Thursday, February 10, 2011

The ailing mare has healed!

Yesterday I went out and she was still ouchy but better. She was really enjoying being in the roundpen, honestly. She was totally calm and quiet. Napping in the sun, nipping at some hay and DRAINING water buckets like a camel.

I went to see Victoria's new horse - I will talk about that little adventure in a minute though. After we returned I got out my grooming tools - and I have a story about that too, but that will also come in a minute. Amber was so happy to have the attention. She stood there totally untied, no halter or anything, and just stood perfectly still while I pampered her. Then she followed me around the round pen like a puppy. She is such a sweetheart. I really think her bad attitude is simply needing to be alone and not have to deal with the other horses constantly. She is a JEALOUS little girl though. I was helping Victoria work with an abused paint mare Andrea has and she was not happy about it! She was calling to us and pacing.

This paint mare, Katie, really needs work. She was badly beaten. They believe she was trained western pleasure and possibly halter by her breeder, and then got in bad hands when she was sold. Now she is so scared of doing something wrong she doesn't want to do anything at all to interact with people. What she needs is someone to just take her out and walk her around, slip her treats and love on her until she learns to trust again.

Now, the story of my grooming tools. Remember my grooming caddy that had Jack's name on it? The one I was going to keep because the name wouldn't wash off even though all the other marker did? Yeah. The horses got in my box and drug all my stuff down the aisle...TWELVE horses. My nice leather halter was dirty, and the lead ring was bent. Not too much damage, but the fleece is dirty and my white lead is now brown. My bottles were all okay, but dirty. My helmet was dirty and scratched (thank god it's just a troxel). Grooming caddy was shattered. Buckets were okay, I put my grooming tools back in there. One of the screws for Amber's halter nameplate is missing. They also ate five pounds of treats and destroyed the container they were in. All in all, no super-serious damage, but I was understandably irritated. I understand it's convenient for her to let all the horses out into the barn at feeding time, rather than try to lead everyone, but I just can't understand how twelve of them were unsupervised long enough to do as much as they did. *Facepalm*

Everything got cleaned up okay. I'm just going to let it go since it didn't really incur big costs to me, and Andrea is providing me with a 1-2 week supply of the all purpose feed Amber is getting no charge, so I call it fair. She did put my box in the tack room after the incident to prevent future raids.

So Victoria's new horse. He is at this paint farm that's 1-2 miles from ***. It's a breeding farm, no doubt. There is not a breeding quality horse on that property, and many are thin with unkept feet. A couple are super fat. Most of the pregnant mares still have unweaned babies. The foals are skinny. Why some are skinny and some fat is due to the fact that this guy just pushes pans of feed under the fence, and let's the horses battle it out. Low on the totem pole horses get nothing. The round bales are moldy. The whole place just looks trashy.

And in the midst of all the paints and QHs, we see this tall, SKINNY (body score of between 1-2) bay TB. No muscle on him, no fat on him, just shriveled and sad.

In full health, you can tell this horse would really be something. I can see what Victoria sees in him. He has a very sweet personality, but he just looks like he's given up. He also has an abscess in his right front. He is tattooed, so Victoria is going to try to get his info from the JC. The man wants $500 for him that he is NOT worth in his condition. He needs his teeth floated, needs a serious deworming program, and is definitely going to need a weight building supplement. He's been beaten we can tell, and he will probably need some mental work getting over that. She talked the man down to $440. She's getting him next Tuesday and has put $50 down already.

I won't go into full detail, but it's crap that this that just makes me want to punch people like that in the face. Honestly. This backwoods, redneck asshole thinks he is the horse guru, and from talking to him I can tell he's hiding a whole lot. After she gets that horse out of there, I'm calling the humane society. And I'm going to keep calling them until something is done. The horses may have feed and water, but many of them do NOT get to see any of that feed, and the hay is worthless. They are all in pretty yucky health, many look lame. It just makes me so angry.

I am so thankful to own my own horse. To know that I can call the shots on her health and welfare. To know that I can insure she has good hay, feed and water, and that she is happy, sound and healthy.

Andrea said she was doing better today and went back out with the group...but she's pacing the fence. *Sigh*

If she goes through a fence, I'm going to get on her and ride her to Halcyon. Funny thought, but I'm almost serious, haha.

But at least she's sound now and it was only a bruise.

4 comments:

  1. Glad Amber is better. I guess she really does like the individual turnout.

    So sad to hear the story of the horses at that farm. Glad the TB will be in safe hands, but the others really do need an angel to look after them. Perhaps you will have some of the luck they need.

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  2. good luck getting the humane society to do anything though. more than half the time they say there is not enough "evidence" since the man is feeding them. They'll say too bad for the ones not getting food, blah blah blah.
    For them to do ANYTHING there will literally probably have to be dead horses and no hay of grain being fed. Its how they work I guess. Stupid eh?
    Glad that TB is getting out of there!

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  3. I fear that, Checkmark. I'm unfortunately all too aware of the fact that the humane society basically waits for what reporters of abuse and neglect are trying to PREVENT to happen before they do anything. :( But I feel like if I don't try at all, even if I know the chances are slim, I'm turning a blind eye to it.

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