Giovanna Reber of Ramona says her thoroughbred Dobby — famously rescued after a 100-foot-plus fall in Jamul a year ago — was a sweet horse with a puppy dog personality.
“He’d follow you everywhere,” she says. “Liked belly scratches. He loved to play with your shirt … just like nibble at it.”
Goofy and playful, the horse named for the house elf Dobby in Harry Potter films carried his own secret, however.
His ravine plunge left undetected scar tissue, and last Wednesday — after colicking overnight at his Ramona home with untreatable abdominal pain from twisted intestines — he was humanely euthanized.
“By the time we found him, it was too late — [we] couldn’t do anything for him,” Reber said.
Reber, 21, says media attention to Dobby’s rescue by the San Diego Humane Society and Cal Fire was “surreal a little bit.”
“I told my parents: This is not how I expected ever ending up on the news,” she told Times of San Diego on Monday.
But the coverage was wonderful, she said, because her GoFundMe account to raise money for veterinary fees raised the exact amount of the bills.
“It came up to $7,000,” she said. The Humane Society and other rescuers didn’t charge a cent.
Dobby, raised in Kentucky, was acquired after retiring from a brief racing career.
“I found him from my trainer, who had another student who was selling him at the time,” Reber says. “I tried him out and fell in love with him.”
How did he acquire the name Dobby?
The previous owner loved the Harry Potter movies, and the Dobby character in the movie and the horse “had really big floppy ears. And she thought it was just perfect.”
Also: “The elf Dobby had a big caring personality. And that’s how Dobby the horse was, too.”
Standing 17 hands tall, Dobby “loved any treat we gave him, but he adored carrots. … And he loved to just do anything that you wanted to do. He wanted to be with you all the time, going out on rides.”
Reber smiles in recalling Dobby’s demeanor as a “little menace to society: ‘Whatcha doing? Can I help?'”
Reber was riding Dobby, then age 8, when he slipped on a hill from the Hollenbeck Trail. He was treated and led out of the rocky ravine after a 4-hour trek.
“I was able to jump off of him when I felt his hind end slip out from underneath me,” Reber said. “I’ve ridden horses since I was young and have learned how to do emergency dismounts.”
All she suffered was a very badly bruised elbow.
The emotional wounds will take longer to heal.
Even the four other horses who shared a corral with Dobby are mourning his absence.
“They’ve all been sad,” Reber said in a phone interview. “One of them, who is my mom’s horse, was best friends with Dobby. They wanted to go everywhere. They would sit there and play with each other for hours — and he’s been very sad.”
Reber was present for the euthanasia and expects her equine friend will end up as fertilizer. (Not in “glue factories,” which use far more cows and pigs.)
But according to custom, she’ll keep Dobby’s tail — which can be made into bracelets, necklaces or embedded in horseshoe-shaped resin.
The extent of Dobby’s stomach injuries from the mid-April 2023 fall weren’t known until after he was put down, so Reber doesn’t fault anyone. Scar tissue had come out of place.
But she remains very grateful to the rescuers and thanks all who donated for Dobby’s care.
“Everyone gave us an extra year with him,” Reber said, “and that’s more than I could ever ask for.”