Sure, it is a sad event! Personally, I feel some comfort knowing that memories will always be true, they won't go away even if the horses themselves have already passed.

Monica was about 25. She had a background of being a race horse, and I'd guess those years left her with some chronic health issues slowly getting worse. She had stomach problems pretty often, occasionally showing signs of pain in the guts. And those eye inflammations come and went, many times a year, and judging by her behavior she had already lost a lot of her sight, often finding her way around relying on other senses.

Raiku was 12 - a full grown adult but not yet old. So in that sense it was pretty hard to decide about her future. But all of her chronic health problems combined made me feel that even though she could live for ten more years, those years wouldn't be that enjoyable for her.