But we had to put Riley down last Friday. I walked out in the morning to feed and found her down, with several cuts on her legs and parts of her face rubbed down to the skin. She had coliced sometime in the night and spent the night down and thrashing around, which is where the cuts came from-her own hooves. We got her up a few times, but when the vet got there and gave her pain meds and a mild sedative (she explained it was the same amount she gave to float teeth) she wouldn't get up. She was extremely dehydrated and had a "toxic line" on her gums. After a rectal was done, we realized that her intestines were very twisted and put her to sleep.





I'm not going to go on about how great of a horse she was and how she changed my life- she didn't really. She wasn't a good riding horse, leaving me with a few concussions and several bloody noses. She was more stubborn then a mule. But she was great in the way that she would walk up to you to see what you were doing, stand around for kisses and hugs, tolerate all the silly things we did to her. She was a great friend, and I'll definitely miss her.
We've decided to actively search for a new home for Scout and get out of horses completely.






