Celebrating Penny's Life 1997-2010

I have been dreading and procrastinating writing about this for nearly a week now. As many of you know, we very sadly let Penny go last Wednesday night. We had a really bad day, a better day that gave me hope, a day where she was blocked and it was hard to tell, and then another really bad day. She was in a lot of pain, her stomach muscles were cramped again, her heart rate was elevated at 48bpm at rest, you could see the pain hit her suddenly as she nearly fell to the ground several times while we were there with her. She wasn't laying down to rest... and then we spoke to the farrier who gave us the more grim side of the injury - what I was expecting to hear but hadn't gotten anyone to talk to me about. We all loved her so very much, but it wasn't fair to put her through that much pain for most likely several painful complications and surgeries to come over the next year, and possibly to be in pain the rest of her life. After all the love that Penny gave to us, the greatest gift I could give her in return was a pain-free death with dignity.

On to her story...

I was finally approved to foster for the rescue and went to pick Penny up when I was 5 mo pregnant with Christopher! What was I thinking? Somewhere my heart got the best of me - I had 3 horses on 23 acres, and gosh, wouldn't it be nice to have a horse available to keep horse #3 company if we took #1 & 2 off the property? Harlan rode with me in the truck as we drove about an hour to the place where she was being held. A herd of emaciated horses awaited us - they had been eating hay for about a week and were much better off than they had been. All I knew was "palomino mare" - but I had chosen the name Penny before I met her. Penny was the name of Harlan's beloved dog that he grew up with, and the name of another palomino mare I knew at the barn where I grew up.

We managed to load up another mare & foal first (that I would be taking to another foster home). Rocket was the baby - I can't remember the mare's name right now. I remember looking at Penny's belly and saying out loud - "Oh, great, she's pregnant, too." I look back and have learned quite a few things - or, well, made some mistakes and the animals were gracious enough not to take advantage of them.

I didn't have a way to separate Penny from my herd, so when we got back to our place, we drove into the field, opened the trailer door, and let Penny out of the trailer into our field - and luckily my "herd" of 3 was more relaxed than some and she integrated easily. Of course, Penny put her head down to the fresh grass and never lifted it up. She didn't care about meeting anyone - just eating. Her dull, yellow coat would soon turn into gorgeous shining dapples as she filled out. It wasn't long before we confirmed that she was pregnant, too.

Christopher was born in October, and then "Athens" was born the following March. We kept Penny in our yard for her delivery, and a few weeks after that as Athens grew up. I would take Christopher out in the stroller into the yard to feed the horses and play with Athens, who in return was very curious about Christopher, who survived the stroller almost getting knocked over and having his fingers nibbled on... When Athens was about a month old, I found him in the field, and Penny still in the yard - he had managed to jump the fence - on more than one occasion, and all the horses soon lived in the field in harmony.

Penny was always at the bottom of the pecking order. When I brought in another foster horse, Penny would assert herself for about 24 hours before she gave in and accepted her role again at the bottom. She babysitted Ricochet when he was weaned at our house, and would have adopted Goose if Charlie would let her. (Lucky for Penny, she didn't get the chance - Goose was an 17+ hh draft by the time he was grown - Penny just barely 14hh :) )

Everyone who came to our house always complimented us on our beautiful palomino. She had the gentlest personality, the biggest doe eyes, and was one of the most beautiful horses I have ever known. And she was as gentle as she was beautiful. She loved people more than horses, it seemed, and she was always the first to the fence to greet you. With the kids, she was always ever so careful to look out for them whether they were on the ground or on her back. She would almost tiptoe when they were riding her, and would always take tiny steps when they were leading her with her nose down low at their level so she could watch them carefully. I remember her pausing with her hoof in the air to wait and see whether one of the kids was going to keep walking or not. And Sammie and I would go out to the field and I would set her on Penny's bare back just to ride her for a few minutes. Penny always stood still, loving the attention and the scratches.

Here are some of my favorite photos of Penny with the kids. Please forgive my lack of common sense about not having a helmet on the kids when they were very young - they wear them all the time now, no matter what. We usually had someone holding on to their leg to steady them. I will post more as I get them together.

Missing her dearly...


Sammie loved Penny right from the start:

Aug 2006



She gave the best Pony rides:



Nov. 2006



Dec 2007




August 2008