Long story short. Last year my friend asked me to take her Icelandic mare, Kolka, because she was dying. At that stage, I said no, because we had just come through a hellish winter, I had too many horses, and I couldn’t have another female with a stallion about too. I felt very bad but could see no way to help. I offered to put the mare to sleep, though as she is old (27?) and I also thought a big change moving to a new herd would be horrid for her.
A few months later my friend died. I sold Taktur (and Dreki) and every day I drove past this mare to visit my Minions. It struck me that if I had died, someone would possibly put Haakon, Iacs, Vitamin and Fivla to sleep because they were old too. They are all around the same age – 27 to 29.
And then I envisaged myself doing just that – putting this mare to sleep just because she is old and I couldn’t do it.
I also remembered that Kolka had lived here for a couple of years when we were a riding school many years ago so she knew Haakon and Iacs, but not Klaengur. I went to talk to Kolka in her field (she was another horse’s companion) and she was just the same as she ever was when she was with us. Quiet, easy to do and kind. So I phoned my friend’s husband, now the owner, and offered Kolka a retirement home here for the rest of her days.
Today Floss and I went to fetch her home to Thordale.
The boys were interested – lots of sniffing, a little squealing and stamping from Kolka.
I went out later to see what the herd dynamics were doing.
Klaengur is very taken.
Haakon is furious. He hates change. He came up and complained. I told him to get on with it.
And Kolka pretty much rules them all. She tells them where to stand and what to do.
Iacs dreams of cake and staying out of the way!
This was a few minutes later when I had run out of carrots. I am hopeful they will all sort themselves out with minimum fuss.
Later on I let the “vampire ponies” out for the night and they started all over again. Waffle loves the ladies! It will be interesting to see where they all are tomorrow morning.
I hope I’ve done the right thing by my late friend. What’s one more geriatric?