Tom King Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 I had to bury a horse. It's not a pleasant job any kind of way, but what made this one worse that it came up so fast yesterday. The Vet had given her 50/50 chance a few weeks back, and she looked like she was going to make it, but went downhill quickly. My Wife called me at lunch. We made a mad dash to get the jobsite shut down for the weekend. Closest mini-excavator I could find was 25 miles from home in the opposite direction than the 35 miles to where we were working from home. Had to unload 80 1x8x8 Cypress off the trailer. One lug broke in the plug on the truck plugging in the trailer. Heavy rain predicted last night. No choice but go get the 8,000 lb. mini-excavator with no brakes and no lights on the trailer, but new brakes in the truck. Tractor with loader slightly disassembled in the shop. No choice but to go dig the hole a few hundred yards from the house and barn, and walk the excavator back to carry the Mare with another slow trip back to the hole. Got hole filled. It takes a big hole for a horse. Loaded excavator. Getting dark. Got the machine back. Keys in drop box. Back home without being stopped about 9:30 to quarter to 10. Walking back to the house from the shed with the truck pulled in it, with trailer sticking out still hooked up, it started to rain. Would not have been able to do it in heavy rain. She was a great horse for us. One of two Arab mares accepted in the German Oldenburg Verband at her inspection. We still have two of her offspring here, and we feel really lucky to have them. She was not allowed to suffer any more than what we thought necessary to make sure. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mat60 Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 Talk about some bad luck Tom..Sorry to you and your wife man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneymack Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 Thats really sad. Sorry to hear that, Tom. My wife has been riding since she is four and probably likes horses better more people. Right now she has a 4 year old Holsteiner from Germany, fantastic mare. I can understand how devastating this must be.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom King Posted May 21, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 Thanks. We're okay. We done it way too many times. I wish that I could have gotten her to the graveyard where all the other animals are buried, but it's a quarter mile from the house, and with the tractor out of commission there was just no way with the slow walking excavator. There is a gate out of the lower pasture that used to lead to riding trails we had in the woods. Hurricane Isabel devastated those woods, and we haven't used them since. The trail had grown up with small trees. I had to clear a spot big enough not only for the grave, but for room to work the excavator. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneymack Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 Thanks. We're okay. We done it way too many times. I wish that I could have gotten her to the graveyard where all the other animals are buried, but it's a quarter mile from the house, and with the tractor out of commission there was just no way with the slow walking excavator. There is a gate out of the lower pasture that used to lead to riding trails we had in the woods. Hurricane Isabel devastated those woods, and we haven't used them since. The trail had grown up with small trees. I had to clear a spot big enough not only for the grave, but for room to work the excavator. Are your horses on your property or you board them? Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom King Posted May 21, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 Our property. We've been here for 36 years, always with a lot of animals. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneymack Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 Our property. We've been here for 36 years, always with a lot of animals. Thats our dream. Hopefully one day... Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chet Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 Sorry to here about your loss Tom. They are part of our families. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 Animals become such a important part of our lives. I am sorry for your loss. Having to cope with so many difficulties to give her a final resting place must have been so stressful. Thank you for sharing with us here. This is a great community and being part of it does enrich our lives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tpt life Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 Thanks Tom, for doing it right. Too many in this heavily Amish community act with hate and disregard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneymack Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 Thanks Tom, for doing it right. Too many in this heavily Amish community act with hate and disregard. For those of us that don't live in that area or near the Amish. What exactly does this mean? Amish are horse haters? Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardA Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 I hate what you're going through, I have two wolves that are 13 years old, one's going deaf, the other has hip problems, they're near the end of their life span in captivity. This is going to destroy me when I lose them! And it's not that far away! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tpt life Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 5 minutes ago, shaneymack said: For those of us that don't live in that area or near the Amish. What exactly does this mean? Amish are horse haters? Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk Many, not all, do not regard any animal highly. This can lead young men to the kind of abuse common to the callous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..Kev Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 Losing animals is so hard! They become part of the family and produce so many happy memories! So sorry of the loss! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneymack Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 Many, not all, do not regard any animal highly. This can lead young men to the kind of abuse common to the callous. Interesting. I would have thought the total opposite of them. Especially seeing as they actually use these animals as a part of their lifestyle. Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tpt life Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 10 minutes ago, shaneymack said: Interesting. I would have thought the total opposite of them. Especially seeing as they actually use these animals as a part of their lifestyle. Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk It's the shift of the IN Amish. Bishops out here have allowed work in factories leading many to hire drivers rather than even buggy driving. So sorry to derail Tom. Still thankful for those who do it the way I find to be right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 Tom, I am sorry to hear of the loss of your mare, and the efforts you had to make for a proper burial. I hope you and your wife take comfort in watching the circle of life continue through her offspring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janello Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 This is something totally out of my arena and lifestyle. Largest animal I ever buried was a guinea pig. But I can appreciate what you had to go through both mentally and physically. Sounds like an exhausting day better days ahead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom King Posted May 22, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 I appreciate all the sympathy. We've done it enough times in the 36 years we've been here with a lot of animals that we could handle the losing part not too badly. The bad thing was a normally well planned out in advance job, when your Wife calls you and tells you to come home and bury a horse, becomes a race against time to do everything in a way that had no planning, and had to be improvised on the fly. We have an animal graveyard, with a hole ready (with a safety ramp out for any animal falling in it), but that spot is close to a quarter mile from the barn and house. The tractor I would normally carry the horse with is in the shop with the Reverser Control Valve taken apart, because no tractor repair place around here has anyone smart enough to fix one, to be worked on in my spare time. I didn't want to drag Flair that far, so long story short, it turned into an ordeal, and I wasn't much good for anything yesterday after the 7 hour scramble the evening before to get the gruesome job done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom King Posted May 25, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 25, 2016 The night I carried the excavator back, I didn't take time to stop and top off the fuel tank like I knew I was supposed to. I knew they'd bill me for it. The invoice came today. I owe them $8.00 for diesel fuel. Just in case anyone is curious, the smallest time period they rent one for is a day, for which you are allowed to put 8 hours on the hour meter. This job took 2.3 hours, according to the invoice that came today, with probably half of that walking it back and forth from the barn to the grave site. The cost per day is $176.00. I don't know what they charge for delivery, but you can get a lot of work done in a day with one. This is what I did for digging house footings in the years that I built new houses, and I occasionally will go get one just for jobs here at home. Normally, I'd try to get my money's worth and do as much as possible around the farm. That was not a concern this time. Here's the machine-a John Deere 35D. It seems a bit larger in person than it looks in the pictures. https://www.deere.com/en_US/docs/construction/non_current_products/excavators/35D_50D.pdf The machine did have a thumb on the bucket, which makes pulling up small trees a lot easier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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