RIP Middi AKA Midnight Mischief

In Memory of Midnight Mischief
27/09/1991 - 18/02/2009

It's with a heavy heart that on Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 I had to get my TB gelding, put to sleep! Have had him since he was 19 months old colt.

The vet seemed to think that he had some sort of swamp cancer and some kind of abscesses...which caused his front both legs to swell up badly like elephants, not nice! He had laminitis and has pedal osteitis (bone loss) nearly 4 years ago, he was managed fine till in the last few months where there had been too many rains, and the type of ground (clay) was not ideal for him.

Nothing could help him to relieve the pain so it was painfully obvious what the next step was even the vet said it could be managed. But my mind was made up just simply because it was NOT fair on my boy with all this green grass and too much of rain would only set him off with terrible abscesses in his front feet.

They way I've cried when my boy was being put to sleep relieved the pressure inside me from the guilt in not trying to keep him alive. I was in blabbing mess till I went up to his grave the next following morning and cried badly, asking and begging Middi for his forgiveness for what I did and asked if he forgave me? After about 10 minutes I walked away from his grave, suddenly I stopped crying and felt this huge relief over me...so I knew Middi said it was ok!

Rest in Peace, you were the best thing I could ever hoped for, you taught me so much about foot problems, I am glad that we had the time together - I am so sorry that I could do nothing more to save you Middi from the terrible pain you had been put through.

A day after he has passed on, late in the afternoon there was a big downpour of rain - I had to go and feed up my horses. I put on my hubby's raincoat so I won't get wet, and drove out to my horses. I got out of the car to walk up to the stables, the funny thing is that the rain, sort of stopped and I saw the most beautiful rainbow, then a few minutes later it faded into a lovely pinky grey sky, it begun to get dark. It surely was a sign that Middi came by to let me know that he is happy where he is right now and to thank me for letting him go, and that I set him free at a great cost to me.

A friend of mine took care of my boy and did the job for me as I couldn't cope being there to have my boy put to sleep. My friend was there to comfort my grief; I kept at a distance from Middi to ensure everything went well. I simply couldn't do it for Middi as it was my first horse to put to sleep. Also thanks goes to my vet Dr Donna McSweeney who made sure that he was resting comfortably. The owner of the property allowed me to have my boy buried on the same place at the back paddock, so in my heart he is still around. Also this goes to the next door neighbours who buried my boy in that afternoon, I was told that he picked him up gently in his backhoe to take it up to the back, what a kind bloke he is, thank you.