When Phil first told me this story I said "how gruesome!" but he said "It's all part of life in the country. These things happen and have to be dealt with."
It seems a neighbour of Cyril's (Phil's dad) called over one day to say one of his horses had died and would Cyril please come over to his farm and help him dig a hole so the horse could be buried without delay.
Cyril agreed and after much time spent digging a huge hole they used the another horse to drag the body of the dead horse into the hole. It took them quite some time to fill the hole in again and, to their horror, when they had finished putting the earth back there were the dead horse's four feet sticking up well above the ground.
What to do? Only one solution....a hacksaw was brought from the shed and the horse's feet had to be sawn off and buried separately.
Fortunately there are no graphics to go with this story and I am sorry if it upsets you but as Phil said when he told me "It happens."
I love horses and strangely enough Philip's name means "Lover of horses" and I not only love him but horses as well and I don't know why I wrote that but it just sort of came into my head so there it is.
Memory-evoking post, Mimsie. When I was a kid in the 1950's, my sister and I found our beloved 30-year-old plow-horse, Pat, dead beside the barn. My sister could not be consoled and I was sad too until the tallow works truck came and wenched poor Pat onto its bed by cable --I was amazed by technology. Boys and girls are very different emotionally but I'm sure sister and I were equally relieved we didn't have to bury Pat.
ReplyDeleteI am sure it was easier to say goodbye more quickly than to see a dear friend buried.
DeleteYes it is sad, but so much of life is. Ignoring the sad parts doesn't make them go away.
ReplyDeleteWe have to accept sadnesses in life along with the good things which fortunately seem to outnumber the bad.
DeleteIt is sad but that's life in the country. I find it odd they didn't notice the feet sticking up as they were packing in the dirt, instead of after they'd finished.
ReplyDeleteI've been pondering that as well and am thinking that perhaps as they dragged the poor dead creature into the hole a lot of soil may have gone in as well thus making the hole shallower than it was. Just a thought.
DeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteHaving farming family I can recall something similar involving a sheep; it was quite simply that grandad hadn't measured the animal before hand. However I do believe they hauled the animal out and continued digging... though with a horse that would have been a rather larger task and this would have been a logical option...though I am inclined to think that this would have been noticed before backfill and therefore the lower joints could in fact have remained with their owner! (Just realised River was thinking along those same lines... perhaps it takes a woman...) YAM xx
I repeat what I said above....perhaps soil was dragged into the hole and make it more shallow.
Deletethat would be one of those memories that sticks with you for a lifetime
ReplyDeleteI think it would but farmers get on with their lives and I am sure put those events behind them.
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