Our Raven girl
Right before the Airport fire and ensuing evacuation, we had another tragedy that hit us: we lost our lovely Friesian, Raven. We have been so overwhelmed with evacuating and then bringing everyone back that we didn’t have the time nor the heart to announce her passing.
Raven came to Hanaeleh at the end of 2021– she had been sold after she was no longer able to produce any more babies, and she ended up being donated to a lesson program. The only issue was that she wasn’t trained to ride! The lesson program just didn’t have any extra time to train a completely green horse but wanted to make sure Raven had a safe landing, so she came to Hanaeleh.
Raven was 15 when she came to Hanaeleh, which is relatively old for a Friesian. We did train her to ride, and even started her on ground driving, but she had an older shoulder injury that would crop up every few months. Eventually we were able to have her sound at liberty, and decided to let her just enjoy her retirement and be loved and admired by everyone who came to Hanaeleh!
And Raven DID love to be admired- she assumed everyone who came to the ranch was there to see her, and she was probably right! She would pose for the camera as well, and loved to have her picture taken! She would also stand calmly for hours as she was groomed and beautified by our volunteers.
The most amazing thing about Raven was that she just loved being around people. Unfortunately, she wasn’t as good with other horses, and they were often kind of mean to her because she was just so sweet and passive. We finally decided she would be happiest not living with other horses, and we were right- she was perfectly happy just hanging out with people. She was so good with people that Elizabeth even took her to her high school to greet the students- there are over 2,000 students on campus, and Raven was happy to meet every single one!
Sadly, Raven suffered from a lengthening of her tendons in her front legs. We put her on pain meds which worked for a while, but eventually the tendons ended up tearing and we were unable to effectively manage her pain. We had her on very strong pain meds so she was comfortable at the end, but even then we knew that it was time, and her pain would eventually be too overwhelming.
Raven was 18 years old when she passed, and her final years at Hanaeleh were filled with kindness and lots of goodies. She passed with her favorite people surrounding her, and she knew that she was very much loved. Like all of us, animals and humans alike, we have a limited time and cannot stay forever. We made sure that Raven’s final years were filled with love and compassion.