Today, I lost one of my best friends. The pain and the anguish in my heart is terrible. If you are not an animal lover, you will not understand. You will think it strange when I tell you my best friend is an ASH filly, Silver Destiny was her name. We acquired her from a property not far from us. Basically, she was kinda thrown in. We went to buy a colt and as we looked around, there in one of the stables was this pot belly filly. She was black with silver flecks. My husband expressed an interest in her. “You can have her for an extra $500. So home she came on the truck with the QH colt.
We had a big dry just after they came. The colt fared well but I remember Silver being so poor, not able to pick up and covered in ticks. We saved her and pulled her through. She was flighty, and not partial to being handled but I persisted, firstly with a branch off the tree. The soft leaves would gently fall as I stroked her and waved it up and down over her quivering body. Eventually she got used to my continual talking and rubbing of her neck and allowed me to intrude on her personal space. I was able to put my arms around her neck and we developed a bond. I fed her mostly daily but sometimes twice. We saw a lot of each other. When I called, she would always come to me no matter how far away she was in the paddock.
We bought another property. It was much better country for horses so we took Silver. She put on good condition and looked beautiful with a sleek shiny coat and a beautiful rounded rump. She was not the dominant filly in the mob but was dominated by the other mares. She was the favorite of the old stock horse gelding. He thought all the mares belonged to him.
We sent our QH colt away to be trained but because he became badly injured, we brought him back home. He was separated from the filly but unfortunately the cattle knocked the gate down and the ASH filly got out beside him. He was injured again trying to reach her across the fence. We decided to put Silver out the back with the other mares.
All seemed OK and we sighted them regularly. The days were hot and long. We knew the dams were getting low and checked them regularly but not enough it seems. One day the filly and the mares were in twice, morning and night. I began to think. Something is up. The very next morning I was up about 5 am and went out. Sure enough they were there. And as I looked at them, they were very hollow in the flank. In fact,they were more hollow than any horse I’d seen in my entire life. I got Silver straight away and took her away to the yards and quickly put her on water. I stood there with her and watched her drink. She had a good bellyful and then played with her nose in the water. I smiled as I watched her. I did not know at that time that I had walked her to her death. I threw her some hay which she loved but never touched. I went up to the other two horses and gave them a few bucketfuls. They were fighting over the water. I didn’t give them any more as the hose wouldn’t reach. That saved their lives. I got dressed and went into town thinking that everything was OK. When I got home about three hours later, Hubby said, “That horse will be dead in 6 hours”. I raced down the yards and there she was, my beautiful Silver, head down and this terrible stuff periodically gushing out of her mouth. I raced back up to the house, totally distraught. I tried to ring the vet but couldn’t get him. I jumped in the ute and tore straight into town. I got to the vet. I had to wait a long 5 minutes patiently for another customer to be served. That was OK but it seemed like an eternity when my horse was dying. I kept my sunnys on, went outside and sat on the step in tears. I flew home with three injections and Hubby gave them This high spirited Abby filly didn’t flinch.
It was Christmas and we had to go to Carols by Candlelight as we had to take part. When we got home, I went down to see her. She was no better, no worse. I rang the vet to talk
again. We went off to bed as it was getting late but I could not sleep. I got up, got dressed and went to the yards. As I neared the yards, I could hear something. She was down and thrashing around. I ran to her and began to calm her. I spoke soothing words of love and told her I was so sorry. She did calm down. I prayed for her. I asked God to let her live.
When I felt she was calm enough, I raced up to the house and woke Hubby up. I said, “Please give her an injection. She’s in terrible pain”. He came down and gave her the injection. We just knelt quietly beside her. Four times, she got up and four times she dropped again. When she dropped, she would go into a terrible spasm. I sent Hubby off to bed as I knew he’d had virtually no sleep for 36 hours. I stayed with her caressing her beautiful long black mane. When she eventually became quiet. I asked God to just put her to sleep and I went off to
bed.
At daybreak, I raced down. I knew if she was up, she’d be right. She was down. Her eyes were listless. One hour later, she went to heaven. You may not believe in heaven for animals but I do.
No rain, drought, times are real hard and real tough but I believe, yes even through tears that behind every cloud, there is a silver lining, a silver destiny.