St. Charles Park District, community grieving loss of draft horse 'Doc'

The St. Charles Park District's beloved draft horse, Doc, died July 3 at the age of 31.

Doc was a Belgian draft horse, born in 1992, who spent the final 13 years of his life educating guests at Primrose Park in St. Charles.

Alison Jones, manager of farm operations, said her staff has received a lot of public support since Doc's passing. She said many people have reached out on social media and through email, and some have come out to visit Doc's partner horse, Bob.

Primrose Park is owned and operated by the St. Charles Park District. The farm serves as an educational facility where the animals are used in plowing and other farming demonstrations.

Doc came to Primrose Farm in 2010 at age 18, which Jones said could be considered a full life for a horse of his breed. Before coming to St. Charles, Doc worked at Heritage Farm in Schaumburg and earlier Wagner Farm in Glenview.

He worked for five more years on the farm pulling equipment and educating the public on how farming was done in the past, before retiring in 2015. Doc spent his final seven years on the farm greeting guests and on the receiving end of grooming classes.

Jones said Doc's gentle, quiet nature made him great with kids, and he served as a great ambassador for the farm during his 13 years in St. Charles.

Doc had worked with Bob for 13 years. Jones said the two horses were best friends and spent nearly all of their time together.

Bob now is the only horse at Primrose Park.

Jones said they are monitoring how he does without his partner before looking to bring in a new horse, a long time from now. The only definite plans are to keep Bob at the park as long as he's healthy.

"I just feel lucky that I was able to be here with him," Jones said. "It's a special thing to be able to work with animals like this. He was really a special guy."

Jones said even though he was an elderly horse, there were days he would gallop and buck around the pasture, rolling in the grass like a horse half his age.

"He would just really surprise you sometimes," Jones said.

Doc recently began struggling with his age and arthritis, and eventually had to be euthanized. Jones said about six weeks ago, Doc laid down and was unable to get back up on his own, which was when her staff began preparing for the inevitable.

Jones said they had hoped Doc could make it to the end of the summer, but after a few more struggles to stand in the following weeks, Doc went down for the final time the evening of July 3 and was unable to rise. He was found by a staff member and a vet was contacted to put him down.

Jones said there likely will be a memorial service or celebration of life at some point, but plans have not been made, as the staff still is grieving.

"It was hard, even though we knew it was coming," Jones said. "We're all still kind of mourning."