RIP Oberon - A Great Trail Horse Crosses the Rainbow Bridge

 

Oberon was Ari's first trail horse. He was a 16.3 hh Hungarian Shagya Arabian. His feet were one size smaller than a draft horse. 

Oberon's previous owner named him Silver - which is a pretty typical name for a flea-bitten gray. We renamed him Oberon to keep with our Shakespearean theme, plus Oberon looked a lot like a horse out of mythology.

We bought Oberon from a rancher named Skip Lightfoot in South San Jose.

Skip was a legendary equestrian in our horse community. He had decided that he wanted to try endurance competitions. Oberon had just run the Tevis and come in 5th. 

Skip paid 25,000 dollars for him based on his papers and some videos and paid for his transport from Southern California to San Jose.

Oberon came off the trailer lame, so a vet was called in. The vet said the Tevis had pretty much ruined Oberon for competition and offered to put Oberon down.

Skip didn't want to put down a horse he just bought. He wanted to give him a chance, so he put him out to pasture to rehab for a year. He couldn't use him for racing, but maybe he could be a lesson horse.

Oberon had been trained to go fast and he was a strong horse. He wasn't going to listen to a small child or inexperienced rider, so he was no good as a lesson horse.

Ari was looking for a solid trail horse and we went to see Oberon and Ari fell in love with him.

The vet told us that Oberon couldn't be used for competition, but he would probably hold up OK as a trail horse.

And he did. He was used to obstacles and being on trails from his time in endurance. He was really forward - because he had been trained to move out - and he had an extended walk. My little Paso had no problems keeping up with him.

He was high spirited like most Arabians and he let his opinion be known when it came to anything we asked him to do. He adored Ari and he was suspicious of pretty much everyone else.

He was 8 years old when we bought him and Ari rode him for 15 years.

But then, he started to stumble and slip on the trail - which was unusual for him. He still was eager to go out on the trail and be with Ari, but he was no longer safe to ride. We brought in a vet and the vet determined that Oberon had been having small strokes which affected his balance.

There was no treatment and no real cure.

So, we retired Oberon to a retirement barn in 2016.

Because Oberon and my Paso, Laertes, had been together for 15 years, we felt it was best to retire both horses together.

Laertes passed away in January 2019 from DSLD. The vet offered to put Oberon down at the same time we put down Laertes, but we thought Oberon should be given the chance to adjust to life without Laertes.

And he did adjust. He made friends with the horse in the pasture next to his and they would race each other along the fence line.

During his retirement, Oberon would occasionally have a small stroke. He would have difficulty walking for a few days and then he would recover.

On August 8, Oberon had another small stroke and went down. The barn manager gave him some pain medication and checked on him. She checked on him several times and sometimes he appeared like he was recovering and doing OK and sometimes he would be lying down and appeared worse.  Until the final check-in, when she found that he had passed away.  

We feel pretty lucky to have had such a great trail horse for so many years. Oberon got great care during his retirement years. 

Laertes and Oberon are reunited now and I am sure they have lots of great stories to tell each other.