Yes, it really IS illegal to dump an animal!
May 30 2011
I have a super busy weekend going on so I’ll keep this short! I mentioned this story briefly last week, but now I have more to tell you:
Here’s the bad news:
The good news is that they really have been arrested!
The better news is, I’m rehabbing the big galoot for Second Chance Ranch!. I picked him up Saturday. He is so sweet! He is covered in scurf and rainrot, very thin, and cut up all over, but he loves people and loves to be brushed.
I would love to find out who he is. He’s a quality horse and may be a warmblood although he could just be a TB with no tattoo. I don’t have a stick here but if he’s not 17 hands, he’s very close to it. Does anyone in Southern California recognize him and his markings? He does not have any vices but he’s very pushy at the moment. Working on re-installing the ground manners 
Very clean legs. A pig in the stall. I would absolutely love to find out his history. I have a bad feeling this is someone’s nice old hunter or dressage horse that was given away to “a good home” when he could only do light riding…and now this is the outcome, down the road.
And of course, if you would like to help him, please donate to Second Chance Ranch. He will be available for adoption but of course we want to get him back to excellent condition, and evaluate him under saddle first, so probably not until mid-summer. He is happily scarfing up alfalfa pellet mush (heck, I can barely get in the door with it, he just puts his whole nose in it and gets mush all over his blaze) so I really don’t think it’s going to take long before he’s absolutely stunning again!
One very weird thing I’ve never seen before…tell me if you have. He knelt all the way down to get out of the trailer. Do you think this is related to the visual impairment, or is he afraid of hitting his head from being hauled in small trailers? I went to get him with a big one, so he had plenty of space, and he loaded fine once we gave him a little time to look and sniff.
Oh, and he needs a name! Any thoughts?
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Good luck and a speedy recovery to Mr. Hoover!
And to Cassandra Was Right, DO NOT just “give away” your Breyers and Hagen Renakers! I’ve been collecting since the 1960′s myself, and some of your models could be worth a good chunk of change. Check prices on ebay to see what the current market is doing. If you need help with pricing or identification, please let me know – I live in Northern VA and can help if you want it.
I have a dog who has lost some vision and this is how she greets unfamiliar steps. I think her peripheral vision is gone, so even though she knows logically that the steps are probably safe, she can’t SEE that they are. Once she crawls her front feet down the steps a couple of times she plods right down them. I wonder if it’s not the same thing with this boy; his memory is telling him it’s ok to get out of a trailer, but his eyes are telling him there may not be anything down there to step onto.
Thank you for fostering him. He’s one of the lucky ones.
trailering…
yes – I’ve seen them get low to get out of the trailer… I have one that stretches back like a dog and slides out on his belly…he also jumps in 2 feet at a time, I’ve had him since he was weaned (which was 6 weeks b4 his first trailer ride with me) and nothing bad has ever happened – I try to always back him out now b/c that seems easier that his slide style.
I flinch every time I see a horse led forward out of a step-in trailer! I have been told by many vets, equine chiros, etc., that this is *very* hard on the horse (a ramp is different) You know how we think people who ride horses down stairs are crazy?
Same thing — just one big (and far more concussive) step. The guy is on his knees begging you to BACK HIM OUT. 
(BTW, downstairs is bad for *human* knees, too. If you use the building stairs to exercise at work, says my (hot-stuff works on olympic athletes) knee surgeon, walk up — and take the elevator back down.)
Off Topic, but critically important to stop Horse Slaughter in the US from re-opening!!
Action Alert Courtesy Animal Law Coalition:
The Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug, Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Committee has released its proposed appropriations budget for FY 2012.
The proposed bill does not include a provision de-funding inspections for horses to be slaughtered for human consumption. The proposed bill doesnot prohibit use of funds to inspect horses to be slaughtered for human consumption. The subcommittee report does not mention it.
It is the de-funding of these ante-mortem inspections in appropriations measures that has prohibited commercial horse slaughter for human consumption in the U.S. since 2007. Now, if the subcommittee bill passes, it could mean the return of commercial horse slaughter to the U.S.
Go here for more on the de-funding and the court decision that upheld it.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
The proposed budget bill will be voted on by the full House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 5 p.m. EST in Room 2359, Rayburn House Office Building.
This meeting will be webcast. Audio and video of the hearing will be available by clicking here. Audio only will be available by clicking here.
Call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-2131 or the Committee’s number at (202) 225-2638 , (202) 225-2771 for Republicans and (202) 225-3481 for Democrat members. Here are the names of committee members to ask for when you call. Go here to find the direct phone numbers of committee members and for your own U.S. representative.
Tell committee members and your own U.S. representative: Vote no on the appropriations bill unless the committee retains the language defunding inspections of horses to be slaughtered for human consumption
Edmonton AB area people!!!! I might have someone lined up already but if she doesn’t end up taking her than I need to find a home for a 3yo dark bay mare. She only raced once and she’s really nice and easy going. She slab fractured her right front knee in a work, so she is free to a home that is experienced enough to re-hab her. Email me at abarron@live.ca if you’re interested. A home check will be required; I’d rather put her down instead of see her with someone who is material for this blog. I
How about Santiago like the old man in “The Old Man and the Sea”? Both marked by life, but not giving up. Or Hector, a nice name for a dignified older guy.
