Horse memorial ideas?

[Cynical25]

I’m struggling to come up with the “right” memorial(s) for the 3 horses I’ve lost in the last 7 months. I know something tangible isn’t a necessity, but feel like it would be therapeutic for me after such a rough go.

My bonded pair were let go via a scheduled Vet call, so I was prepared and kept clean, long tails. I lost my new horse in a tragic accident, so I have some shorter chunks of dirty tail hair to work with.

I’m not a big jewelry gal, so horse hair rings, bracelets and necklaces just aren’t calling to me. None of these horses wore shoes or had big show records, only 2 had papers, only 1 had a personalized halter, so I don’t know what I’d even put in a shadow box. A tattoo has crossed my mind, but do I put my 3 beloveds together, do the pair & the new horse separate, or do something for each individual horse? What memorial choice gave you peace or some bit of closure?

[KBC]

I haven’t done it, but love the idea of the pottery with the hair included in there. Looks beautiful and a nice memorial.

Apart from that I’m a jewelry girl, so had my boys tail made into a bracelet, it’s in a leather channel, so wears well.

[Jo]

@KBC

I haven’t done it, but love the idea of the pottery with the hair included in there. Looks beautiful and a nice memorial.

I have purchased the horsehair pottery and am really pleased with how it turned out.

[Critter]

I have tail hair from my two oldies lost in 2017 and 2018 that I’ve just not been able to do anything with. I am also not a jewelry person and have been wanting to do the pottery.

I just lost my 5yo due to EDM in February. I decided to get a painting done of him as I had a fabulous photo from Devon to use. The artist is working on it right now. But I still may do the pottery as I am always doing cut flowers.

If anyone has done the pottery, can you share the link to where you got yours done?

[Foxglove]

I don’t know if this would work for you, but it did for me. When COVID shut us down a year ago, I started a writing project --I set limits for myself: I would write “the best memory” of each of each of my horses (in 55 years I’ve had 17 horses), and then scan in two photos of each --a head shot and an action shot. Each had one chapter, about 3-4 pages long. I set aside about an hour a day for my project. It took me about six months --but I finished.

Since it was my project and I’d set the rules, sometimes I broke them. Because writing can wander --and get long and dull --I limited myself to 1500 words about each horse. Some had a bit more, some a bit less. For most horses that was enough to tell “the best story” about some adventure or accomplishment proud moment or disaster I’d had with that horse; I also decided that I had to tell a story I’d seen/participated in --so I couldn’t use stories told by previous owners or my kids unless I was present to see it.

I wrote my stories chronologically, starting with the first horse I owned, and finished with my most recent purchase. I sent it to FrostyM from COTH–she’s a wonderful writer --and she gave me some pointers to make the stories “hang together” and have a flow that allowed the reader to follow the stories better --they were a bit disunited. After the second draft, everything fit together.

I printed a few copies and sent them to my kids, and a couple of friends --honestly don’t know if they read them or not. FrostyM and I discussed publication --but I’ve done that and didn’t want to deal with editors and agents --besides, I felt that my little horse stories lacked a broad appeal. I made a couple of hard copies for myself, put them in a nice 3-ring binder, and enjoy reading them now and then.

What it did for me, was immortalize some wonderful horses —my granddaughter said, "Granny, when you are an old lady, I read these stories aloud to you like in “The Notebook!” Now I will never forget my first horse Ginger, or my wonderful Charlie --and all the joy they gave. That was the title of my collection, FYI : They Give Me Joy.

[gradytb]

I love the idea of the memory stories. I lost 3 horses in 18 months—the last one just this Feb. the day before the big freeze in TX. He was at TX A&M where he’d had exploratory surgery and when it was clear that reality surpassed our worst case, that was it, but I couldn’t be there. It’s over 3 hours away and the storm was forecast and starting. They sent me a lot of tail hair and some mane hair but I’m not a big jewelry person either. I’m a writer by profession—which kind of makes it harder because that’s kind of the last thing I want to do at night! But, I do have pictures of all my boys and since they were all OTTBs, I think I can probably get a few more of each from their racing days. Thanks for the great idea!

[xeroxchick]

I saw a wreath made of horseshoes somewhere, probably a catalog, and asked my farrier to make one from six horseshoes, two from three horses. That was many years ago and I still have it on the brick side of my house as you enter. I think of those horses fondly when I pass it. It has lasted so well. You probably don’t have horseshoes left over, I get that , but it’s something that can be used indoors or outdoors and a ribbon, etc. could be put on it. Just a thought in case you have horseshoes ( I tend to keep sets for when I might loose a shoe when a farrier might not have my horses’ size)