My Sweet Boy Fletcher

Well, yesterday we had a very sad day here at the farm. My sweet, big boy Fletcher had to be put down. I am still very upset, and its very hard to write this at the moment. Fletcher was a full sibling to Scout, and Mowgli. He was a tall lanky gelding with lots of white. He was always me quiet boy, out of the three Fixation foals, very cuddly and calm. Fletch was an awesome mover, though, he was pretty clumsy as his legs were so long.

About three days ago, I noticed his front right leg was swollen, and he was having difficulty moving in a straight line, for a long period of time. He was wobbling around like he was drunk and not himself. My first instinct was that he was bitten by a snake, or had strained his leg. With in the next two days, the swelling wasn't going down, so our vet came down to see what was going on. Well, by that day Fletcher was really bad, he was falling over, and having a lot of difficulty just getting up after his falls. That day we could now see that he had some swelling a couple of inches back near his ears on his neck, only on the right side. Dr Spencer said he either fractured a vertebrae or bruised a couple. He received some medicine. But soon after praying and praying it was just a bruise he fell, and couldn't get his back legs to move when trying to get up. He was down for 5 hours. I sat with him all day, giving him water, hosing him off, and keeping the bugs away. Unfortunately, as each hour passed, he was losing feeling in his legs, and they weren't moving. He was my brave boy, letting me do what ever I needed to him, and was just as calm as he always is. Poor Scout was so upset that her brother wouldn't follow the herd, and stayed with him for hours and hours. Sometimes his breathing would get really slow and shallow, I was so convinced he was just going to pass away in my arms. I couldn't see him laying out there all night, so we called the vet, and we all agreed it was time to send him home. He was humanely euthanized, and buried on our property. I am still really upset, even though I know he is out of pain now. He was a great horse, and he was only a yearling. I will miss him so much. Taylor