Part 2 - Slaughter bound plow horse saved, a heartwarming story about Hope

Authors:  Holly Taggart, Flourishing Tree Farms and Amber Doster, STH Volunteer

“The day we decided to go for it all and bail her out of the kill pen, I was told she was safe.” My heart skipped a beat but jumped for joy to know Meatball was safe. Little did I know, my journey with Meatball had just begun.

I had been watching the slaughter pipeline now for some time.  My husband and I now had the means and a facility to be able to go in and rescue those who needed to be saved.  We have watched these horses come and go and helped donate a little along the way to save some. Then came Meatball, the big, beautiful Belgium draft mare, which was a different story.  She really stood out to us.  We watched her video and watched her ride and she seemed so sweet but so defeated. The day we decided to go for it and bail her out, I was told she was safe.  

 

Meatball was one of two Belgium drafts that was saved from a kill pen, on a cold January morning in 2022.  She came to Save The Horses (STH) with Punkin Pie (now Beshert), scared and tired from the long journey. Beshert severely malnourished and had horrible hooves. Their uncertain destiny became certain that January morning and their journey toward rehabilitation and rehoming started that very day.

 

I LOVE drafts!! Their size and beauty to me is unmatched by any others. Living so close to Amish country and watching them at the Pennsylvania farm shows just fueled my passion for these beautiful animals. I would love to own a hitch someday however, seeing all the drafts used up by the Amish then shipped to the auction when their working days were done is absolutely heartbreaking.   I wanted to start somewhere so I decided I would rescue out of the slaughter pipeline and give one or 2 a chance at a better life. 

 

I inquired with STH, a local rescue, about adopting a horse.  Much to my surprise, the Belgium draft I had been patiently watching and hoping to save from the kill pen was at STH, literally a stone’s throw from our farm. Call it fate, luck, or destiny, it was meant to be. We started the adoption process immediately. 

After the adoption was approved, we set out to bring her home. We have a large round pen, which is where she was going to stay until the vet had the chance to check her over. When we arrived home, I pulled right up to the round pen not knowing how she would react. When I opened the trailer door to go in and get her out, she was shaking like a leaf. I felt so bad!!!  All I could think of was, oh my goodness she’s probably thinking now where am I going? Whose hands am I going to be in now?  My heart sank, but even though she was nervous she never made a wrong move, she was kind and as gentle as she could be. I walked her into the round pen and let her go and she took a deep sigh and was completely calm and peaceful. From that moment forward, it has been like she has been here for years. I am completely amazed at how well she has handled herself with all that she has been through, most of which we will never know. She is so calm and sweet to be around. My daughters and I were leaning on the panels watching her amazed at her size and gentleness. I said to them “After all she’s been through, I don’t think she ever gave up hope. Her eyes tell the story and if you look deep enough you can see it.”  My youngest daughter says, “mommy I think you just found her name, Hope.” So that is what we have named her.  We now have the honor of calling Meatball, now Hope, the newest, and largest member of our family. 

I firmly believe for every person out there with the passion and fire in their blood for horses there is a specific horse created for that person.  In time, I do believe that horse and person will cross paths and become a match made in heaven. When I was a little girl my first pony was my match. That pony meant the world to me and taught me so many life lessons as a little girl that I still carry and use today. Over the years I have had many horses, but none was like that pony. For years I have prayed and prayed for the chance to own another one that was created for me and to teach me as he did. I have 4 horses here on our farm and one I am very close with but there is still something missing. Then Hope entered in. I don’t really know how to describe it.  From the moment she stepped off that trailer with me something clicked. I knew immediately she was meant to be here for some reason or some person I just didn’t know who. It took some time as usual for her to trust us, but she loves apples, and my husband won her heart with those. 

 

After a few days here I moved her to our paddock by the barn so she could get out of the rain some until her shelter is built. I blew my knee out and I have a hard time walking now. Going downhill is much better than going uphill for me. To get from where she was to the barn is quite the hill. Walking her down was ok but when it was time to walk her back up the hill I was struggling. I whispered to her “I need your help could you pull me up this hill.”  In a split second she walked slightly ahead of me, gently and slowly which takes effort for a big horse like that and pulled me up the hill. I knew that moment she was here for me. Since then, she has been my shadow, literally, she follows so closely behind me when I clean up the paddock that I can feel her breathing on my neck. She stays like that the whole time. Then when I leave her eyes plead with you to stay.  