My my.. Kirsten must have skipped class when they taught ‘human anatomy’.
Either that or his dad had the same idea as the Boy Named Sue’s father…
Surprised someone named Kirsten would have a dick to suck upon… but then.. I’m rather old and probably bound too tightly by traditional gender-name-isms.
Perhaps with the scars and awkward trailering, he’s had a bad trailer experience?
Totally off topic but you may not want to use this guy as your vet:
http://www.pet-abuse.com/cases/3924/PA/US/
I’m also more than slightly pissed off that the mare in the story that went blind wound up in a kill pen. She was subsequently rescued by All The Kings Horses Equine Rescue.
Hi! I’ve just joined, and want to tell you that your blog is *awesome* – I completely agree with you that only the best should be bred. Also, that people should stop spelling “bred” as “bread.”
Dogs have the exact same problem (speaking of the former problem here, though they do have the latter too); people just don’t realize that “cute” does not mean “will not get killed in a shelter alongside many other, almost exactly the same, dogs.” 
Poor guys.
Oops, getting off track here. Must say Galoot is super cute! I don’t know if you’ll read this comment among the 138 (so far) other comments, but if you do: Galoot is completely an Ari. Completely.
Once again, great blog – here’s to ending the fuglyness!
Thank you and welcome!
I might know this horse, there was a tall chestnut TB gelding in Southern California who I rode when I lived there and looks a lot like this guy. I rode him for a woman who had very little horse experience, he was a sweetheart and I ended up using him for lessons. Then I moved away and I don’t know whether she still has him or not, things didn’t end so well with her so we are not in touch.
“My” horse was an unraced TB. Tall, I don’t remember exactly how tall. And very pushy with food, he once cut the skin under his forelock by bashing his head into a metal feeder. Scar might still be there. He had a hunter’s bump and minor SI issues. He was uneasy about trailers because his previous owners (before I rode him) would wrap his leadrope around the divider and out the escape door to force him to load. We worked on that a lot though, he might not act the same now. His name was something Spark, we just called him Spark. I am going to rack my brain and look through every email I have to see if I can remember his registered name. He was a pretty nice jumper and a very old soul. I last rode him in 2006 and he was 9 so he would be 14 now.
I will get back to you if I can remember that name!
This one is pushy with food but that is so typical of these starved horses…they are so damn excited that it keeps on coming. He loaded fine but I went to get him with an 8 horse slant, so what doesn’t get into that?
My guess is someone who knows the men who dumped this horse, or is of the same mindset, is on his girlfriend’s computer.
I guess he told us.
Daniel? Names are so hard if you aren’t there getting the up close and personal vibe. He is lovely, scars, scabs, and all. Thank God he is safe.
He looks lovely – I’m glad you had room for him. So many horses in need, but every one counts.
How’d the vet visit turn out?
Coming Tuesday now – had some emergencies. Teeth being done Sunday.
You should call him Neil!
I think you should call him Courage! Since he had to have the courage to endure everything he’s gone through (that we will never really know) and yet he still loves people and enjoys hands on him!
Hooves all done!
To keep that adage going that “because there are no American slaughter houses…blah, blah, blah” and that is why horses are being abandoned is such poppycock! I mean really. It comes down to a few things, one being people are lazy pieces of shit! They don’t want to be bothered in the least bit to keep assuming responsibility for anything including their animals. Are there dog and cat slaughter plants that they could be dumping their animals at?? NOoooO! The reason for dumping them? Because they have no guts to take them to the pound or euthanize them themselves at the vets. They have no balls. Outta sight outta mind. Just dump them. Same for horses. Abandon them and the human will not have to deal with it at all. It’s easier than taking it to the auction, hence a trader will see your free Craigslist ad and do your bidding for you. People are just flat out L-A-Z-E-E-E. Most horses that are dumped is due to the human not wanting to deal with it. Won’t have to seek transportation to the nearest auction. That way they feel they did the bad deed by taking it there and the horse got sold to a kill buyer. So long as someone else does the dirty work, they feel they did the right thing. Not! People are cowards when it comes to facing things undesirable with animals.They are more than willing to pawn their animals off onto someone willing to deal with it. Willing is not the best term. As we know, those of us who have to clean up those people’s responsibilities is not a willing task, but a necessary one.
So quit this shit about why horses are abandoned or the price is this or the price is that.Sure, horses brought more money years ago, on the hoof. But the reason they don’t bring higher $$ is due mostly because the economy SUCKS! I don’t get why anyone would be on this blog boasting slaughter, or the lack there of, as a reason why horses are worthless is just dumb. I see it as a person who supports the practice and that is just wrong. Go participate on a pro-slaughter blog…
He looks like a Logan to me (although probably because he’s the spit of an OTTB I know called Logan).