Sorry for the sad question: choosing a burial site

[PonyRiderMom]

Yeah… I actually thought she was going to have to be PTS two years ago. To the point that I took on a starved foster horse to take her place, and as a way of “giving back” to horses. She lived, and I got too attached to the foster horse to let him go, so now I have four.

But the mare… sometimes she’s fine for days or weeks, then she feels bad, then she’s OK again. But, gradually getting a little worse each time. Aside from a catastrophic injury, which is completely possible given her physical condition, I am having a hard time knowing when it’s going to be the right time. So that’s a whole other thing. At least I can have all of the practical stuff figured out beforehand.

[whitmers]

We have buried 6 horses on our property in the 25 years we’ve lived here. My advice is: 1) dig the hole before you need it (we have our own backhoe so had more flexibility there); 2) make sure the site you pick is accessible to the equipment and not too wet; 3) if your horse is being euthanized by injection, be sure it is dug really deep so no animals/wildlife can get to it; 4) definitely mound the site; it will sink in, just very slowly. Also, when possible, we had the horse euthanized near the hole which made it easier for the person burying it.

We chose not to bury any horses in our pastures, mostly because other areas were more convenient, but would have done so if needed, and would not have felt it necessary to fence it off.

[trubandloki]

@whitmers

if your horse is being euthanized by injection, be sure it is dug really deep so no animals/wildlife can get to it

I feel like burying it appropriately deep applies no matter how you euthanize it. No one wants to come out and find their beloved horse has been dug up by a pack of wild animals.

[whitmers]

The main reason I wrote that was not because of the ick factor of animals digging up the remains, but because the remains are toxic and can be fatal to any animal that eats it. I have a friend who lost a household pet (dog) that ate part of a carcass of a euthanized animal. Despite rushing the dog to the vet it could not be saved.

[PonyRiderMom]

Well I found the guy who will do the work for me. He’s someone I already knew, I just didn’t know he did this kind of work. He only charges a few hundred dollars. He’ll walk the property with me at some point so we can figure out a spot.

[Simkie]

@PonyRiderMom

But the mare… sometimes she’s fine for days or weeks, then she feels bad, then she’s OK again. But, gradually getting a little worse each time.

I know how terribly hard this decision is, but for what it’s worth:

I try hard to make the call when I see that the general direction is down, even when they have “good days.” I ask myself…how miserable do they need to be before it “feels” okay? Is that for me or them? And really, I’d much rather let them go when they feel GOOD. What an incredible gift.

We have the amazing ability of foresight. And when we know that things are getting worse…when the general direction is down…why would we want that for them. Why would we want them to suffer.

I know there are a lot of people out there who wait for the animal to “say” it’s time, but I don’t quite get that. It takes an awful lot of misery for a horse to want to die. Personally, the euthanasias that weigh on me, the ones where I feel like I failed, are the ones where the horse (dog, cat) were in such bad shape that they were looking for death.

I’m just so sorry you’re at this point with your girl, and hope you can find peace in whatever decision you make

[4horses]

Don’t bury them where other horses can walk over the grave and have the ground open up under them. That means outside the pasture. The grave we had opened up to let gas escape and the ground wasn’t solid for about 2 years despite me filling in the holes that opened up. It’s about solid now but it did take what seemed like a really long time to stabilize.

If you really want to help stabilize the ground, plant a tree on top of the grave.

[Djones]

We have cherty, clay sort of greasy dirt here. Digging deep creates a mess of slippery dirt that holds water and grudges. That’s why I said fence it. If you have good dirt that’s different.

[PonyRiderMom]

That’s good to know. I’ll talk to this guy when we walk around and get his take. He is one of the guys who built my fence, which took ages, so he’s pretty familiar with the land.

[house]

I just buried my first horse since I moved to Oregon a couple weeks ago, But I buried plenty in southern california, I always go down 8 ft minimum and add a bag of stall lime. They typically settle a bit after a week or two, then in california the next time it rained (normally the next year) we would get a decent amount of settlement. I would not ride horses over the resting spot but I typically never had problems driving over them. That being said it depends greatly on the size of the equine, I have clydesdale horses, so you probably would not notice it so much with a mini.

As far as water I would not worry about it it unless you are very near a small natural body of water, I typically like to bury them 10-15 feet from a tree where they have a nice view and I have never had a tree die from what I suspect would be the result.

