Hannah was the mother of Julie's gorgeous young mountain (aka Parker), the nearly three year old Westphalian gelding she has recently started under saddle. Parker inherited all of the best of Hannah's qualities. When he was inspected and branded for registration with the Westphalian verband, Hannah was inspected as well and approved for inclusion in the Main Mare Book.
When I met Julie, I had never ridden horses outside of an arena (lesson) setting. Her go-to horse for inexperienced riders was Hannah. My first trips outside the arena were on this gallant mare. We trailered to a couple places in the area. The first big group ride I went on, the Friday Before Mother's Day Ride in Valparaiso, NE, Hannah was my mount (picture below).
Hannah also carried my sister (Sarah) when she came for a visit this past September, and we rode in the fields around Julie's house.
When Hannah was sound and fit, she was incredibly fun to ride. She had a wonderful, smooth canter with huge strides. She collected beautifully and carried herself gracefully.
However, Hannah had suffered at the hands of her previous owners, before Julie purchased her to use in her breeding program. She had been raced a few times and bore a few scars from the experience. Her feet were horrible from laminitis, and it took a long time for Julie's farrier to correct them. Even after that, she wasn't always sound. She had very flat feet, and the large chunks of stone on the gravel roads around Julie's house were very uncomfortable for her.
Hannah also had problems with her eyes. She had a cataract in one eye, and the other had required surgery. In spite of these handicaps, she put her heart into whatever was asked of her. However, over the years, her eyesight began to fail her. This became apparent in little ways, such as increased aggression towards the other horses (she was an alpha). It was never so clearly demonstrated, though, as the day we took her away from her home environment to be euthanized.
Hannah was very familiar with trailer loading, but that morning she hesitated quite a bit before clambering into Julie's spacious two horse slant. She touched the floor with her nose, as if to assure herself that it truly was solid enough to support her weight. Her boy, Parker, stood at the fence and called frantically to his mother.
When she came out of the trailer, Hannah didn't even appear to notice the other horses standing in a corral not more than fifty feet away. She only became aware when they called to her, and then she lifted her head from her nervous grazing to neigh back, searching for them. I truly don't believe she saw them at all from that distance. There were a few dogs at this place, and Hannah couldn't really tell where they were. When Julie brushed out her tail, she lifted her back leg threateningly, probably thinking it was one of the dogs behind her. She would try to face her "good" eye (the one that had undergone surgery) to try to find Julie, but that eye also was failing her.
In the end, I think Hannah was relying more on feel than sight. She wouldn't have been safe to keep, even as a broodmare, because she could have unintentionally injured her own foal without seeing it. She was too insecure anymore to ride down the road by herself. The likelihood of her suffering injury in Julie's hilly pasture or harming one of the other horses increased greatly as her sight dimmed. That doesn't ease the ache left by her passing, merciful and swift though it was.
Julie's tribute to her mare:
"On Friday April 30th I took my Thoroughbred mare Hannah to a place up North Iowa, to be euthanized and then cremated. Her time of death was approx. 2:15 PM Friday afternoon. Got many pictures of her and hugged and loved up on her a head of time. Expressed my love to her and asked or hoped that I was able to provide her with the best care and a happy life while she lived at my farm.
This was the first time I've ever experienced a horse euthanizing. Wasn't sure if I wanted to be there while it happened but decided I had to for many reasons. Wasn't as violent as I thought it would have been but it did take her a good 10 minutes before her heart stopped beating and for her to stop breathing. The vet was shocked that she was fighting it that much and was trying to hold on. He had to give her 3 different syringes of the stuff to stop her vitals within that 10 minute period. He did sedate her twice before he administered the drugs to euth. her. She fell pretty gracefully and stayed down . Didn't really twitch or kick. I saw her eyes wiggling back and forth. Toward the end she took quite a few deep breaths and the vet checked and there was no heart activity but her brain was still trying to get her to breath for a few seconds more. Finally you could see that her sides quit going in and out and she quit breathing. It was a hard decision for me to make but seeing her after I took her out of her home environment, I got to see how she was really relying on sound and touch to recognize things or to find out where noises were or what items lay in front of her (treats, curry comb and etc.).
See Hannah has a huge cataract in her left eye and her right eye had to have surgery in the past from her scratching it somehow. She didn't have 100% eyesight out of either eye and over the years it must have gotten worse.
When we got there and unloaded her, I could see a frown on her face and she was worried when we got there because she didn't know what was going on and couldn't see very well to know where she was. She kept trying to know where I was when I walked away and if someone else was holding her she would fidget until I came back and held the lead rope. I bawled a lot that day. I was so proud to have her as my horse. She was perfect in every way and was the best example of the good qualities that the Thoroughbred horse breed entail.
When we unloaded her off the trailer she was on a big patch of grass grazing and off to the left, was a corral with quite a few horses in there. She didn't see them or know they were there till she heard them make a noise and call to her. I didn't really realize at home how bad her eyesight was because she was so familiar with everything at the house. It wasn't till I took her out of her element that I realized how bad it was. Seeing and knowing about that made me feel better about my decision to put her down. I had suspected but kept doubting if I was doing the right thing and needed to wait longer to make that decision for her.
I am glad that I have a foal from Hannah so I can still have a part of her bloodline in my herd. Hannah was a kind willing mare that had the best temperament and athletic ability. She was used as a lesson horse for a while and also taught many beginner riders how to ride. She was a special
mare that will always be in my heart. I loved her dearly.
On a good note::: The same day my beloved Thoroughbred mare was released from this earth, my friend miss Judy Willemssen was blessed with a new life with her gorgeous Lipizzan colt. Judy's mare had her foal at 5:30 PM on Friday the 30th. Congrats Judy! A great day to be remembered in many ways.
Internet site to the place Hannah went... (I picked out a real nice urn for her. They'll send back the urn and a portion of her ashes for keep sake)...
R.I.P miss Hannah."
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