The Horse Trust had said a final farewell to beloved resident and former British Army horse, Tarnish, who has passed away aged 29.
Tarnish fulfilled a key role at the Equine Training Squadron within the The Defence Animal Training Regiment (DATR), teaching members of The Household Cavalry and The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery to become riding instructors.
He also spent time serving within The Household Division as an Officer’s Charger. While in this role, Tarnish took part in State Ceremonies including riding on Her Majesty The Queen’s Birthday Parade on numerous occasions.
Tarnish served for a total of 19 years and was known for “poise and patience”. He retired to The Horse Trust in June 2017.
“We were incredibly honoured to retire Tarnish to The Horse Trust,” said a charity spokesman. “Throughout his five years with us, he proved to be an incredibly sweet horse and was exceptionally kind and gentle. He became best friends with field mate, Shamrock, who also served in the DATR and The Household Division.
“Tarnish was sadly brought in recently feeling a little under the weather. Our team undertook a thorough examination and found a few problems, a couple of which we’d hoped would be relatively quick fixes. Tarnish was given some treatment and was said to be very perky overnight. However, the following morning Tarnish struggled to eat which sadly ruled out the quick fixes and we suspected he had a gastric impaction which can be incredibly difficult to rectify.
“Treatment was attempted in the morning but sadly Tarnish got worse throughout the day. One of the vets from a local practice was called out to kindly assist and bring a gastroscope so we could have a look inside his stomach. The scope showed that Tarnish had a large gastric impaction that would be very difficult to break up and due to the size we were unable to see if there was anything causing it.
“Tarnish found the treatment incredibly distressing, understandably, and we felt that repeatedly putting him through it was very unfair on him and at this point we decided the kindest thing to do for him was to say goodbye to our sweet boy.”
The charity said it had been an “absolute honour” to care for him after his years of service.
