@jackie.horse.sanc: I am so devastated to share this with you and I’m sorry I’ve been so quiet. I needed some time to come to terms with reality. Asher suddenly became extremely lame and crippled out of nowhere. At first I thought his arthritis had its first ugly flare up or he twisted his ankle, so i initially treated it like that. His ankle doubled in size and he limped horribly. But as the days went on, the high power pain meds and ice wraps weren’t even touching it. His symptoms were that of a severe sciatica episode. His spine was on fire. He went down in the field one morning, I picked him back up. He went down again the next morning, face down in a small ravine and it took me almost an hour to get him up out of the mud. He couldn’t balance, he was terrified to move and when he did move, he paced until he was sweating to relieve the pain. The vet said it looked like he was being shot multiple times, the pain was so severe for him. The vet was a true hardened veteran, but he said the pain Asher was in made his stomach twist. He hasn’t seen a spine go out like that in over 10 years. He said any treatment would have been putting a bandaid on a gunshot wound. I never want them suffer. I only want to be kind. And this was the hardest kind decision I’ve ever had to make. We let him go free from his tired aching body. His recovery was a MIRACLE. A draft horse living into their later thirties with impressively scary X-rays like his was unheard of. The vet said he could have only made it that far with the gold standard of care. And I gave him that every day. He was our first rescue. I had never even been near a draft horse until Asher. Asher is the reason I fell in love with Belgians. He showed me the plight of the Amish workhorse. He let me experience the soul of a gentle lamb inside an enormous body. He taught me how to fight, how to believe in miracles. How to wrap a post-surgical head wound at midnight. Something I had never done before. He taught me how to adjust myself to fit his needs, how to meet a broken horse where they are. He taught me how to heal the invisible emotional wounds and let them open their heart again in their own time.GOFUNDME link in bio

jackie horse sanctuary

Open In TikTok:

Region: GB

Friday 21 August 2026 01:19:09 GMT