Sunday, April 29, 2012

Trudy's Day Has Come

Everyone was anxious to see Trudy enter her new pasture. I don't know what we all expected. 




Trudy is blind, severely abused by humans and so many things in the world that surrounds her still make her tremble. I think we all dreamed it would be wonderful to put her in the safe board fenced pasture. We hoped to see her run free and kick up her heels. We brought along an Appaloosa gelding, Pepperoni, she knew from the front pasture so she'd have a familiar friend and be more comfortable. They sort of 'hung around' together many times. He was our choice to help Trudy. He's an Appaloosa like Trudy and they were buddies.


Trudy was quite nervous trying to walk in her new pasture but Roger was there to comfort her. He kept the lead rope on her and walked the fence line, walked to the water trough, up and down the hills. He stayed with her for a long time telling her it was a safe place for her. When he felt she was ready, he took off the lead and let her walk around on her own. She was free to walk, free to kick up her heels but she stood still trying to hear where she was. Being blind, she has to rely on all her other senses. She carefully tried to find her way around. Pepperoni was good with her but wasn't as concerned as we hoped he'd be. We wanted him to stand shoulder to shoulder to her and lead her around. Another human dream the was just that, only a dream. 


After a hour or so, Trudy was getting very tense. She looked so panicked, Roger brought her back to the stall she felt so safe in. She can enjoy a quiet night and we will walk her out to her new pasture again tomorrow. 




All our planning, all our hopes...we had to adjust to Trudy's needs. That is what we do. 


We are RESCUE (to free from confinement, danger, or evil ) in the real sense of the word. We will adjust continually until we get it right for Trudy. 



Friday, April 27, 2012

Changing Things For Trudy


                       Roger comforting Trudy after recent surgery
                                                                                     


Though we are not a sanctuary, sometimes horses need to stay forever. If does take up space for another horse to come in, but this is the way we have to do it until we get our dream, a sanctuary where horses can live out their lives under our care. You know the story of  Trudy, our most abused horse, now blind. She's been with us since 1996. She is a special horse who needs to always be surrounded by special people. .Trudy is moving to her new forever pasture tomorrow. Her devoted human friend, Roger, will come out and lead the way.  I am sure it will be like a parade of people following happily because it has finally happened. Trudy has lived in our large pasture for 16 years. She was sighted when she came to us but so abused emotionally, she trusted horses, not people. Now that she is blind, introducing a new horse out in that pasture was not happening. New horse introductions cause all the horses to run and carry on to establish the herd pecking order.  

Though she was familiar with every inch of the 22 acres, I couldn't take the chance of her getting hurt. Trudy is 28 years old. In fairness to her, she now needs a quiet smaller pasture with a buddy. With $5.00 donations here and $20.00 donations there, we soon had enough money to put up her nice board fenced pasture. It took several volunteers to do the dirty work of digging the holes and putting up safe fencing but now, it is ready for Trudy



Though she has the most serious trust issues of any horse ever entering the rescue program, she has the God given intuition to know who to trust. She knows real love. She trusts the uncomplicated honesty of a little volunteer named John Michael. She will willingly stand for an hour and listen to his words. I don't know what he is saying to Trudy but she listens carefully to every word. Horse are different things to different people. To everyone here at the rescue, to all of you who volunteer your time, those of you who donate financially and those of you who take the time to read about our horses and help us spread the word, you are all part of our fragile circle of Save The Horses. Thank you all for your compassion and love. You help us every day so we can save the horses.