This blog is to catch you up since the last blog and more that hasn’t made it in the blog yet.
Bringing the horses back from Nevada was uneventful for the most part.
That is until the trusty tow rig blew out a coolant hose and was dumping coolant all over the side of the highway.
Having mechanical problems is never fun, but especially with horses waiting in the trailer.
Kirsty ended up having to come get the trailer with the horses in it while the tow rig limped back to the shelter. Jason and Tawnee purchased this truck when it was brand new in 2006 for use by the shelter, and now it has over 200,000 miles on it! It has been a very good truck and they hope it keeps going for a few more years.
At the shelter the horses were unloaded, it was nice to have everyone safely at the shelter.
Here you can see Prince following Missy down the unloading chute. Prince is a young colt.
Natomas was next to unload. We were really concerned about her hooves, they are extremely long. When she walks her front hooves flop up and down as if she has no control over them.
It was nice to get everyone settled in for their first meal at the shelter.
It was definitely a little more time consuming and costly because the Nevada horses have to have their paperwork in order. We plan on doing another Nevada auction rescue soon.
Our vet looked at Natomas’ hooves, and told us that a tendon controlling her hooves was completely damaged from her neglect and that she could not be rehabbed. Poor Natomas, we are so glad we were able to rescue her. She was living in a 10×12 pen with no shelter for almost a year, standing on almost 2′ of her own manure.
The vet also got busy spending some time with Prince. It was his big gelding day!
Prince is not trained to lead, so he had to be sedated in the padded chute and then rolled onto the gurney.
Then he was rolled into the surgery room.
Before long his gelding operation was underway.
After he woke up from his gelding, he was moved to a recovery stall.
While Prince was recovering, one of the baby goats that was adopted was brought to the shelter for our vet to look at. He had a small problem and the vet fixed him up in no time at all.
Then it was time to geld another horse who was brought in for our gelding program from another rescue.
Before long both the boys, now geldings, were recovering next to each other.
Our vet looked at Cheyenne. Cheyenne was recently returned to us after we got the phone call that their vet said he was 17 years old. We found this puzzling as Tawnee is a pretty good judge of horse teethe, and our vet had looked at him before he was adopted out, and they both believed he was 7. Our vet re-evaluated him and confirmed that he is indeed 7 years old. Maybe they used a small animal vet that wasn’t used to aging horses? Whatever the case it wasn’t a good match and we are happy he is back.
The vet looked at the horses that were surrendered for euthanasia to make sure it was the right decision for them. This poor guy was surrendered recently and he had severe pain in his legs and there was nothing that could be done.
This big beautiful guy is named Chance. He is a 16 year old 17.2 hands off the track Thoroughbred. His owners could no longer keep him due to personal issues and he is looking for a forever home. He is such a gorgeous horse and such a big boy. He is trained to ride.
The vet also checked out Harley Man, to see if we could put him in our adoption program. He was surrendered into our Last Act of Kindness program, but after evaluation our vet said he could go into our adoption program.
Next the vet looked at Big Jack, who was rescued at auction. We noticed that there was a severe problem with him, as he was oozing puss from his sheeth area.
After he was sedated and relaxed, the vet discovered a huge tumor that was destroying his skin tissue. The pain that Big Jack must have endured is unimaginable. It was extremely heartless of his previous owners to dump him at the auction when they knew he had severe medical problems. For those that are medically inclined, you can see the unblurred photo by clicking here. Warning: it is graphic. There was nothing that could be done other than say “Goodbye” to Big Jack and end his continuous suffering.
Kirsty has been working with the horses too. She evaluated Dakota and found her to be a very nice horse. She has probably been sitting for awhile, but all in all she is a good girl.
We are very excited for Harley Man as he was placed in adoption pending to some of our previous adopters. We know he will have a great home!
Wednesday we said “Goodbye” to horses that were surrendered into our Last Act of Kindness program. This poor horse is named Gigi. We see this time and time again, Gigi was 36 years old, and her owners should have made the decision before she ended up in this state. We are glad that we offer end of life services for horses like Gigi, we just wish people would make the right decision before their horse is chronically suffering. If you would like to donate to our Last Act of Kindness program to help us help horses just like Gigi, click here.
Thursday Kirsty worked with more horses. This is Foxy, her owner said that she had a bucking problem. She did good for most of her evaluation, but she did buck quite a bit. Kirsty will continue working with her, we are hoping we can get down to the issue of what is causing her bucking problem.
Asia, an Azteca mare, did great under saddle and is a really nice horse.
She is so pretty! We feel she won’t last long at the shelter.
Simon was brought to the shelter. He came from an Animal Control, and not a lot is known about him, but we will be evaluating him soon.
Also, two goats came in from Animal Control. Oscar is the hairy one, and Hobo is the little guy on the left.
Thank you all for your support!