Ava

This beautiful little girl could finally let her guard down at our finca.

Ava came to us as an emergency rescue horse. She lived a life of abuse and neglect. She was left high up in the mountains, without food or water. It took 4 hours to walk her to the nearest place a trailer could pick her up and bring her to our sanctuary. Her bones grew in unnatural ways, they were weak and fragile. She had skin conditions and infected hooves, and was almost blind.

When she came to us, she had no idea what a hay bucket was. It took her two weeks to figure out that those buckets mean food. She only had 5% vision in one eye, and we fought really hard to be able to save her other eye. We gave her around the clock care, as she needed 4 different eye drops with specific time in between. Sometimes she would lose confidence, as she would walk into things. So we made her her own little paddock in between two sets of horses. This way she could have the company, but no pressure from other horses to run around, bumping into obstacles.
We were able to treat her skin issues. Unfortunately, she also had developing arthritis. We gave her a special exercise regime, to keep her fit and the arthritis stable. She was a sweet lady, but could be a bit of a diva if she didn’t understand what was happening due to her bad eyesight. She definitely came out of her shell at our finca, loving bath time and the care of our volunteers.

Sadly, the arthritis got worse over time. Ava really struggled to pick up all of her feet and was visibly in pain. The vet confirmed our fears, that at this point the only thing we could do was manage the pain.
Eventually we faced with a tough decision. Ava was suffering, not being able to go on walks anymore, struggling very hard to stand up or lay down. As horses need a couple of hours sleep laying down every day, otherwise they get sleep deprivation, we decided with sorrow in our hearts that it was inhumane to let her endure her pain. We asked our vet to come and help her cross the rainbow bridge.

Ava was surrounded with love until the very end. We couldn’t help her in this life anymore, but we made sure that her goodbye was a peaceful and comfortable one, being held by our horse manager and in the company of the people that cared for Ava and loved her.
A very precious memory of her is the moment that our horse manager Allana took her for a walk and Ava decided to roll at the little rolling spot, letting her guard down and showing her trust.
We are very thankful for everything Ava taught us about caring for horses with impaired eyesight, and we definitely miss her sweet character.

Ava arrived with us at December 6th, 2021, and passed away at November 8th, 2023.

We can imagine you might want to know more about our point of view on animal euthanasia after reading Avas story. You can find more information about it here.