My dearest Pebbles, my one,
my only. They say that you only have one special friend in your
life. And you were mine. Pebbles was my hero.
We both loved
each other to bits. She was a bay Standardbred, ex-trotter or pacer, and
ex-cart puller. I bet, when she first came to our place, she thought she'd
already died and gone to heaven. Horse Heaven.
When I first
met her, I hated her. How could you hate a horse? I don't know but I just
hated her. It's funny really, how something you hate can turn out to be the
best thing that's ever happened to you. About 6 months after I'd met Pebbles,
she began to trust me, and I began to trust her. This is where it all
started.
I trained her
to follow me everywhere, and she was the only horse in the paddock who would
come when I whistled. Eventually, we had to put the horses in a different
paddock.
Pebbles had just recently
been given to me, along with all the vet bills (given to my mum, I am only
11 years old!) and so we moved her, Arnie, my mum's horse, and Izzy the other
lady whom had originally owned Pebble's pony. After a while at this new paddock,
when they had settled in nicely, me and my new friend decided we should train
her to saddle. So we did.
We were expecting her to
do badly, but the only thing she hated was the bit! We even got to
ride her twice! On the second ride (and last I ever took on her) we noticed
she had pretty bad diarrhea and two lumps had started to develop under her
stomach. We asked around, everyone seeming to think that the lumps were only
fat.
Then one day they got worse.
we rang the vet, he took a blood test and rang us later to say he had given
up on her. So, we rang our other vet, who knew Pebbles well by now, having
to come twice a week to bandage her injured leg. He tried all he could, and
so did our farrier, who is really good with horses. For a while there, she
was getting better, then things took a turn for the worst. She wasn't eating,
she had diarrhea, she was dehydrated, we had to drench her. Something every
day! We tried out best, but it didn't work. One night our friends called
us. They were sitting in the stable where she was, watching her. They told
us it was bad, but not to come down. We did anyway. We all knew it was the
last night we would spend with her. That next day, through all the
tears, I said a long good-bye to my dearest friend, and then put her out
of her pain.
She is now buried in her
favourite rolling spot under the trees in her paddock. I know that she isn't
gone, yet she has shed her skin, exchanged it for wings, and flown away.
I know she returns, some nights, some days. She watches over me, she knows
we loved her.
I'd like to thank all the people that were there for us when this happened,
and Pebbles for giving me the best experiences of my life. Even now, knowing
what happened, I still don't regret ever getting her. For when I feel upset,
I think of all the good times we shared together.
My Mare,
My Horse,
My beloved friend.
I will not leave you till the end,
and when I do,
If your spirit is true,
you will return,
with wings, that's all.
To watch over me,
to love me,
to gallop with your friends,
My Mare,
My Horse,
My beloved friend
Kate