I tell people I never would have imagined a broken-down plow horse bound for the slaughterhouse would have been created for me but here she is, and I absolutely love her. I am beyond excited to see where this journey goes. There is so much to learn from her, and her eyes speak volumes. I just need to listen. Whatever Cheryl said to the two drafts that fateful January night, they both must have taken it to heart. 
 
Hope will be very, very loved and will live a very easy life just loved on and being her. She resides on our goat farm, Flourishingtreefarms.com where we raise ADGA and MDGA Registered Nigerian and Nubian dwarf dairy goats.
 
Our next blog will feature more on kill pen auctions and how to help prevent horses from hitting the slaughter pipeline. If you enjoyed this blog and would like to help contribute to the ongoing care and rescue efforts, please click here to donate or visit our website at www.savethehorses.org and click on ‘Ways to Give’. 
 
If you are interested in volunteering at STH, sponsoring one of our animals, or considering adoption or our foster program, please visit www.savethehorses.org for more information.
 
We are rescue and cannot do it without your support!

Beshert

Author: Annabelle Carr 

“Beshert”, what does that mean?   Beshert is Jewish for “Meant To Be”, so I have learned.  This Belgian Draft's name was Punkin Pie when she came in from the kill pen, but her name was eventually changed by the Save The Horses' volunteer Friday evening crew. 

 

When I met this Belgian Draft horse, it was 3:10 am on a morning in January 2022.  I heard from Cheryl Flanagan that two drafts from the kill pen were coming into our quarantine facility, where I had been helping with feedings, with an arrival time of 2 am.  I asked if she needed help unloading the transport truck, and Cheryl graciously accepted my offer.  When I arrived at the main rescue barn to pick up Cheryl, to take her to quarantine, I learned that 2 am had been moved to 3 am, her phone was dead, and she couldn't reach me.  She had messaged my FB page, but I wasn't checking that.  Gosh, I could have slept a little longer!  We ended up heading out and waited in my truck for almost an hour for the transporter to arrive.  We chatted, and in that hour, I learned so many things from Cheryl, what an amazing life she leads.  Each day is about helping a person or animals in need.  We should all give so much each day and live each day to the fullest like that. 

When the transport truck arrived at 3:10 am, one horse was pulled off the trailer with the description of a well-mannered draft, probably Amish, calm, and trained.  Cheryl was handed that one.  The next was said to be much bigger, stronger and a bit harder to handle.  I was handed that one.  Surely, I thought to myself, the transporter will help us walk these large drafts to the gate in the paddock, down the long dark lane, considering we have no flashlights, and we don't know these horses as well as she seems to, especially since the one I am holding is harder to handle, as she had said.  But I was mistaken. Transport ended when the horses were delivered, in this case, at the mailbox on an unlit country road.  The nice lady said goodbye, she still had a long road back to North Carolina, I couldn't blame her for heading out.  Here we were, Cheryl and I, in the dark at 3:10 am, holding two very large Belgian Draft horses we had never met before, with just the light of the moon to guide us down a long dark lane to the paddock.  After a seven-hour trailer ride, my horse was walking fast, and yes, she was strong.  As I circled my horse about five times in an effort to slow her down, one of which she circled me, I thought to myself; I will be found tomorrow with a very large hoof print on my face, or we will be looking for a runaway Belgian Draft horse around town tomorrow morning, or “I can do this”.  This horse was so strong and moving so fast, I thought the horse Cheryl was walking in front of me might kick mine.  However, as I walked, I watched this lovely lady in front of me with her big calm horse, and she seemed to be telling her horse something, and the horse seemed to be listening, her head bent down to Cheryl's.  They definitely had some conversation going on, seemed really sweet.  I was telling mine to slow down, but the conversation in front of me looked much different.  I thought to myself, if it wasn't for Cheryl this horse, and mine, would be on a truck headed for the slaughterhouse across the border.  This is meant to be for this horse and mine.  If wasn't for a very kind donator and Cheryl, that is exactly where they were headed, that was their reality.  Someone stepped in and paid the bail if Cheryl said yes, and so here we were, the 'yes' had arrived.  The absolute last chance for these two horses.

