Anxiously waiting on an update, hope all went well and as smooth as possible.
Hey Everyone!
So it certainly happened last night.
And I have to say while there were some pretty gross parts, overall, it wasnât THAT bad.
So, I got there about 5:30 last evening, and the man had just drove the excavator out there. I was glad to see it was a small excavator as it seemed much more nimble and easy for him to maneuver than a backhoe or similar. The ground is dry, but man, you donât really realize JUST how sandy our âsoilâ (I use that term lightly now!) really is! He was digging like it was butter. Within about 5 minutes we come across the first bone.
It was fairly easy for him to find the body because he was the one who buried it, and once we found the rear leg bones, we pretty much could follow along the bone trail and had the horse outlined rather quickly. It was awesome, he would scoop a big scoop of sand, and he could feel the bones as he touched them with the bucket, so we actually came away with NO crushed skeleton, no broken bones at all actually, so that was a relief.
So the craziest thing was how much the organic matter of the horse had started to turn into the earth, essentially. We could pick out where major organs laid, as the soil was browner and very moist. We uncovered bone after bone, leg, shoulder, ribs, vertebrae, and found our way to the skull. Thatâs when things got a little nasty.
As someone correctly suggested in one of the first posts on this thread, the brain matter was NOT completely gone. Actually, it was still pink. It was fascinating. It was gross, but it was absolutely a mind blowing experience, if youâre into nature/sciency types of things. The brain was still safely tucked into his skull, about 3/4 of the way gone. It was pink and reminded me of laffy taffy. Sorry for that visual.
We worked on the skull for a while, making sure we could easily get it out of the ground in one piece. It was smooth and perfect, and it was by far the hardest part for his owner. She had been in love with his head and face when he was alive. His big but refined face she said appeared just the same as it did in life. A bit creepy, but I get it. He still had a layer of leathery dark skin over parts, with little fuzzy tufts of his hair throughout.
We worked our way back after getting the skull, found the rest of the legs, which was mind blowing. The second half of the body (the part he was laying on when buried) was much fresher than the top half, obviously. Less exposure, deeper, etc. Those bones were slimy, and also still contained a lot of âmatterâ on them, still red in color, but still incredibly interesting to me. A bit gross, but nothing unable to handle. If youâve seen the big bones that people give dogs, think that. It wasnât that bad.
The BIGGEST thing that blew my mind last night, was when we got to the major organ area. So first it was gross, as there was clearly some encapsulated organs hanging out half decomposed. You COULD NOT identify what they were, however. It just looked like big globules of sand, and when you would try to break down the sand, it was gummy and squishy and you could see the red and the black and you knew it was something from the âinsidesâ. So we learned really quick how to identify chunks that looked like bones versus chunks of sand that actually encapsulated organs/body matter. As we worked our way back, we got to his hind gut. This was the part I couldnât even wrap my head around, because it was SO cool to me. She said when he was put down he was severely impacted at that point. He was fighting for his life for almost a month before, from a lung infection from a piece of hay. The final day he wasnât doing well, was not showing signs of improvement, and begun to have trouble passing his manure. So she made the call. When we got to that area of his body, the amount of manure was INSANE. We pulled up TONS of fecal balls, STILL YELLOWISH GREEN like they were FRESH. The fecal balls looked fresher than a few hour old pile in a pasture would look. I couldnât get over this! Every little fiber that made up the fecal ballsâŠall of it, it was all still there. And boy oh boy was his gut full of it. We just unearthed a big pile of hindgut and fecal balls. Most of the gut was gone, there were a few fecal balls that were encased with what I can only expect to be the intestines. It was absolutely mind blowing though. That was the highlight for me, to see the manure, undisturbed for 6 years, appear fresh as todayâs. WOW. wow.
So eventually we work passed that and find his tail and first part of the hip. Probably the grossest part minus the brain was the hindquarters. It would appear that large amounts of muscle take some extra time to break down, because we pretty much found his hindquarter musclesâŠgreyish in color, and appeared to be about halfway in the process of going from muscle to âsandâ. It seemed like everything that was almost decomposed or had recently decomposed just literally turned into sand. Those were gross though, because there was a lot of it, and they were just big chunks of grey squishy matter covered in sand. Once she got his tail and the top hip bone, she decided we were done. She had collected nearly his entire skeleton minus the second half of the hip, and she was happy with that. The man started to dig to try and get the second hip out, but the muscle matter was plentiful, and she decided enough was enough. She had his legs and his head and pretty much nearly everything else.
We found both mane and tail hair. The tail was completely together still, still perfectly banged as his owner often did, still perfectly black, still attached to the tail bone. His mane laid in a line down his neck bones, mostly undisturbed, still falling on the side and perfectly pulled.
All and all, the experience was more mind blowing and fascinating to me and I think to her, than it was emotional. The head and his tail were the hardest things for her to deal with, and she of course wished that he had been further along in the âprocessâ, but it could have been worse, and we got through it just fine. The smell wasnât that offending to ME, but the man and my fiance, who didnât get down in the hole, said they could catch whiffs of it. All I smelled was that really wet âearthyâ âsoilâ smell. Maybe I have a weakened sense of smell, but even having his flesh matter in my hands, all I smelled was that really deep wet earthly smell. The rotten eggs we pulled out of the hay loft later on were much more rank than the decaying horse in the ground was.
