It goes without saying that a pet is a family member, and when it comes time to say goodbye, the grief is the same. Horses can live well into their 20s and even 30s, so when your trusty equine passes on after having spent such a significant portion of your life with you, it makes saying goodbye all the more difficult.
In more ways than one.
Along with the emotional weight of bereavement, a standard horse weighs about 1,000 pounds, give or take, and can be 5 or 6 feet tall at the shoulder. While a deceased dog or cat can easily be cremated, buried or even stored in your freezer until further notice, finding a proper place for your horse poses a much larger task.
A formerly common method for owners is rendering (when horse remains are converted into usable materials, such as chemicals — aka, “taking it to the glue factory”). However, that method is quite obsolete in Oregon, so owners are left to find other options.
That being said, there are plenty of actions to take with your horse after it has gone “out to pasture.” Regardless of your choice, the most important thing is to have a plan. According to the Oregon Department of Agriculture, “Animal carcasses within 1/2-mile of any dwelling or within 1/4-mile of any running stream of water must be disposed of as soon as possible, but no later than 15 hours after the time of death or discovery (ORS 601.140).” This is because a deceased animal can pose threats to the surrounding environment, jeopardizing animal health and polluting nearby water.
In other words, they don’t have to go home, but they can’t stay here. Unless you live on a large farm or ranch. In that case, “it may be appropriate to leave the carcasses on the ground for scavengers,” so long as it meets the 1/2 mile away from your dwelling and 1/4 mile away from water requirements, according to the ODA.
Rather than leaving dead horses for scavengers, many choose home burial. If you still follow the home and water source guidelines, the ODA says it is perfectly legal. The ODA recommends burying your horse in a way that he can be covered with at least 3 to 4 feet of soil. Of course, all of this requires heavy machinery and physical labor, and a lot of people do not have the resources, land or emotional means to be able to perform these tasks.
Katie Brown of Kali’s Cremation in Klamath Falls understands this as much as anyone. When her horse Kali passed away in 2020, “a piece of my heart left with her,” she says. “It was almost as bad as losing my dad.” As Brown buried her Kali, she and her husband decided to start a family-owned cremation center for horse parents who want an alternative to home burial.
Kali’s provides home pick up, and currently prices horse cremation at $1.25 per pound. Another option is West Coast Pet Memorial in Portland, which has flat rates of $2,400 for a horse under 1,000 pounds and $3,000 for a horse over 1,000 pounds.
Kali’s has also partnered with 116 Woodcraft, which provides handcrafted custom wooden urns for animals over 1,000 pounds at no additional cost (West Coast charges an additional $300 per urn). Along with the urn, Brown will return your horse’s tail, cut, washed and brushed for you to keep. Keeping a beloved horse’s tail after it has died is a tradition among equestrians, and as the saying goes, “The best horses in heaven have no tail.”
Brown says that cremation is “a neat way to still have your animal there with you.” She says having your horse like this provides comfort, “even though it’s not in the same form.”
But there are few crematoriums around the state offering the service, and even on the cheaper end, it can be financially unfeasible for many people.
For those who still dream of their steeds spending eternity on a quiet pasture, Omega Farms is located outside Noti, about 40 miles west of Eugene. It is a 387-acre farm with wide open spaces for your horse to rest. It was started in 2003 by Marta and David Heidt, who decided to open their vast property for people who don’t have their own space and machinery to bury their horses.
According to Marta Heidt, “it’s got a lot of hills and pretty steep hillsides. The majority of it is timber and there’s probably about 70 or so acres of flat pasture land. In the summertime, the horses are buried out in one of the fields. But in the winter, when the water comes up, we go up in the hills, and [David] buries them among the trees.”
While it is also a working cattle ranch and farm, about 6,000 horses from around the state have been buried throughout the pasture.
Wendy Jameson is the owner of Tail End Transport, a pick-up service for large deceased animals. Along with regularly transporting horses to two of the only horse crematoriums (aside from Kali’s, which does its own transport) within nine hours of Eugene (West Coast Pet Cremation in Portland and Petland Cemetery in Washington), she is the sole transport service for Omega Farms. She has also been an Omega customer for more than 20 years. “I remember my first horse I brought to them up vividly,” she says. “They did the job with such grace and compassion.”
The price to bury at Omega Farms is $250 in cash or check, and you can either drop the horse off yourself or call Tail End Transport. After it is buried, you can visit it for free any time by appointment. For the Eugene area, Jameson says Omega Farms is a “good middle-priced option.”
The cheapest option Jameson is referring to, is bringing your horse to the landfill, which Tail End also provides transportation for. Jameson suggests Short Mountain landfill. “We have found they are very organized and very respectful of the process,” she says. “How do I say this? It’s as graceful as it can be for a landfill.”
To drop your horse off at Short Mountain, you have to call ahead and set an appointment, where you will be directed to whichever bay that is currently accepting waste. The price to dispose of materials at the landfill is $112.51 per ton (2,000 pounds) and pro-rated based on weight. This means that a 1,000 pound horse costs about $56.26 to leave at the landfill.
Jameson adds that she has delivered to several dumps around the area, and Short Mountain is her top recommendation. “They do a very good job. I mean, if I had to, I would be OK with my horse going to Short Mountain.”
There is also a free option for horse disposal, which is donating your horse to Wildlife Safari.
Wildlife Safari is a 600-acre drive-thru safari zoo located in Winston, 80 miles south of Eugene, that has elephants, zebras, tigers, cheetahs, lions and more.
According to their marketing director, Ali Shaver, Wildlife Safari only accepts elderly horses at the end of their life. When your horse arrives, “we will humanely euthanize it,” she says, using a captive bolt if possible and a bullet if not, “and then we will quarter it up and feed it to our big cats.”
The carnivores have to be fed “lean meat, especially for our cheetahs, and horse meat is very lean,” she says. Along with the horse meat, Wildlife Safari also mixes in essential vitamins for the cats. “So it’s a good option for us, and it’s an inexpensive option for us to make sure our animals are healthy and fed the way that they need to be fed.”
She also mentions that this option can be beneficial for horse owners. Giving your horse to Wildlife Safari “is a tax write-off because it’s a charitable donation.”
Whatever you decide to do, Jameson and Brown both advise planning ahead so you know who to call, and that any decision you make for your horse is OK. “It’s just one of those moments where there aren’t enough hugs in the world,” Jameson says.
Kali’s Cremation is at 5807 Airway Drive, Klamath Falls, 509-948-6864 or email KalisCremations@yahoo.com. Visit KalisCremation.com for more information. Omega Farms is at 21479 Cook Road, Noti. Call 541-935-1588 or go to Omega-Farms.com for more information. For horse transportation to Omega Farms, landfills or other horse disposal areas, call Tail End Transport at 541- 914-0500 or email TailEndTransport@gmail.com. Short Mountain landfill is open 7 am to 5 pm Monday through Saturday at 84777 Dillard Access Road. It is closed to the public. For more information about access and rates call 541-682-4120 or visit LaneCountyOr.Gov. Wildlife Safari is open 10 am to 6 pm every day at 1790 Safari Road, Winston. For more information call 541-679-6761 or visit WildlifeSafari.net.