Fugly Horse of the Day

Someone suggested this topic and I am all for it – let’s see some happy endings today in pictures!

Here are two of my favorites in recent years.  This first mare was a ten year old Arabian mare that was found starving in a field in February 2007 by Juliane and the Cowgirl Spirit girls.  They belonged to an old lady whose son was supposed to be feeding them.  Clearly, he was not.  Here is the pic of her actually starving in said field.  That mare next to her was her dam and they had never been out of that field nor received any training whatsoever in their lives.  Juliane and Jenny got them out of there, and this mare went to my friend Chelsea.  When she arrived, she literally fell out of the trailer and had to lie in the driveway for ten minutes before she had the strength to get back up again and walk to her new stall.  I saw her a few days later and, honestly, the only reason I thought she would make it is that she was bitchy!  She was still strong enough to kick at us as we attempted to clean years of diarrhea off of her swollen back legs, so I figured there was a little fight left in there – and I was right.

Heidi, as we named her, took a while to start picking back up, but once she did, quickly progressed!  She had to learn everything from picking up her feet to tying, as she’d never been handled much, but she decided to cooperate and her attitude improved once she started to feel better. She started to eagerly watch us, waiting for the next serving of Starving Horse Mush, aka orchard grass pellets, SafeChoice and beet pulp.   Within a few months, Heidi was back to normal weight and began her training under saddle with Monica Stephens.  Five months after her rescue, she and I competed in the first SAFE schooling show and she won her first ribbons.

Heidi found her forever home later that year with her own little girl, and I want to share these very happy ending pictures.  This is Heidi just a week ago at a horseshow.  Now, this is the kind of ending we hope to accomplish when we rescue a horse!

One last “before” picture	Heidi today!

My other story for today is more recent. Last fall, Chelsea and I were shopping for a show prospect for her. After years of rescuing, she’d decided she wanted to have a show horse again, so we were checking out young Arabians and half-Arabians from Craigslist and Dreamhorse. We saw a young Dutch Warmblood-Arabian cross gelding at a bargain price and figured it was worth a look. He came complete with a bonus 24 year old Dutch Warmblood mare (of course, LOL). In the pictures provided with the ad, both horses looked great, so we weren’t all that prepared for what we found when we arrived. We were driving in, and I saw the gelding trot up the hill in the distance and thought, hmmm, he looks awfully narrow for a coming three year old. When we parked the truck and got out, we immediately realized we were walking into a neglect situation. The owners were approaching so we exchanged a look and said nothing but just headed out to look at the horses.

The owner, a woman named Paula Vanderpoel, eagerly chattered on about the horses’ accomplishments, apparently completely oblivious to the fact that both were near death from starvation. The mare had been a fourth level dressage horse. The gelding wasn’t her son, he was from another mare they had already sold. The pasture they were on was completely grazed down and while there were round bales present, they stood with the wrapping still on outside of the fence. Of course, the horses’ hooves were terrible and they both had rain rot. The gelding had a big bloody hole in the bottom of his face. (Our vet later discovered it was due to a tooth that had not come in properly due to his lack of nutrition and had abscessed instead). Neither Ms. Vanderpoel or her daughters seemed to have the slightest idea that anything was wrong.

Normally, it is always best to report situations like this and leave the animals where they are, so as not to break any chain of custody, but given that Chelsea is herself an animal control officer and knew the procedures to follow to ensure we got the evidence we needed, we decided to simply buy the horses and remove them immediately. We did briefly address that they were not in very good condition, but that certainly did not alter Ms. Vanderpoel’s opinion of their worth – she stubbornly recited how great their bloodlines were and how valuable their ancestors were. Well, yes, but not in this condition, sweetheart! Ah well. We loaded up the ponies and headed home to take a lot of pictures, calling the vet on the way to ensure they could be seen in the morning as well as calling animal control in the county to let them know we’d be filing a report shortly.

I am sorry to say the mare (black horse shown here) could not be saved. She was, indeed, a fourth level dressage mare who had been owned and shown by a woman named Nicolette Sigler. Nicolette made the unwise choice to sell several horses to these folks and not check up on them. The mare had multiple conditions including an eye injury that left her in constant pain. We would have had to remove the eye to save her, but even then, her legs were trashed and, due to her age, was in much worse condition from the starvation. Her bloodwork looked terrible, so we made the decision to put her to sleep and end her suffering. Rest in peace, Senorita – you deserved far better than the “retirement” home you got.

(And this, again, boys and girls, is why we have to PAY for retirement board. Like it or not, it is the ONLY way of ensuring YOUR valuable horse who put a ton of trophies in YOUR tack room is SAFE.)

The two year old gelding was a much different story! He was delighted beyond belief to be introduced to the concept of Starved Horse Mush and tucked into it like an Electrolux set on hi speed. He perked up within 48 hours, nickering and nickering for his mush and playing nippyface with the elderly Appaloosa stalled next to him. “Stretch” got his barn name as he started almost instantaneously to grow…and grow…and grow. Chelsea was hoping he would fill out at a nice 15.2. As of this writing he is 16 hands and continuing to rocket upwards. She will simply have to buy a taller mounting block. He came through the surgery on his face with flying colors and does not appear to have any other permanent damage as a result of his ordeal.

Stretch, whose registered name is now Dutch Courrage, is a grandson of the Dutch Warmblood Avenir and the *Gdansk son Outrage on his dam’s side. He ground-drives and long-lines but due to his recovery, the decision has been made to give him another year before starting him under saddle. He is the sweetest thing ever and it is so much fun to see him have normal three year old moments of high spirits, considering that just six months ago he was too weak to have them.

His and Senorita’s is an interesting case to me because it’s totally obvious that this was flat out ignorance. They literally didn’t know that these horses were nearly dead. They did not think the bloody hole in the gelding’s face was a reason to call a vet. I honestly do not know what you do with people like this. They were beyond clueless and simply should not have ever been given or sold horses in the first place. But they weren’t ignorant – on the contrary, a little research revealed this woman is the executive director of the Peninsula Youth Orchestra? WTF? NOT the kind of resume I usually find attached to the owner of starving horses. If you are capable of being the executive director of something, I would think you could also use the Internet to learn about proper horse care. I cannot figure out how it is that you acquire horses and do not take the time to learn about how to care for them.  Just my two cents!

(FYI:  No, Pierce County did not end up taking any action on this one. I’m guessing they pled ignorance or financial distress and got off scot free…but I still say, sorry, they were too educated to be that ignorant!)

Anyway – I like these before-and-after stories! So let’s see and hear about yours. Post the direct link (the one that starts with http) to your pictures and I will make them show up. If the link does not end in .jpg or .gif, I cannot make it show up. So look at your link carefully and see if it is going to work or not. Blogger and Webshots will typically not link properly – Photobucket or something similar is a better bet. Use the “i” link in Photobucket, not the “s” link – for example it will start with something like “i76.photobucket” instead of “s76.photobucket.” Hope that helps!

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