"TOBY"
This page is dedicated to the Memory of "Toby".
The following short article and the above picture appeared in the Boston Herald:
"Horse collapses on street
By ORyan Johnson and Renee DeKona
Saturday, October 1, 2005 - Updated: 10:24 AM EST
A horse is tended to after collapsing on State Street near Faneuil Hall Marketplace last night. (Staff photo by Renee DeKona)
A horse leading one of the carriages that takes riders for romantic trips around downtown suddenly collapsed last night, making for a heart-wrenching scene as the animal clapped the pavement with its hooves trying desperately to stand up.What we know ....
Toby worked the streets of Boston from early morning
until evening most of his days. . . pulling people through
the sight seeing areas of Boston often in heavy traffic.
The heat from the streets in the summer make life very
difficult for these beautiful draft horses.
Toby was a Percheron gelding who at seven (7) years old
died from what appears to be exhaustion. He collapsed in front
of Fanneuil Hall and never was able to see a green pasture
here on this earth again.
Toby, we hope is resting and playing as
any 7 year old horse should be allowed to do.
He was not able to do it on this earth in his lifetime.
God Bless Toby ...and please keep him
in mind the next time you see these hard
working carriage horses in the streets of busy cities.
Some owners take great care to see that their
horses are well cared for and rested...... other
owners only look at these magnificent creatures
as a means to make money.
(We have a horse here in the rescue that was Toby's stable mate.
Monty made this rescue aware of the plight of some carriage horses,
Monty was rescued from slaughter.)
In Toby's Memory please be sure what kind of owner you are dealing with when you take a carriage ride...if awareness of their quality of life is raised by these words then his death is not in vain.