Strawberry Mare

A beautiful, healthy Medicine Hat Paint mare is unwanted in FL. She was bought to become the daughter's horse. She was left at a farm and supposed to be taken care of by the family who owned her, or at least by the daughter. Time passed, no one ever came back. Strawberry just lived in a pasture with out much attention.

Now there is an ad on Craigslist for a nice mare. One problem is she is missing an eye. No one came to take a horse in need of veterinary care. Pattie, a SaveTheHorses foster home in Florida called the local Florida rescue but they were full, no help from them for Strawberry.

Pattie asked if we could help. Yes, money is tight for us, but how can we not help? This mare would end up slaughtered. Pattie agreed to keep her at her farm until we figured out what to do. She would be safe. That was most important. We made an appointment to take Strawberry to the vet. Pattie sent me pictures with a close up of the mares eye. We have had 4 horses with cancer in their eyes. Would this be another? There was no eye and is was draining a yellow fluid. We had to euthanize two or the four horses Squamous Cell Carcinoma horse because it is an aggressive cancer. Would Strawberry be one also?

Pattie told me how sweet this mare was. She had obviously been blind for a while because she wasn't spooky or jumpy on her blind side. She was comfortable.

Meet Buttermilk or?!

So far we have called her Buttermilk, Buttercup and Ms Trigger. We'll see what sticks. This week, I brought in a sweet 3 y o Palomino mare that was scared to death of the man who had her. She just trembled when I moved a finger. She has come around very well in a few days. She needs some ground work. She enjoys being groomed and is learning that humans can be nice.

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How we found Hail Mary!

We got a frantic call late afternoon of February 18th, 2009 A lady was driving by a pasture where she saw a skinny horse a week before. She called the Dept of Ag last week to report what she saw. The lady was actually a state equine inspector a few years back. Yesterday when she went by, the horse was down (lying down) and the weather was getting bad. Another lady driving by saw the horse down and the distressed looking lady over the horse she too stopped. They both made phone calls looking for help, someone called me and the ball started rolling. I called Animal Control, the Marshall and then got a call from the Department of Ag asking if I could help. I told her we were on our way. She asked if we had a sling. I said 'no' but I have people. My volunteers have made make shift slings with lead ropes, girths, saddle pads or whatever we have around and we, together, are a good team. We have gotten horses that are down up more times then I can count! Some older horses just need a boost then they can walk. Sometimes it is just old age with wear and tear, sometimes it is injured, sometimes it is weakness but no matter the reason, we can do it. The very experienced volunteers did what we had to do. We arrived just before dark. There were several people on the scene. Lights flashing, passers-by curiously watching. Someone said they just heard over their police radio that a tornado may be forming in the part of Cherokee county. The wind was blowing, hail was coming down and the tornado sirens were blowing right across the road, loud and clear.
Someone told us we could leave if we don't want to get her because the owner was willing to shoot her right there. We were there to save this horse, not let her die like that.
My team was focused on getting the horse, not any weather problems. We were going to get this horse or die trying. We really believe that doing good will come back to us so none of us was worried at all about any tornado or being pelted by hail. We cared about the horse. We got our ropes and equipment. Then we gathered and put everything in place around the horses body. After a few tries, getting the horse in the right position, we all pulled at 1-2-3! Yea, the horse was up, everyone stayed beside her weak trembling body and slowly walked her toward the gate. It was locked. No one had a key so we hammered the gate chain and open her way to the trailer. She walked right on and three of the volunteers stayed in the trailer in case she went down. It was about 15 miles and the trip went well. She knew how to back off but she was trembling, mostly from being cold and being down so long. We got a stall ready, Put a heat lamp in the stall and towel drying her, she was a happy tired mare. She had some warm mash, good hay and then we took care of ourselves. We were soaked and cold from head to toe. It was really funny seeing us all walk like penguins because our pants were so cold and wet. I think we will call this mare, HAIL MARY! She made it on a prayer, many prayers!

Hail Mary was wet and cold but by morning the sun warmed her malnourished body.

