Sonnet was a beautiful Arabian lady. She was donated to us by friends for my daughter Shannon. Sonnet was completely spook and buck proof. She'd been around the block and had done everything and been everywhere. She was the perfect child's horse. Shannon actually learned to ride on her when she first began taking lessons. Sonnet mezmerized me with her class and beauty and was the impetous for me to get our first Arabian horse.
I was saddened to learn the year after Shannon's lessons that Sonnet was going downhill and having a hard time keeping weight. I had really fallen in love with her. I was estatic when we were offered the chance to have Sonnet for Shannon, even though we knew, because of her age, it might be only for a short time.
Surprisingly, after we played around with her diet, and added some supplements, and an "old horse" shot, her weight came right on up and she looked and felt GREAT, even though she had a severe case of scratches on all four legs and thrush in all four hooves. With trims every two weeks the cracks and splits in her feet were gone. Eventually, we were able to cut out all her senior feed and she lived off of mostly PLAIN beet pulp, (which she LOVED), oats, grass, and some alfalfa hay with loose minerals, and the scratches she had been plauged with all over her lower legs, left, and the thrush was well on it's way to healing. Whether that was diet or just luck, I'll never know, but since the two are connected, I feel that her diet played a part, and removing excess sugars helped heal both the scratches and the thrush.
She left this world after living with us nearly a year, due to colic. She was in the middle of her normal meal (soaked beet pulp and oats) when the other horses ran by me from the pasture and up to the barn, scaring Sonnet while she was eating. Very soon after that, she began kicking at her stomach and then lying down and was obviously distressed. We had the vet out and he tubed her and thought she would be fine. The next morning I let her out, only to find her later, lying in the deep mud, with her head stuck under the fence. I brought her into a stall and she laid down and began having a siezure which lasted quite a while. Later that night, after the mud dried, I was able to brush it all off and make her look shiny and beautiful. The vet said she had a signifigant heart murmur, and since she hadn't eaten or drank for more than 24 hours, so we made the decision, along with the friends who had kindly given her us, to put her down. She died pretty, and clean, and in excellent condition. She was 26 years old and we miss her dearly. She taught us all so much and will never be forgotten.
*An after-note. I still don't know if we did the right thing by putting Sonnet down. She had such a will to live, and resisted the life-ending drugs so much. I have always felt she got an overdose of sedative after she coliced because she staggered around for such a long time after she was tubed. I loved Sonnet so much. I can't begin to put into words the grief that I feel that she is gone and maybe she didn't have to be. Often I wish I could dig her up and give her another chance. Maybe there was something else we could have done. I'm sure many of you feel the same grief that I feel, wishing a beloved horse, or other pet were still here. God gave us these wonderful animals to open our hearts and see beauty where we didn't before.
Horses are my soul's connection to spirit. I love my horses far more than any material thing I can think of. Horses are my proof that God exists. Horses are the beauty in my life. I could no more throw away an elderly horse than I could toss a child to the wolves. I hope that I am here to see all of my horse's journey's into old age and be able to help them cross over that rainbow bridge when the time is right. I just pray that I will know, without a doubt, when that moment is at hand, and not be confused by it's radiance.
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