Hi all,

Oliver Twist my 32 year old Appaloosa x TB gelding was PTS 6 months ago today. I still miss him a great deal, I had owned him for over 18 years. Although I know he had a fantastic life with me and I know he didn't suffer an illness, so the end was quite quick which I was glad about.

I put Oli in his stable Christmas day eveing, with his 'christmas dinner' his dinner had added carrots, apples and treats being as it was Christmas Day But Boxing Day morning Oli was down in his stable. His bed was quite undistrubed and there was only one dropping, and most of his hay was still there, so it looked like he'd been down most of the night. 5 of us tried to get him up with no avail, the vet was called and we all tried again when she arrived. We'd tried to get him up for a long time, but his back legs had gone. He had been down in the field a few times, but always got up with a little encouragement. This time I could see in his eyes he'd given up, plus he'd been down for so long there was going to be lasting damage even if we had of managed to get him standing. So there was really no choice for me but to make the decision to put him to sleep, I was glad it was an easy decision to make and I stayed with him smoothing his head.

He was such a wonderful horse, full of character and a total nutter. He knew how to keep me on my toes and he knew how to make me smile. He was always there to give a hug to and to share my problems with. He certainly knew how to pick his moments too, I loved him to bits and he was totally spoilt. Miss him xxx

Really sorry for your loss of Oliver.
18 years is a long time together. He sounded like he had a great life.
Well loved and looked after.
Your memories of him will live for ever.
Do you have another one to spoil or was he your only one?


R.I.P Oliver and canter freely at Rainbow Bridge xx

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Thanks Jill. No I don't have another horse at the moment, first time for 25 years so it has taken some getting used to. I used to have others on loan, two ponies for the kids but they weren't really that interested so they went back to their owners after a couple of years. Didn't want to but they weren't getting ridden, I was lunging them and the kids would only ride now and again, they needed more than that, they needed to be doing things. Shame as they were both lovely