 

Being one of the quarantine feeders, I fed Punkin Pie for several days, along with the other one, and four lucky other horses in quarantine, all from the kill pens.  In the few days I had been feeding Punkin Pie, I fell in love with her.  She would stand by the fence while I talked to her, and she would listen.  She seemed to like the closeness of a person near her.  I told her what a great horse she is, and she seemed to believe me, no matter how neglected she had been before she arrived here.  Punkin Pie ended up having medical issues while in quarantine and was transported to UGA Vet School for further care.  Most would have euthanized her after all her issues, and I felt heartbroken at the thought of her not making it.  I just wanted to be with her, and she isn't even my horse.

 

Following her stay at UGA, Punkin Pie was brought to the Save The Horses main rescue barn on Newt Green Road, so that a constant team of volunteers would have their eye on her, and she was even renamed Beshert by the Friday evening team.  Beshert was having trouble getting up in the mornings following her extensive vet visit, and Alex Williamson our farrier, the Forsyth County large animal rescue team, and many volunteers had to be on hand daily to help her get back up again.  Now, following more vet checkups, Beshert has special feed instructions and an exercise routine to strengthen her hind legs.  She roams around the farm grounds, she even runs on occasion, and she is happy.  She is your shadow.  Where you go, she goes, like an oversized puppy.  She is a people lover, and everyone that meets her falls in love with her.  

Beshert is “Meant To Be”, just as her new name says she is.  The new name, Beshert, is a beautiful renaming of a retired Belgian Draft horse that has been given a new chance in life, a chance to be valued for the magnificent animal that she is, and not be cast aside at only eighteen years of age, after working so hard.  Nice job Beshert!  This lovely horse won't let a hardship keep her down, she will get back up and show all of us how to get back up again.  She is in every way “Meant To Be”.  

 

Stay tuned for more about the journey of Beshert and Hope (aka Meatball) in our next post. Beshert’s medical expenses are currently over $5000. If you would like to help contribute to her medical expenses, please click here to donate or visit our website at www.savethehorses.org and click on ‘Ways to Give’.  

 

If you are interested in volunteering at STH, sponsoring one of our animals, or considering adoption or foster options, please visit www.savethehorses.org for more information.

 

We are rescue and cannot do it without your support!

 

 

Photo credits: Lorrie Poling-Magersupp, Annabelle Carr, Eve Khademi, Cheryl Flanagan

 

The Knee High Gang

So many horses, so many breeds, so many beautiful colors, so many sizes then there are the dwarfs. 

Are they horses? Yes, dwarf horses. 

We didn't know either until 20+ years ago when we got a call from a lady in Southern Alabama. She had two dwarf miniature horses that were brothers and no veterinarian or farrier would work on them. They told her to euthanize them. She called SaveTheHorses and asked if we could help. We had never seen a dwarf horse either but we knew we wanted to help. Since we had more equine veterinarians in the area, we were sure we would all learn something about dwarfism, while saving their lives. When we saw them, our hearts melted. We fell in love. Their deformities were an issue but we knew we could find a way to help them and not give up. To think of euthanizing them because of they were not 'normal' would be immoral. They only knew life as a dwarf. It was normal to them. We had a few different opinions from different veterinarians and farriers. We tried many things to correct their feet, some with success, some not.

That is how SaveTheHorses dwarf herd began.  There are four types of dwarfism; achondroplasia, brachiocephalic, dystrophic and hypochondrogenesis. Small stature, crooked limbs, large head, mouth too small for all the teeth of a normal sized miniature horse. These are just some of the few hundred characteristics of dwarfism. Because of their tiny size, many were used as breeding stock to downsize their offspring. Now these poor dwarfs have a myriad of health concerns due to their genetic disorder bred into them by unscrupulous breeders and uneducated owners.

Our Knee-High Gang; Gidget, Saucy, Willow, Gizmo, Cowboy, Blaze, Duke and Samson. Every one of them precious and fragile.