It would be so nice to see a drawing/painting of Raven..Clava, you wanted to hear about them, well here is a story of a Haflinger
Back in 2009 I was looking for another Haflinger, a mare to use for both riding and breeding, and I saw Raven advertised, she looked like just the project I was looking for, so I bought her sight unseen, on the strength of her breeding, and through talking to her owner. Here I have to point out that I had bought my first Haflinger the same way, and that worked out real well.
Mt first clue that things may not be so well was talking to the shipper who had also brought Fancy up for me, when she told me that she had picked Raven up, but she wasn't quite like Fancy...after a long wait as she made her way here I found out what Linda had meant. I knew that Raven had a lump on her leg, but as far as I knew she was in good health, but when she came off of the trailer she looked like this, this was in April.
We set to to feed her up and get her back into shape, and by the summer she looked like this
I'd started long reining her and working her with tack on, ready to maybe start riding her, when one day she suddenly turned up like this
Despite blood tests etc we could never get to the bottom of her issue, but over the next few months she improved gradually, and we made the decision just to provide her with as much support as she needed and let her chill and hang out with the gang, she was such a sweetie to have around.
All went well until early 2010 when she fell in a snowy ditch and we had to pull her out, she was unable to stand on her own, and eventually I could see that she was withdrawing from us, and in consultation with the vet decided reluctantly to let her go.
I owned her for less than a year, I never rode her, just spent a lot of time hanging out with her, and I miss her terribly, in fact I still see her around the place with that funny walk, and resigned expression, she was the nicest of mares, I wish I had known her when she was younger.
A group scratch as she met the herd over a fence:lol: