A New Home

Hmmm…… Brá and Hetja – what to do?

After giving us some beautiful offspring over the years, I have been struggling over the decision for the ladies’ future.

I am already pushed for time between managing the horses at Thordale along with the Minions. Daisy is also busy with her horses and all the youngsters in training. Add some sheep and my day is full.

This winter, we moved the ladies to one of our nearer-to-home fields and my neighbour fell in love with them and spent time bonding with them.

Brá has never been simple so this is a huge achievement in its own right.  She doesn’t “bond” or even talk to just anyone!

And to be honest, both of us are just not “mare people” (a controversial topic, I know, but we do love our boys).

Nevertheless, we had some strict requirements for their future welfare. Our first consideration was that they would go to a home that would never breed from them again.

The second was that they would go somewhere where they wouldn’t be too badly affected by sweet itch (and would be treated correctly, if necessary).

And thirdly, the most important requirement, was that they’d go to someone who would love them and dedicate more time to them, which they definitely deserve.

Brá and Hetja still have so much to give to someone who is willing to put the effort in and we are definitely  grateful for the years that we had with them.

So now they have a wonderful new home and this is the best I could wish for them.

10 thoughts on “A New Home

  1. Sam

    Must be a bittersweet moment for you. After all the work you put into these two fine ladies, to know they needed more than you had to give is hard to acknowledge but what an amazing thing to do. I do hope the neighbor will love them and let us have up dates on them from time to time.

    Reply
    1. Frances Post author

      I will. It was as you say “bittersweet” but to see the love she has for them made it all worthwhile. That’s what they need. We are close by. All is good.

      Reply
  2. Mary Colleen McNamara

    I am happy for ALL new owners, horses and you. Sounds like you have all the caveats in place. I might suggest if you are concerned…
    Maybe you get “first refusal” if the new owners want to sell them to someone else. Of course that doesn’t help reduce the size of your herd.
    BUT when we sold our mare (Mango) with the same “rules” in place and the woman later bred her!!! and she had a miscarriage, so then she sold her to a rancher in Colorado. !! She was now living on an open range where winter storms are unpredictable.
    So we tracked her down and had to drive to Colorado to get her back also an expensive lesson for us. She recognized us and greeted us with a whinny. She was glad to be home . She was a bomb proof horse and my nieces and nephews loved her.
    She lived out her days with us and passed at 32 years.

    Reply
  3. Judith Garbutt

    So difficult letting go of horses – they become so much a part of the family. Hopefully, you’ll still see them regularly and you’ll haave the satisfaction of knowing you made a wise decision for all concerned.xx

    Reply
  4. Louise Stopford

    I think you have done the right thing for those lovely ladies. Like you say, if they are still near by you can keep an eye on them. Yes it must be a bittersweet moment but knowing they are going to someone who truly loves them must make the parting easier. Being such a caring animal lover yourself I know that you would not have let them go unless you were 100% happy that they were going to be loved and well cared for for the rest of their lives. Good luck to the ladies and to their new owners.

    Reply
  5. Kris

    So glad they went together.
    When my mother could no longer ride, she decided to give away her horse to a local farm to live out his days in larger fields and theoretically my sister’s horse would then have more space at home to graze on our relatively small grounds.
    I argued that since my sister was working and about to get married, she wouldn’t have the time to give to her horse and it would be better that they both go to the farm since they had been barn brothers for several years.
    Sadly, I lost the argument and it was gut wrenching to hear the desperate whinnying of my sister’s horse as his buddy was trailered away. Several days passed before he settled down and stopped fussing. He seemed to be mostly plodding around and they thought he had adapted well to being by himself and all was fine.
    A month or so later he was found lying dead by the fence. The vet said he couldn’t pin point the cause since there was no evidence of illness or disease.
    But I know it was a broken heart.

    Reply

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