Silvan's Last Day

With us at least.

Today was the big move back to his birth place, Grosskitzighofen which for the purposes of record will show the field he was born on in 1995. 

Silvan has an "interesting" pedigree which includes amongst others Arab blood in his recent parentage. You wouldn't believe it given his "Drafthorse-pony stature. He is a horse though but his pony character has been the cause of some large blood letting in recent months, the vet having to cut him open to reléase buckets of blood and hence pressure building up in his veins caused by overfeeding on too rich grass with resultant laminitis. It is a sight to see, a horse standing there with a stream of blood pouring out - they luckily don't seem to see the significance themselves.

We got Silvan as a 5 month old foal companion for our also 5 month old quarter horse Rosie. Given to us by our good friend Alois from the village. Well almost given, I had to do about 40 hours of work in Alois' forest and building his new cow shed to pay it off. I think Silvan was an "accident" rather than planned breeding.

Silvan was "adopted" in early years by a then very young girl in the village, Maria. Maria is now finished with her studying and is a qualified teacher, earning a cent or two and most importantly can offer him a home with just the right feeding and has the time to exercise him daily, very important to avoid laminitis and to reduce the playful tricks Silvan thinks up when he is bored. So we threw in a saddle and gave Maria a present which at least until the day of posting (15/01/2016) has been of mutual benefit to us, Maria and Silvan.

We will miss him but not the bother & cost of repairing fences he simply walked through to get to better looking grass. He was a past master at this sport, having been born in a large field with a cow herd which regularly broke out. He was a quick learner.