barn. Elizabeth wanted a horse of her own so very, very much.
A Rivendell team, including Elizabeth, went to see the mare working at the fair. The team was told that Ginger had an arthritic left front knee. Yet she was walking soundly, so the team, used to the arthritic stiffness of several of Rivendell's mature horses, appreciated the knowledge shared, and did not think anything more about it. The team reported back that they thought Ginger would be reasonable for low key, light weight riders who may be ready for independence at the walk.
The day Rivendell went to pick Ginger, it was noted that she was favoring the left front leg, and the knee was very stiff.
Liniment, glucosomine, and butte should take care of that, the team thought. Elizabeth was at Rivendell's barn waiting in joyous anticipation....she had signs made for Ginger's stall to share with everyone that she was her "adoptive mom", and she had purchased a new halter with her allowance. Elizabeth spent the whole evening brushing, combing, loving - as only a young woman will with her very first horse. Rivendell added a few more skills to Elizabeth's horse care knowledge: how to apply
liniment, bandage a knee, and mix butte with applesauce to give orally by syringe.
Within three days of arrival at
Rivendell, Ginger could barely walk. Elizabeth is in tears - she thinks she is not taking care of Ginger correctly. Rivendell's veterinarian, Joann, was out of town, so an emergency call was placed with her back-up veterinarian, Kim. Ginger was given butte intravenously, and Rivendell was told to keep Ginger on 2 grams of butte morning and evening for a week. After a week, the dosage was to be cut back to the normal maximum dosage of 1 gram morning and night. Then Rivendell found out that Ginger had been on heavy cortisone injections in the knee prior to the county fair for the past three years.
For a week, on more butte than is tolerated easily by the stomach, Ginger was able to at least walk. We were able to put her out to pasture with one of our very quiet, mature horses - who was more interested in grass than establishing the pecking order. Elizabeth rode Ginger bareback a couple of times, only at a walk. Elizabeth was smiling again.....full of hope. Two days after Ginger went back to the normal dosage of butte, she could barely walk again. And a twelve year old girl is going to be asked to face the decision to let Rivendell perform "the last act of kindness."
Rivendell will not use a horse who is in that kind of pain. Rivendell cannot and will not use a handicapped horse for a handicapped rider. Now Rivendell and Elizabeth were faced with euthanasia for Ginger, because Ginger's owner said she loved her horse, and could not do.
Years with an animal do not make the love any deeper that the first moment of having a dream come true for a child. An adult caused a handicapped child to hurt more than anything this girl had known could hurt. An adult caused Rivendell volunteers to hurt, because they felt responsible for hurting Elizabeth. An adult, who could not face her own responsibility, caused other people to hurt, and caused them to make the only loving, kind decision that could be made. An adult who did not tell Rivendell about the cortisone - knowing if she had, Rivendell would not have accepted the donation.
With this pain that so many people are feeling, and because this was the second horse euthanized this year because owners did not live up to their own responsibility to their horses, Rivendell will no longer consider the donation of horses to its horseback riding and carriage driving programs. Rivendell is not a place of endings - it is a place full of beginnings.
If your horse is old, in pain, unable to have the quality of life that the horse is used to, please perform your last act of loving kindness. Let your heart hurt for a little while, and if you truly loved your horse, it will. But your heart and your head will recognize that you were honorable in your relationship with your horse, and your hurt will ease in a while. The precious memories will remain, and that is as life should be. If we are truly horsemen and horsewomen, not just riders, we will bear that hurt in order to protect our horse from further emotional or physical pain.
Our pain is merely one part of the privilege of loving our horses.
In memory of Missky and Ginger Euthanized summer of 2003
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