I canât say I recommend doing this to anyone else who might be thinking about unearthing their beloved friend to bring them to your next home. Itâs a very personal decision. I think it takes a certain person, who does NOT get sick easily, and who can handle the harsh, weird emotions you might feel, in order to do something like this. We drank wine beforehand, and had some during our breaks too. That helped. She said it helped a LOT to have a level headed, neutral feeling friend there. The longer you can wait, if you ever did need to do this, the better.
For reference, weâre in the Tampa Bay area of Florida where we have a temperate climate in winter and a very hot, humid, moist climate in the summer, with very very sandy soil. He was I would say a good 3/4 of the way gone, and maybe another 1.5 or 2 years, he would have just been bone.
Iâm actually really grateful I had the opportunity to do this. Itâs not often that someone can say that theyâve literally seen the ins and outs of a horse, unless of course youâre a vet or have witnessed some surgeries. You get a whole different respect for their bodies, thatâs for sure. To hold his large leg bones and shoulder bones and wither bones and hips, his ribs, and even his skullâŠit really makes you step back and say wow. The poopâŠthe poop is what still gets me. So fresh. The skull was neat too. He had just had a dental very recently before he passed, and his incisors were so perfect. All his teeth still perfectly within the skull. His whole skull was perfect. A thin layer of leathery skin and fuzzy flea bitten hair.
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I am not surprised about the brain matter still being intact, though surprised by the color⊠the brain is relatively well protected, you know. I once masticated (not ate â masticated is the term used to strip a bone of flesh/matter) a cow skull and let me tell you, getting everything OUT of the brain pan was both disgusting and oddly entertaining.
Thank you so much for being there for your friend, and for providing us with an update. It must have been so hard to see that mane and tail.
Regarding the shift in soil color in/around decomposition sites, isnât that cool?
Thank you for the update OP. I found it fascinating. Especially the brain and manure! Did you get someone to do a cremation or did you decide to rebury?
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Bless you for helping your friend complete this heart-wrenching, yet emotional requirement for her move ~ ((hugs)) for all involved ~
I forgot to add that we found the catheter that was still in his neck when he was buried. That was neat, too! I was bummed she had removed his shoes when he got sick, because I would have loved to find his old shoes!
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Thanks Zu Zu & everyone else. It was not an experience for everyone, but Iâm glad I was apart of it and Iâm SO glad I was there for her, especially.
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I can now confidently say that this is never something I would ever want to do to a truly beloved horse.
Iâve handled decaying human remains and done autopsies and I would not want to see my horse like that.
More power to her I guess, I hope she paid the guy really well for unhearthing her half decayed horse with his equipment. Thatâs a serious biohazard.
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good thing no one is ever going to force you to do it. no need to rag on OP or OPâs friend for doing what they felt was right.
theyâre just bones, hair, teeth, and matter to some people. what made the horse THAT horse was long gone, well before you put it in the ground. and digging it up will not change that.
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They asked a third party to do something that the health department might have something to say about.
Other people read these threads besides the op. Someone who is thinking about doing this should be up front with someone theyâre asking to dig up âslimy, gooeyâ decaying remains. Iâm sure this guy is a nice guy, but there are limits to kindness. If he did this for free, the OPâs friend should seriously consider offering him compensation if only to clean the decayed remains off his equipment.
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anyone with reading capabilities will be able to read what happened (including OPâs follow-up of the exhumation) and form their own judgment on if it is something they should or should not do.
trying to smear OPâs friend and insert passive-aggressive, dubious comments(of both OPâs friendâs character & the situation) about how âyou really hope the man was well compensatedâ is not germane in any way to the topic and really, I donât think your ulterior motive here is to champion for the man that dug up a dead horse with his excavator.
trust me, many excavators see much, much worse than an old horse carcass. this is coming from someone who has used one, many times. :winkgrin:
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TO be clear, the man was paid, VERY VERY well for his time (more than it costs to bury a horse, almost double), was not forced to do this, is a dear friend to my friend and was happy to help out. And to also be clear, not a single piece of rotting decayed flesh was on his equipment. He did not dig into the body once he found the leg bone. He allowed us to hand dig. None of it was bothersome to him, or his equipment. The sights werenât even that gruesome, I have seen FAR WORSE on cable TV (ie: walking dead) than what we saw down in that hole yesterday. I donât know that youâre getting the right picture of what we saw, but it was mostly sand and bone, with some matter mixed in on some parts (in skull and hindquarters mostly). There was not an outline of a decomposing horse.
But to each his own, as stated in my description of what occurred, I could not recommend someone to do what we did, without seriously considering all thatâs possible to find and deal with. Some people have a weak stomach and couldnât handle that aspect, some people donât separate spirit and body and couldnât handle that aspect of itâŠand some people just donât want to unearth their eternally resting horse, and you know what, thatâs totally fine too. To each his own. I do not judge my friend for what she wanted to do. It did not bother me to help her do it.
