Your choice is ‘put him down’ or it’ll cost at least $2.5K !!

This was the hardest decision of my life and my daughter and I had to make it in a matter of minutes .. Fletch was supposed to be my horse, but my daughter fell in love with him and I’ve kind of stepped aside. My daughter Keriana is a single mum and neither of us have savings but Fletch came into Keriana’s life to help heal her and now it’s our turn to heal him. Keriana suffers from anxiety and so does Fletch, he can’t bear to be on his own in the paddock. So when he got a pigtail caught in his tail, he had no company to run to, so he took the fence option, but failed and got tangled in the wire, then fell onto his head very heavily, then onto his shoulder while his legs were still tangled.

Then somehow he tore his legs out of the fence and galloped 1.5kms along a rural road til he was thankfully stopped heading onto SH1 near QE Park, Kapiti.

I can’t really remember everything that happened after that as both Keriana and I were in total shock, as was Fletch. We put him in a paddock along that road and the vet was called. When she saw his injuries, particularly his legs, she said your choice is to put him down now, as it will cost you at least $2K.

But Fletch is our one in a million horse. He is a 7yo TB, and unusually very quiet and is connected with me and my family. We rescued him from a life of being on his own only 5 months ago. We couldn’t leave him there. Fletch has been the healing Keriana has needed to deal with her anxiety. His calm, affectionate way just draws her in and I’ve watched her anxiety levels just drop when she’s with him. And this has transferred into other areas of her life. Someone said to her recently that Fletch was lucky to have her - but she said ‘No, I am lucky to have Fletch’. And so am I. We just love this horse so much, he has crept into all of our hearts.

But now we are facing huge vet bills and have no way to cover these. These bills will continue to mount over the next few months as we bring Fletch back to the healthy, beautiful boy he is. I am doing everything I can to raise the money we need, but I’m reaching out to other horse and animal lovers for any help you can provide to help us to save Fletch.

I want to thank the amazing Erin at Otaki Equine Vets for the awesome job she’s done in putting Fletch back together. He’s had his first bandage change and the legs are starting to heal. He’ll be boxed for weeks yet and his recovery will be long, but we will be there for him and one day, we hope Keriana will be able to ride him.