A Day in a Country Knackery

Not exactly the best way to spend a Sunday afternoon.


We arrived at the gates of this old country knackery, and we could see the horses in the pens.. waiting. My friend whistles out to the horses and a few call back, one is a big pally mare with a roman nose.. She is beautiful. We walk up the old rocky driveway to a tin shed that looks normal in the country but it's far from normal. At the front of the doorway lay the raw rib cage of the last slaughtered horse. We walk up to the tin shed and see more of the horse waste.. Some guts, hooves and a little chocolate brown horsey's head... It's disgusting and heart breaking and my friend says to me "harden up princess".. She was right, I had to harden up.... This is how things are done in the country....
The slaughter man see's us and he comes over, his hands were covered in blood, his clothes and even his face.. It looked like something out of a horror movie and my friend says to me "if he comes out with a chainsaw, i'm outta here".. She wasn't joking...
We chat to him and he agrees to let us have a look, and I fall in love with the pally mare.. There is no way i'm leaving her.. We also fall in love with a little stock horse colt... On one side of the pen is a TB with a broken leg, he was there for a reason.. In the pen next to him is another TB thats completely blind, he to was there for a reason. There was also a number of brumby foals and a few ponies..
We try to catch the pally mare, she is so scared.. My friend slowly gains her trust, I standby and watch... We walk her out, past all of her pen mates remains and load her onto the float without a problem, she is happy to leave... We go back for the colt and spend a while trying to get his trust, but he is unhandled.. The slaughter man comes out to let us know he is sending more into the shed, we hear two gun shots.. I look up towards the shed and he threws a little brown head out onto the pile of waste, iIcan see it's tongue hanging out of it's head... Very sad....
We decide that we can't catch the little colt and make the very hard decision to leave him there, he was next in line to die...
The mare travels home well and is placed in her new paddock, she is happy and settled.. A lovely mare named "Sweetheart"... I smelt of death for long after we left, it was hard to get it out of my nose and head, a smell i'll never forget...