Now if you asked me if I would have done this to my own horse? I canât say I could answer that question. The answer is probably not. But that doesnât mean I wonât support someone else who decided that itâs what they wanted to do. The crematorium is accepting his bones for cremation this afternoon. Thatâs a bit of a relief to her, as she wanted to cremate him instead of reburying him at the new farm.
I think this thread is a good one to be floating around COTH, because I know my friend is not the first person to ever consider unearthing their departed pet. This thread and my experience could very well convince someone to leave their dearly departed behind. Or it might make them want to go for it. I donât condone doing it, thatâs a decision both for health safety and sanity reasons, that you need to make on your own. Just sharing an experience here.
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Thank you for posting this. Iâm not really surprised by the brain for some reason. And the condition of the hindgut Iâm sure, gives her understanding that what she did was the right thing for him during his final illness.
What condition were the hoofs in? At Belle Meade Plantation in TN, there are inkwells made from the hooves of Iroquois, who was the first American-born horse to win the English Derby. When Iroquois passed, his owner saved the hoofs. She might think of something to make to remember her guy with. If not hoofs, maybe with tail hair?
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I feel I learned a lot thru your experiences. Thank you for writing it all out for the rest of us. I am quite sure now that I would not wish to dig up any of my old horses, should we ever move.
Helping your friend go thru the ordeal is one of the nicest things I have heard a horse friend do for someone. I donât think I could be so detached, especially if I knew the horse.
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Been following this from the beginning. Iâm so glad it went well and was a positive experience for everyone. Iâm only 26 so have yet to have to bury a beloved horse and dread the day I will have to. They are so incredibly special to us
Thank you for posting this. I am not a squeamish person at all but when you first posted it had me a little green. But I also think I was coming from the perspective of someone who lives in a very wet, rich soil area. I wonder how much your climate and soil vrs my climate and soil would change things? Anyway, now that youâve posted the âresultsâ I am fascinated. Were the bones still attached to one another in general or had connective tissue degraded enough that they were loose? I canât say itâs something Iâd do with one of my own but I have no beef with anyone else who would want to do it- itâs such a personal decision.
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Iâm glad I could contribute my experiences to a forum where others could come and read about it. Thatâs exactly why I started the post, partially to prepare myself for what to expect, and also so that others who are in my position or my friendâs position, can really read it all out in front of them to see whether this is something to even consider. Many would say no. And thatâs totally okay. We all have different beliefs, different levels of the âcreepsâ and different curiosity peaks.
I never got to meet this horse alive. That might be a big part of why it was much easier for me. I donât think I would have been as strong for my friend had I known this horse, or had this horse been my own. I just knew that when she was sure about doing this, that there was absolutely no way I was going to let her deal with and do this alone.
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This is an absolute treasure for this forum - and I mean that with no sarcasm. I think this is an invaluable discussion of one of the hardest parts of horse [and pet] ownership. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart for posting such a detailed account of the exhumation and the follow up. You are a true friend to support someone through this.
Sidebar: I wonder if some of the âbody farmsâ would be interested in something like this in the future? One would think this type of knowledge would be perfect for their research.
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Most of the bones were free, with the exception of the vertebrae, hips and tail bone. They were all still pretty connected. Some of the bones had slight coverings of âstuffâ (the bones on the side of the horse that was resting deepest) and I could see a little bit of connective tissue on the bigger leg bones, but they were mostly, overall pretty clean. The skull was mostly clean aside from the interior contents, and some leathery skin/fur, which didnât look really gross at all honestly. The ribs on the under side and closer to the backside of the horse were the ones that had the most âstuffâ still on them. Again I believe because they held the contents of the horse and were buried deeper than the top half of him.
The climate is very interesting to me. Someone here had mentioned that being a factor with some of the matter not being gone yetâŠand they were right, 6 years in a very very very sandy soil with high humidity, heat and moisture in the summertime definitely prolonged his decomposition time. The man who dug said he would expect a similar body buried elsewhere to have been further along. Also if lime had been poured he thinks it would have been processed completely by now. Being 6 feet deep can also make a difference, as if he had been buried closer to the surface, though not recommended, he would have been processed by beetles and maggots pretty efficiently. It was notable to add there was not a single creepy crawler of any sort within the remains, the bones, OR the goo goo stuff. Nothing. I found that interesting too, but understood since someone here had previously posted that the deeper it is, the harder it is for those critters to get down there.
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Thanks for the kind words, and I really appreciate what you said and agree whole-heartedly. This is something that many people wonder about but not many will actually ask about, and not many people share! I couldnât resist it, because it is such a personal decision, and a very very intriguing process as well. I was thinking about the body farms as we were digging around yesterday wondering if they had ever tested bodies at different depths, under different conditions. Iâm sure they have, but doing something like this renews my interest in what they do for a livingâstudy the process in different settings and environments.
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