EI

I bought my daughter her first pony 4 years ago. She's just a little 'paddock-basher' , but to us she is priceless. Not too long ago, she came down with colic. The vet came, set up a drip, and I stayed in the stable with her all night. In the morning she was worse, so I called the vet back. Before he arrived, I made the desicion to take her to the Eqine clinic about 100km's away. The vet had already rang them for me, as he had come to the same conclusion. My preciouse little pony travelled to the clinic like an angel, despite her desperate sufferring. At the clinic I was given the news that they suspedcted a twisted bowel, and my pony was given less than an hour to live, unless they operated, and even then there was no guarentee. I didn't hesitate to tell them to operate, even though they quoted me around $10,000. No, I am not rich, not even a little bit. I had to increase the mortgage on my house to pay for the operation, which in the end cost $15,000. I will be paying it off for the next ten years, but I don't regret it because we still have our precious girl! She pulled through, despite how sick she was. My daughter and I drove to the clinic and back almost every day for the nearly three weeks she was at the clinic. We sufferred with her as she recovered, and despite the fact that my daughter has now outgrown her, we will never part with her.

NOW, HOW DO I TELL MY DAUGHTER, that because her pony is not a race horse, that she won't get a vaccine to stop her from getting the E.I. virus so severley that it may kill her; that we don't matter because we aren't wealthy enough to matter to the politians?

We may not generate millions in revenue, but as non-race horse owners, we love our horses too. In fact, in most cases, we probably love our horses more. Political leaders, take note! We may not be wealthy, but we do have a vote!

From a VERY ANGRY horse owner, and voter!

Debby!