One other note, I find it very helpful to tie all 4 feet together when you are moving them, I typically use my forks as I dont have a tractor that they will fit in the buck, and it is never a fun job but having to keep picking them up.

[B_and_B]

All good points, but I thought I should link to the ever useful COTH thread here… ‘folding a horse’

Folding A Dead Horse

This is supposed to be a helpful post, not just peculiar. We lost a horse a week ago to kidney failure. We thought it was colic, took him to the vet clinic. Stayed a while, then left him for observation because we hoped time would help and he would be there for Vet to check easily. We are 30 miles away. Vet called us back that things were bad, he was in pain despite heavy meds. Not a surgery candidate. So we made the decision. She put him down and husband headed off to collect the body. …

[ZuzusPetals]

We said goodbye to Miss Mare three weeks ago.
A long, wonderful life. How I appreciated her. Can’t say the feeling was mutual. She perfected that “Ah. Something I can, ah, help you with? At all?” oldster-mare non-greeting thing while I was all, “Hellllooooo, my beautiful! Smart! Big! Girl! Come over, my sweet boo! I have nom-noms! Nom-noms for Big! Girl!”

Anyway: Thank you to those who are talking about this … process … so openly, factually and tactfully. It’s been healing to read about the gentleman with the excavator who showed such caring. All the tales about saying hi to them when you’re near the burial site. Even details on cost and hauling. And, well, the folding of … this ‘n’ that. Another — I don’t want to say good thing to know — but, yeah, a good to know. Sigh.

Horse girls are so, so strong in so many ways. We’re also absolutely, terminally bats. Like, 51% strong, 49% bats.

[pony_grandma]

We buried ours in the corners of the field that will eventually become a deeded rural bldg lot at some point bc of proximity to the road. No one will be disturbing the corners in the future - no drive access no house building in the corners… I have 4 buried here. Long thread from some time back so I can’t remember if I posted.

Sad reality of ownership. Glad you saw your way thru it with help from the forum here.

[4horses]

I’ve found mares tend to take life very seriously. This is how things are supposed to be done, in this order, and here’s how we are going to do it. At least that is how my mares are. They aren’t always super affectionate… I had a lovely pony and she always kept her opinions to herself, always was quite reserved… but one day her old owner walked up and her head just swiveled around and her ears went up. Obviously she appreciated him (and probably me) more then I thought.

[red_mares]

I boarded at a barn where God knows how many horses had been buried over the years. They all went into the same pasture, which wasn’t huge maybe 20 acres. Nothing special was done after the hole was filled in.

[SLW]

Just want to add there is one thing you can do with the grave that does zero for the horse but does much for the person who loved the horse: fill the grave with a bale or two of straw. When the horse is placed in the grave they look peaceful, like they are sleeping.

[clanter]

@SLW

When the horse is placed in the grave they look peaceful, like they are sleeping.

when the first horse we had bought for our kids died she was 28, we had her since she was a long yearling. Our kids (and others) loved/showed her across the country to many championships. When she was retired in her late twenties she preferred to have her own paddock and stall so we built a special barn for her.

On the day of her passing I had just completely stripped her stall, deeply bedded it in her favorite shavings then went on with other tasks. Later that morning I saw that she had gone to her stall to lay down under her fans which was not unusual for her to do.

A few hours later while checking on one of the other horses I saw she was still down where she lay down. When I checked her she had died. There was no sign of any struggle as everything in the stall was just as I had placed it earlier that morning. She passed peacefully in her place of comfort.

She was a horse that many liked, we got condolences from around the world from her “kids” who had come to love her.

[SLW]

What a beautiful ending for a beloved mare.

[clanter]

she is interred next to her stable mates in our family burial plot at Pine Hill Pet and Horse Cemetery in Bowie, Texas (a 45+ acre park, resting amongst trees, rose bushes, and singing birds)

The location is fitting as the highway Pine Hill is on (US81) when built in the 1930s afterwards it was found the sand used in the concrete contained gold, our horses are on a highway of gold

A section of U.S. Highway 81 in Montague County, Texas, was indeed paved with a mixture containing sand that had trace amounts of gold.

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=187219

[clanter]

while viewing some photos on YouTube this one of American soldiers in 1918 honoring the eight million fallen horses, donkeys in World War 1