09/20/2024
Buddy aka 3511…
Where to even begin. 5 years ago I came across a homeless looking old man while aimlessly scrolling through Facebook one day. Looking for a new lesson horse. He seemed well broke and in somewhat decent condition considering he’d been dumped off, honestly didn’t seem like anything super special. I didn’t need special just safe and broke. He was said to be 16-18 years old, he was really 3/4 years old. The condition of his teeth is why we believe he was aged so far off. Needing 2 separate extractions for the lower front teeth. Let me tell you those vet bills weren’t fun. Aside from his teeth buddy was a fun, friendly, and extremely well broke horse.
Buddy is a horse I never knew I needed. He was in fact a very special boy. We got him healthy and tuned up to the point I knew I could put anyone on him and he wouldn’t bat an eye. That first summer was so much fun. He LOVES kids so much you could just see him change as they walked up to him. He’s toted around so many kids and adults and it’s safe to say anyone who has sat on his back immediately fell in love with him.
It’s funny to me because Buddy is truly so quirky. Not many people got to see him on days where he made me throw my sucker in the dirt. So. Many. Times. Mainly when the wind blew from the west or east… if the weather was right I knew my chances of catching him aka wild dragon were probably slim to none. Most people wouldn’t love him if they knew every piece of him. He truly had “his people” if you were one of them you knew, if you weren’t…. You knew that too. To be honest, even knowing the absolute worst in him and the absolute best parts of him. I still love every piece of him.
Most know last summer buddy was struggling with some soundness issues towards the end of summer. We tried several things. Some helped, some didn’t. We moved struggled to find a consistent farrier for him. He had 2 abscesses this spring which didn’t help his soundness issues. We found a good consistent farrier and things actually were looking pretty decent trying some new things for him. Our last appointment the farrier said he didn’t see much improvement from the last time. Suggested we get him in for x-rays. Which is what brings us here today…
It is with such a heavy heart that we have decided to put buddy down. He has not one but 3 horrible things going on in his front feet. Which ultimately is permanently retiring him. Even with extreme and expensive pain management he would just be a pasture pet. Ultimately, there is no guarantee that the treatment would even work.
There is no set date the moment and we are looking into a few things before we schedule something. So with that being said if there is anyone who would like to see him beforehand please reach out and we can see if we can work something out! Until then, we plan to spoil him as much as possible.
