RIP Tarnish

It is with a heavy heart that we must inform you that we said our final goodbyes to our beloved Tarnish, formerly of The Defence Animal Training Regiment (DATR) and The Household Division, at the age of 29.

Tarnish retired to us in June 2017 after an interesting and varied career within The British Army. Tarnish fulfilled a key role at the Equine Training Squadron within the DATR teaching members of The Household Cavalry and The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery to become riding instructors. Our talented Tarnish also spent time serving within The Household Division as an Officer’s Charger. Whilst working as an Officer’s Charger, Tarnish took part in many State Ceremonies including riding on Her Majesty The Queen’s Birthday Parade on numerous occasions. Tarnish served for a total of 19 magnificent years and during this time he was known for poise and patience.

We were incredibly honoured to retire Tarnish to The Horse Trust in June 2017. Throughout his five years with us, Tarnish 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.

Tarnish, it has been our absolute honour to serve you after all your years of service. Kind, gentle and loving, we will miss seeing your handsome face each day. We take comfort in the fact that you are now galloping free from pain, across the rainbow bridge. Rest in Peace, our lovely Tarnish, we will never forget you.

For more photos of Tarnish in his career and retirement view our Facebook post here.