eulogy for my horse

When your horse dies…

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Friday March 5th, 2021 I had to let go of Kyra. We could say I send her to the evergreen pastures (must be heaven for a horse which suffered from EMS). In other words: the vet came and ended her suffering. I am relieved. And sad. And I feel a lot of things: I think of many happy moments and I smile, I think of her suffering and I cry.

I will probably write more about that. Today I want to share the eulogy I wrote for Kyra and which I read to her before the vet came. It was a beautiful day and all was good. No regrets.

Eulogy for my horse

Here is the eulogy (I know there are some spelling mistakes and language mistakes. I decided to leave them in there).

My values in the horse-human relationship are Trust, Mutual Understanding and Have Fun (both!). In training they are #1 Honouring The Horse, #2 Always Make it a Win-Win, #3 Have Fun and #4 is Results (but R from Relationship comes first).

This is what I read to her before the vet ended her life. I was glad I wrote something nice to tell her how much I\’ve appreciated our time together.

Dear Sweet Kyra,

You\’re my best equine friend by far. I love you with my whole Hart <3 , Soul and my whole Being.

Thank you so much for all these wonderful moments in the past 11 years. ????I\’ve learned so much from you. Thank you for being such a great mentor.

You\’ve put me on the 100% R+ path because you made it clear to me that you hated the Parelli stick. I remember that day, like it was yesterday that I made the decision to change to 100% positive reinforcement in training.

I didn\’t know HOW I would or could do that, but then and there [it\’s a specific moment I refer to here], I decided I *would* figure it out. At that point our friendship was only 3 months old.

You\’re my Star✨. You start in almost all my training videos. Your Patience [ LOL, a reference to my Key Lesson Patience 😉 ], smartness and humor ???? made you easy and fun to work with.

With love you taught me to become a much better horse person. You\’re my inspiration. Even despite all the hardship, everything turned out to be a positive thing.????

Allowing me to document every step on our way, you and me wrote an Unique story that I will keep sharing, so that others can learn from it and hopefully might inspire.

You\’re my everything. <3

Thank you, Kyra, for your endless Love

Thank you for you Patience [with me 😉 ]

Thank you that you always kept me Safe

Thank you for the beautiful walks

Thank you for the wonderful hours in the saddle.

Thank you for teaching Leon how to ride (a bit). ????

I\’ve always felt safe and secure on your back (and when I didn’t, I learned to dismount [best lesson ever!]. Thank you for that lesson.

Today is the day I give you my gift…. ????????

My gift is Love and Freedom.

Today is a good day to Die.

Today is a very good day to stop your suffering….

I let you go because I love you <3

I let you go because:

*Honoring the Horse* is my number 1 Value in horse training.

That means that your Welfare and Your Wellbeing are the most important to me. Always!

My 2nd Training value is \”Always Make it a Win-Win\” [ Don\’t aim for Win-Loose or a compro-MISS]. As soon as you started to suffer, I suffered. This is not a Win-Win. Not in Training, not in Life. ????

My 3rd Value in Training *Have Fun* is compromised. Nothing else is important when YOU ???? don\’t have fun.

The last important Training Value is *Results*. No (future) results are important now you suffer so much. The \”R\” of Relationship???????????? is endless more important than the \”R\” of \”Results (in Training).

Dear Sweet Kyra????, I am so sorry…. Please forgive me, Thank you, I love you. <3

Thank you for reading. Please share your story, too. It\’s good to remember the good things about our horses. Kyra and I were just starting a new endeavor:

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4 thoughts on “When your horse dies…”

  1. Jennifer McDermott

    I’m so so sorry for your loss. It is so hard to endure. What beautiful words. You will see her again.

  2. Anouk Starmans

    Lieve lieve Sandra,

    Wat een enorm verlies dat je vanaf nu zonder Kyra verder moet. Ik wens je alle sterkte toe om het een plek te geven.

    Dikke knuffel uit Nederland, Anouk xxx

  3. Our animals are our family too. I’m so sorry for the loss of your Kyra.
    Kathy

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