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I bought Dakota in April 2022 as a 10 month old. She was feral when she arrived: untouchable and a complete blank canvas but my dream horse in everyway.  An Appaloosa cross Trakehner with the most stunning colouring and we quickly became inseparable. She was my forever horse. We used to lie down in the field in the sun together, she’d follow me around the field, and shout to me from her stable in the morning. She was such a huge personality with an exciting future ahead of her, holding endless possibilities.

One day we moved yards to sole use, so mine and my friends babies could spend the winter out, just being babies. They were so happy on the new yard, it was a perfect place for them, they were so settled. It was just over a month after we moved that one of the other babies on the yard became sick. He wouldn’t move, was sweaty and had rounds of choke. The vet came out several times that day, and by the end of the day he had been diagnosed with Atypical Myopathy, and was taken to the nearest equine hospital after he had discoloured brown/red urine.

During this day, Dakota was happy in her stable eating and displaying no signs of any illness or discomfort. After coming back to the yard at around 2am from the equine hospital, I went to check on her, and again she was happily munching on her hay, giving me a big whinny when I arrived. I went home to bed and the next morning was woken up to a call saying that Dakota was unwell. Having no idea of the severity, I rushed to the yard to find her flat in her stable, struggling to breathe, sweaty and in unimaginable pain.

I sat down with her, she raised her head, gave me a little whicker and put her head back down in my lap. I rang the vets and waited for them to arrive. In the meantime she tried to get up twice, walked around a little but both times ended up collapsing. The second time, I knew that would be the last time she went down. When the vet arrived the only thing he could do was let her go.

I held her head in my hands whilst he injected her and watched my forever horse fade away. She wasn’t even 18 months old, she had such a bright future, but now all I have left of her is a section of her tail in a silver ring that I wear on my finger every day. We lost the other baby a few days later. His symptoms were completely different.  It’s such a cruel and vile disease that strikes so powerfully. I take comfort in the fact the babies are together, inseparable in death as they were in life.