We will be attending an auction this weekend and we need your help! Over 100,000 horses are shipped out of the USA for slaughter every year. All that kill buyers see at auctions are dollars on hooves, and the horses are purchased for their meat, regardless of age, training level, injuries, or service they have done for their previous owners. Kill buyers generally pay around $0.25-$0.55 a pound. Help us save horses before the kill buyers get them and take them to their feedlots to await shipment for slaughter. Owners of horses who do not care about their horse’s future, or have no other option, take their horses to auctions, hoping and telling themselves that some nice person will buy them. This is often not the case. Your donation will be used to purchase horses directly out of the slaughter pipeline, evaluate them, give them the medical care they need, the Last Act of Kindness if necessary, training, rehabilitation, and help them find their new homes.
Wednesday the farrier was at our shelter, he was going to be working on a special Little Pony, Snickers. Snickers’ owner was going to shoot him because they couldn’t catch him. After we rescued him, his hoof cracked horizontally almost all the way across. The veterinarian recommended special farrier care for him.
The farrier put a pad and a little pony shoe on his hoof and cleaned it up as best he could. The farrier was hopeful and we were doing everything we could for him.
We were extremely worried as Snickers’ hoof was unlike anything we have seen before. The farrier came out to work on his hoof, but he was really worried that his coffin bone was sinking.
He got to work removing the shoe and the pad from Snickers, hoping that the therapy shoe had helped.
When he pulled the shoe off, his fears were confirmed. Kristen started documenting his condition with photos.
His coffin bone had sank right down through his sole and could be seen. Our vet and multiple farriers have worked with Snickers, they all came to the same conclusion that Snickers may have been suffering from lack of nutrition before he came to us, or got an infection that caused the laminae in his hoof to break down. After the crack, the coffin bone began rotating, sinking it through his sole. Sadly there was nothing that could be done for Snickers. We are so thankful that we had the opportunity to help him, and that this didn’t happen when he was living in a pasture, un-cared for by humans.
Chance came back to us, his young adopter has a job now, and doesn’t have time for him. We always welcome any of our previously adopted horses back to our shelter.
When we rescued Chance from an auction in 2015, he was a skinny bedraggled stallion. His owner had dumped him at an auction, walking away from a horse in desperate need of help, hoping to make a few dollars on him.
Today Chance is a beautiful boy and we will work on finding him a new great home. He shows why our auction rescues are so important, we are committed to these horses for life and we will do everything we can to ensure they have the best life possible.
Tawnee, Kristen and a few volunteers helped moved horses from different pastures. This is our herd of youngsters, they were being moved out of quarantine into the available for adoption pens.
Tawnee took this photo of them as they were trotting into their new pen. Tails of different colors, all beautiful.
They moved more horses from quarantine into the available for adoption pens. It was neat seeing the horses exploring their new pens with glee.
Parcey got some new pasture mates too: donkeys. These donkeys came to us as part of the 1-Day Open Door Shelter in Texas. Parcey says there is plenty of grass for everyone.
Chandler was working on putting in a gate next to our round pen and loading chute from the main pens. After he puts up a cross fence and moves some panels we will be able to back up to the unloading chute next to the round pen, unload wild horses, and move them wherever they need to go on the property. All the pens will ultimately be connected on 20 acres when this is finished.
We had 2 more horses come to us. Jack is the sorrel gelding in the middle. He is a 7 year old Quarter horse who is trained to ride. He is definitely a beautiful boy. The mare on the right, Maggie, a 14 year old mare, is trained to ride but has some behavioral issues that Kristen will be working on fixing.
At the end of the day, Kristen took Sunny and Lady on the first leg of their journey to their new home. After she posted Sunny’s picture doing barrel racing, he immediately had nearly 10 people wanting to adopt him. She found the perfect person for him and when he was on his way.
We would like to thank each and every person for your support! Please remember the auction rescue we are planning on this weekend. We can only rescue horses as funds allow. We don’t receive any grant funding for rescuing from auction, and rely completely on people like you to donate the funds needed to rescue horses from the slaughter auction.