I went to visit my parent’s house last weekend, and there I learned that my first and oldest pony Flörchen has died. I am surprisingly un-sad about this; I guess I have plenty of distance to most things around that house by now. Nevertheless, I think after roughly 25 years, Flörchen has earned an obituary in form of a blog post.

I got Flörchen when I was six years old. I was one of the horse-obsessed kids, and since my parents had plenty of space for all kinds of animals, it was only a matter of time until I demanded my own pony. We named her Flörchen as a diminutive of ‘Flora’, since that was the name of the horse my father’s family had when he grew up. Here’s a picture of me and Flörchen about the time we got her, which must have been in 1992.

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As you might infer from this photo, I outgrew her after about five or six years, and sadly, ever since then, she didn’t really get as much as attention as she was used to. My parents bought two bigger horses when I was around 9, which they also drove (with a horse-carriage). But they died rather quickly (in 1997 and 1999), and I completely stopped riding and being interested in horses afterwards.

Eventually, about 12 years after I got Flörchen, I moved out and she was all alone with her mate Fee1 (who we got around 1997). Ever since then, these two ponies have mostly been decorative lawn-mowers, as nobody really cared for them. I usually groomed them whenever I visited my parents (which is about 2-3 times a year), but other than that, there were never really any kids from the village interested in these ponies either.

Flörchen in particular was a very cheeky pony. Riding her was perfectly possible, but as a rider, you needed a much stronger will then she had. Sadly I just couldn’t do it anymore at one point, because both my legs were too long and I eventually was to heavy for her. So as you might infer, I felt a bit sorry for the ponies, and I suggested to my mother multiple times to sell them to a stable or something, but my mother insisted they get their charity with them.

Flörchen’s life ended about a month ago, when my parents noticed that she looked rather caved in standing next to the water trough. They then noticed that she could not open her mouth and called the vet. The vet found out that Flörchen’s entire mouth was inflamed and her teeth were completely run down. There would have been a possible treatment, but one that would likely not have been very successful. So they decided that it would be best for her to end it. They took her out to the meadow, where she was joined with Fee, and Fee was able to watch her die. The vet said that would be best for her, as otherwise she might have been confused by Flörchen’s sudden disappearance. According to my parents, Fee only mourned for a day and now rather enjoys being the center of attention (as Flörchen was always very dominant).

Though I am sad that one of my best childhood friends is gone, I am also relieved that she didn’t have to suffer for a long time. Also, she had a very long, very relaxed, very good life for a pony.