First of all we want to say a huge “Thank you!” to everyone who made the auction rescue possible. Without your support, we would not have been able to save the 15 precious lives that we did. The auction got over late and there were 3 auction slaughter trucks loading up. Our hearts were heavy for the ones we couldn’t save, but so thankful for the ones we could.
As soon as the sun was up we were at the auction getting ready to load up. One of the horses was supposed to have some blindness but turned out to be almost completely blind. Kristen comforted him. He was so willing and eager to trust her and follow her around the auction alleyways.
Another one was that was special needs was this poor yearling Belgian colt. His front legs looked deformed and he was suffering from a horrible case of DSLD: the worst case we have ever seen in person. Every step he took, you could see the agony in his eyes.
It was so hard watching him walk. We could only imagine how much pain and discomfort he was in. His coggins papers said he was ran through the Sugarcreek auction in Ohio on December 29. How he ended up in middle Tennessee from there is unknown.
We took pictures of every horse before loading, and those pictures are now on our Facebook. We are still asking for name suggestions, so visit the album to see each of the horses and suggest names: click here. You don’t have to have a Facebook account to see all the pictures.
It’s a long drive back to the shelter but between our two trailers everyone was riding comfortably.
Once the rescue rigs arrived at the shelter the horses were unloaded into the waiting intake pens. They all made the trip safely and unloaded without any problems.
The vet was scheduled to give the horses their examinations and whatever else needed to be done the same day they arrived. We have learned that you can never believe anything the auction say about the horses. This horse was sold as a gelding, but he ended up being a stallion.
After his examination the vet put him under anesthesia and gelded him. The vet also cleaned up an injury he had on his leg.
The injury was pretty nasty. He got it sometime before the auction the vet believes and thankfully he said it will heal up fine.
As the horses initial evaluation is done, they are microchipped, vaccinated, dewormed, given probiotics and antibiotics, and their teeth are checked along with a physical. Most of the horses are in desperate need of a dental.
As the vet was finishing the float on the horse above, the little Palomino was waking up as a gelding. He is the cutest little guy and has such a sweet personality.
The vet started examining the next “gelding” and soon discovered that he was a stallion too. Sure enough, the auction was wrong about him too. In no time the vet gelded him.
Then it was back to fixing up the next horse’s teeth. This guy had some waves and sharp points on his teeth. We know this procedure will help him a lot.
While the vet was finishing the dental Jason was busy doing the intake forms on the iPad. We have switched to electronic forms for the horse files. This saves a huge amount of time and gives us amazing data.
When the vet started examining this fuzzy little “gelding,” it was found he was a stallion too. The auction just didn’t get their genders right! The vet sedated him and soon he was drifting off into la-la land.
We couldn’t believe how many stallions we rescued. What’s sad when horses are misrepresented at auctions is people can buy them, take them home, and end up with pasture surprises. So many times we have rescued horses from auction that were sound and ridden at the auction, and were completely lame a day or two later. People will do whatever it takes to get a few more dollars when they sell their horse at the auction, including lying about their gender, age, drugging the horse, whatever it takes. At one auction we bought a registered horse at an auction, and the Date of Birth was burned out on the registration paper. She was sold as a 10 year old, and ended up being in her late 20’s. We always encourage people to adopt, not shop. You will be getting a vet examined, dewormed, vaccinated, healthy, full disclosure horse instead of a surprise.
After the gelding above was done, the vet started examining the blind horse. He determined he has severe cataracts in both his eyes. He is a very sweet boy and was ridden through the auction. We currently have 3 blind horses at our shelter. If you are interested in giving a special needs horse a home, please let us know.
We thought we would be done with the gelding operations, but this little mini ended up being a stallion too. It didn’t take long and he was sleeping while the vet worked away.
This little pony desperately needed a dental. She is very underweight and had a lot of issues going on with her teeth. We are so thankful we have such a great vet that will work in the freezing cold weather to get the horses all taken care of. He is not only our shelter vet, he is also one of the primary veterinarians at the Elephant Sanctuary.
It was a with a heavy heart that we listened to the veterinarian’s prognosis for Dominic, the Belgian yearling. His DSLD was so advanced that there was nothing that could be done for him other than relieve his chronic suffering and give him love and care in the end. Every step was painful for him, and there was nothing medically that could be done. We are so thankful we were able to pull this sweet young baby from the slaughter pipeline and let him know not all humans are mean. This part of rescue is never easy, but we know it’s the right thing to do.
Thank you everyone again for making this auction rescue possible. We couldn’t have done it without you, you are truly the horse’s heroes. You make it possible for us to change their lives.
