Tawnee headed out to rescue a little miniature horse. An Amish family called our TN shelter about a miniature horse they could no longer keep. They were hoping we could take him otherwise they were going to have to kill him. We know from experience that this would not have been humane euthanasia by a vet. Tawnee told the lady she would be there the next morning to pick the little mini up.
When Tawnee arrived the Amish lady took her out to the barn where the mini had been living.
Inside the barn, Tawnee met Gumbie. The lady said they had owned him for years. There was so much manure piled up in his stall it was obvious it hadn’t been cleaned in years. His hooves were very long, thankfully not long enough to twirl. His cheeks were swollen from a lack of proper dental care.
The lady said for years they had used him as a cart pony. He had to live in the stall now because the kids were older and he would get out of their horse pasture because he was so small. Instead of making it where he could live outside by repairing the fence or building a new pen, they just kept him in the stall.
When Tawnee was leading Gumbie outside, almost as soon as his hooves touched the grass and he felt the sunshine, he started leaping for joy. He calmed and loaded up without any problem. A big adventure was ahead for him!
Gumbie’s hooves are not the worst we’ve seen, but they are definitely very long. We are thankful they surrendered him when they did.
After a short drive Gumbie unloaded at our shelter. He was very happy to see a big, beautiful pen waiting for him. This little guy is soaking up the sunshine after being in a stall for so many years!
The farrier came out as soon as possible to do his feet. When Tawnee went out to get Gumbie from his pen, she couldn’t help but take a photo of him as the sun was beginning to rise. He is such an adorably cute little guy.
The farrier got right to work on his hooves. He thinks with a few trims he should be just fine. While he was trimming and cleaning out one of his hooves, he found a screw that had been lodged in his hoof for quite some time. Thankfully it did not do any permanent damage.
Quite a bit of excess hoof was removed.
Here is Gumbie’s hooves before the trimming.
He looks so much better after a good trim job! He still needs more corrective trimming, but this is a great start. Gumbie is the first miniature horse we have seen with calcification in his knees. We believe this is due to years of pulling a buggy on hard paved roads.
After his trimming job was done, it was time for a makeover on his matted mane.
After quite a bit of grooming all the tangles were out. Tawnee was thankful she didn’t have to cut any of his mane to get matted hair out.
Gumbie almost had as much dead hair in his mane as he did good hair! After the makeover was done, Tawnee got a picture of him standing in front of the dead hair that got groomed out.
Tawnee did a video of Gumbie’s rescue that you won’t want to miss watching. It’s hard to know what it’s like from just reading the blog to go on a rescue. Here’s your chance!
To watch the video of Gumbie’s rescue, click here.
Thank you so much for your support! If you would like to help Gumbie and other horses like him, click here.