Goodbye Fancy

Last week my daughter and I had to make the difficult decision to let her beloved horse Fancy go. She was almost 24, so a decent age for a horse, but had been suffering from a couple of things that caught up with her all at once. The tipping point was sinus surgery that required she have a drain in place and therefore had to be on stall rest. Fancy loathed being indoors, and despite the anti-anxiety meds she ended up with colic and very poor prospects for recovery even if we could get her to a specialist veterinary clinic in time for surgery.

Looking back over the blog, I see that I have written a lot about Fancy and the things I have learned about balance, visualization, mental health, and hard work over the years: here , here, here , here , here, here, here, here, and here. She even got a peripheral mention when I wrote about the hot sweaty workout you get from filling the hay barn.

My daughter did a lot of research when she wanted me to buy her a horse at 16. We travelled all over eastern Ontario and western Quebec looking at prospects, and finally ended up at a place near Woodstock Ontario. To my eyes, Fancy did not look promising at all, but my daughter saw something. Plus, as she said, “Fancy may not be the best horse, but she’s the horse that needs me the most”. She spent months getting Fancy built up and ready to ride, and years riding, grooming, and just hanging out with her horse buddy.

Fancy could be an absolute brat who made me chase her for hours when she didn’t feel like being caught. She was the most un-herd-like herd animal I ever ran across, preferring to be at the far end of the field from every other horse. She also loved to jump and worked hard to be a good dressage horse. One of the biggest compliments you can make about a horse is that they had a lot of heart. Fancy’s heart was huge.