Final farewell

I read your article on emotions and how horses perceive death (“How Do Horses Perceive Death?” Medical

Front, EQUUS 498) with a very personal interest.

A few years ago, my Standardbred mare was suffering with advanced respiratory disease. She had been treated for years and it was finally coming to the end. I had her stabled at a boarding stable near my house and went out there every day to just be with her and groom her and just try to make her comfortable.

One morning, my friend was feeding the 16 horses and then letting three of them out into a paddock where there was hay available as usual. She called me, telling me my horse did not eat her usual grain but she let her go out, as the other horses were in the barn awaiting the farrier.

I got to the barn 15 minutes after she called, and looked in the paddock. My horse and another horse were lying down for their usual nap with the third horse over by the hay bales eating. I walked over to my horse and saw she was dead, pupils were dilated and no pulse or breathing.

I reached over and patted her as I was crying. The horse that was by the hay stopped eating and came over to where I was and bent down and sniffed and touched my horse. The other horse got up and came over also and looked down at her. All of a sudden one of the horses with me let out the loudest and longest whinny. Then the other horses in the barn followed with their own chorus of whinnies, and horses from a neighboring farm a block away joined in.

This had to be their version of an elegy to the death of my horse.

Holly Carter

Zionsville, Indiana