Post by cadeby on Mar 19, 2010 15:27:04 GMT -1
This morning we found our beautiful Percheron mare Cadeby (Kitts Silver Gemini) dead in her paddock. She was a week off her 21st birthday and had been suffering from spleen cancer for over a year. She had lost a lot of weight but according to our vet wasn't in any pain and was still trotting around being herd leader right up to her death. She hadn't sweated up and there were no signs of a struggle on the ground, so we hope she just lay down and died peacefully.
We bought Cadeby when she was 7 years old. Prior to this she was used by Vaux Brewery in Sunderland to deliver beer and on their show team. She was notorious at Vaux for having taken the dray back to the stableyard driverless, winding her way through the city centre for 3 miles, even stopping for queues of cars at red traffic lights
We worked her commercially - she was a fantastic harness horse, standing 18.2HH and weighing 1000 kilos in her prime with a stunning dapple-grey coat and silver mane and tail. She took dozens of people to their wedding pulling a canoe landau, gave thousands of omnibus rides to tourists, did her bit for the planet with a green-waste recycling round, and taught children and adults with learning/physical disabilites how to interact with animals or even drive. She was a very popular mare with the public and always lowered her huge head into pushchairs for little kids to give her a stroke.
Riding her was a different matter. She would use all of her strength and considerable intelligence to plot against me and is the only horse I have ever ridden that could canter backwards
When we came to France she retired and took on a new role as herd leader and chief babysitter. She has raised all of our Dales foals from weaning with calm and fair authority, caring for them all as if they were her own foals.
We still have her daughter Flint (Kingmaker Landmark) our first ever foal, but despite having stayed with her mum's body for several hours today she is now frantically calling for her
Run free Cadders - we will always love you. Thankyou for the journey. What fun we had xxx
We bought Cadeby when she was 7 years old. Prior to this she was used by Vaux Brewery in Sunderland to deliver beer and on their show team. She was notorious at Vaux for having taken the dray back to the stableyard driverless, winding her way through the city centre for 3 miles, even stopping for queues of cars at red traffic lights
We worked her commercially - she was a fantastic harness horse, standing 18.2HH and weighing 1000 kilos in her prime with a stunning dapple-grey coat and silver mane and tail. She took dozens of people to their wedding pulling a canoe landau, gave thousands of omnibus rides to tourists, did her bit for the planet with a green-waste recycling round, and taught children and adults with learning/physical disabilites how to interact with animals or even drive. She was a very popular mare with the public and always lowered her huge head into pushchairs for little kids to give her a stroke.
Riding her was a different matter. She would use all of her strength and considerable intelligence to plot against me and is the only horse I have ever ridden that could canter backwards
When we came to France she retired and took on a new role as herd leader and chief babysitter. She has raised all of our Dales foals from weaning with calm and fair authority, caring for them all as if they were her own foals.
We still have her daughter Flint (Kingmaker Landmark) our first ever foal, but despite having stayed with her mum's body for several hours today she is now frantically calling for her
Run free Cadders - we will always love you. Thankyou for the journey. What fun we had xxx
Ridgelane Duke 
Country Rose