She hung her head and seemed depressed so everyone spent extra time loving on her. She was depressed and hug her head. She began to eat and enjoy walking around more and more every day. She still would go down and we needed to get her up again. Once up, she stayed up for a few days or more.

She was walking down the driveway a bit fast, she was feeling too good. She lost her balance and fell face first. She struggled to get up but couldn't with out our help. We gathered out ropes, the tractor and some man and woman power and up she went but we all slowly walked her back down to a nice flat area of grass.

It was one step at a time for all of us.

Hail Mary improved but still had trouble getting up but she went down much less frequently. She became the favorite of a very lovely couple, Steve and Linda. They planned to move from their home and buy a farm with a nice barn. They adopted Hail Mary. Our dear Hail Mary passed away before they moved but she died in loving arms.

Some people may think it was a waste of time. We know it was a time of love and care, hope and dreams.

Our Lump of a Horse

Lump was not like most horses. He liked every person that came to visit. He had no fear of humans. He was a school horse in Roswell for many years but he must have enjoyed every minute of it. He was very settled and grounded. Lump lived with us about 10 years. His age was estimated at 40-something!

We have some horses that just walk freely around the farm, Lump was one of them. He sought out humans like ants seek sugar. If there was a crowd of two people or ten people, Lump would quickly work his way to the middle separating the people so they would have to touch him. People would have to look over him or around him because he had to be in the middle. We just got used to resting our arms on his back to have a conversation with the person on Lump's other side. We referred to him as 'the NAT' because you couldn't shoo him away. Lump became the Social Director of the farm. He was also the Greeter and the Drooler. OK at his age, it was easily forgiven when you parked too close to the barn and Lump left his drool of food and water across the hood of your car.

One morning I walked into the barn and saw Lump looking out over the shaving trailer. He had walked up into it then realized it was unstable and he froze in place. He whinnied to me for help. Like a turtle, I slowly moved Lump around to exit to safe ground as Roy watched to make sure his buddy was safe.

We lost Lump on March 22. He fell in his stall and injured his neck on Saturday night. We helped him up but he was in shock for about an hour. With the help of Lori, Brigitte and many loving volunteers, we helped Lump get stabilized. I conferred with Dr Marcella and he gave me a dosage of drugs to help Lump through the night. By Sunday morning his neck was painful and swollen. He needed special help to eat. We held his bucket up higher so he could finish his grain and drink water. We gave him the drugs the vet recommend and used the laser on his injury. By Sunday night he was getting more unsteady on his feet, losing his balance. He now was struggling with each breath. He was in pain. Dr Duval said she would come in the morning and do an ultrasound and xray to look for an answer. If she came Sunday night, I think I would have asked her to euthanize him right them. Watching him struggle to breath, knowing he was in pain, it was heartbreaking. Dr Duval asked me to check a few things on Lump then told me what to medications to administer. In 10 minutes, Lump was now more relaxed for the night. I felt better and was very hopeful we would have some answers in the morning.

Early Monday morning, I placed Lump's bucket of food on top of a tack trunk so he wouldn't have to bend his swollen neck to far to reach the grain. He was more unsteady then ever. Amy helped as we walked him into the hallway. He took about 10 steps and collapsed to the ground. While waiting for the vet, Bobby, Brigitte and other volunteers arrived. We made several attempts to get him up on his feet but we failed each time. Dr Duval came and gave Lump some injections to ease the pain and again our attempts to get him up were in vain. The ultrasound and xrays didn't answer many questions. Dr Marcella also came to look for a way to help Lump. Both vets, several volunteers and the tractor still couldn't get him up. Lump was loosing feeling in his mouth. Lumps tongue was hanging out of his mouth. I gently squeezed his tongue with no response until I was about 5 inches into his mouth. The vets were checking his spinal responses and they were also gone. Lump had a spinal cord injury. That explains why he got worst over the 3 days we tried to help. We great heartache, we made the decision to let Lump leave us forever and he was very humanely euthanized. He was surrounded by humans who loved him dearly. He left us with 10 years of happy memories that will stay forever in our hearts. Rest In Peace, old man. We love you Lump!