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[RC] east Texas - Anita MessengerDawn, where are you in east Texas? We just got home
tonight from delivering a gaited Morab gelding we sold
to a party in Gary, Texas who is planning on doing
endurance with this horse. This is a new endeavor for
the rider, and I'm hoping we can put her in contact
with some people in her area who are already doing it.
Are you anywhere near Gary (Carthage)?
A quick jump-in on the putting down animals thread -
coming from a lifetime of living with
livestock/animals, we have used the vets to put them
to sleep (as we just had to do with a sweet 8 month
old colt that we miss very much), *and* we have had to
put them down ourselves due to no vet available where
the animal was down - used firearms for that. My
husband has had to shoot a few horses over the years,
and some were not even our's. Three years ago one
neighbor had a big Fox Trotter down with a BADLY
broken front leg, and he just couldn't shoot him
himself so he drove over (we didn't have a phone), and
asked my husband to do it for him and gave him the
rifle to use. Then the guy went to the house and cried
- he's an old bull rider! My husband not only took
care of it for him, he went to big trouble to borrow a
backhoe and come bury that horse for him. The horse
was found just after daylight, and it was well after
dark when my husband finished the grave and was done.
It would have taken hours for a vet to get down there,
and the horse was in shock and in horrible pain. After
seeing him, my husband wasn't about to let him suffer
one more minute if he could help it. Waiting for a vet
was not an option. Sometimes that happens, and it's
best to know in advance what you will need to do.
It's whatever the situation dictates that decides if
we do it or the vet does it. We have also done a lot
of our own slaughtering (and so did our parents,
grandparents, etc.) with the same goal in mind...to
have the animal die as quickly, quietly and painlessly
as possible. We have used .22's for slaughtering with
no problems (for goats, sheep, hogs - not cattle). I
have also worked in a meat shop and in a slaughter
house at different times during my younger years so we
even cut and wrap it ourselves unless it's a steer
(too big, too much).
You never know when you might be called upon to do
something with an animal - many years ago, we were
coming home late one night from Hot Springs. We got
into a straight stretch of road where there were
cattle pastured on one side. A small Toyota pickup was
up ahead of us, and he picked up speed as he got into
the straight away. But, there were cattle out, and
they were on the other side of the highway. As the
pickup got closer, the cows decided to jump back over
to the side they were supposed to be on - just as the
pickup got there. We watched in horror as he hit two
of them. Thank the Lord, the driver wasn't hurt, but
the two cows were. The one had hit head on, broke her
neck and died quick. The other was dying from internal
injuries very quickly. My husband had a knife with
him, and he jumped out, pulled the cows around so
their heads were downhill (there was a good drop-off
there), and slit their arteries so they would bleed
good. It was so quick, it actually worked even though
the one was already gone. The owner and sheriff showed
up, and they called the local owner of a little
butcher shop to see if he could take the carcasses
right away to save as much of the meat as possible.
Turns out, he had a bad case of the flu, but when they
told him my husband and I were there, he told them
that we could go open his shop and do it for him (he
knew our experience). We ended up spending the rest of
the night dressing out those two cows for the owner,
and we literally saved the whole one cow and about
half of the other one. Our little sons slept in our
van while we were busy. We had no idea when we left
town that we wouldn't get home until after sunrise!
LOL! If my husband had not had that knife with him and
not acted so quickly (and known what to do), the owner
would have just had a loss/waste with his cows (turned
out there was a tree down on the fence). We also got
paid for doing the work. :-)
Ok, I said this would be "quick", HA!
Anita in Arkansas
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