sleepless nights with tired horses

I haven't had a chance to write on my blog for awhile and I have so much to share. Both on our great mustang adventures and on some other small stories also.

First I want to share a story that has been on my heart. I recently took in a mare a week and a half ago. I did not need to take another horse on. I have a few extra that I still need to find homes for. I remember this horse from two years ago when she had been sent in to be bred at a friend's house and I really thought the world of this mare. I remember her being fun on trail, quiet for a kid and a nice registered paint mare that the guy had paid quite a bit to get. I really figured I could just rehome her and not worry too much. OK! So somewhere I am living in a false world where all people take care of their pets and when I sent my friend to go pick her up and got a call that she was a mess I did not really know what I was in for. Remember, I'm downsizing, that means less horses not one more :)------

I called Jaime to come put shoes on her because I heard that her feet where bad but nothing could have prepared me for what she looked like. Bad is not the word that I would use. She could barely walk, one slow inch at a time and I was not sure that I would not be putting this mare down. She was about three hundred pounds underweight. Her left front had the angle so she was walking on her coffin bone and they looked like cow pies. When Jaime trimmed her the inside of her hoof was rotting and falling apart. He put shoes on her and after a half of hour talking to my vet, I was left with the impression that it was a real wait and see. I started her free feeding on three way and my vet said that she could be on some alfalfa because her body was so starved that the protein would be absorbed and not make her feet worse. Jaime put shoes on, my friends brushed her while she ate any grass she could reach and I fly sprayed her. It is probably the most attention this mare has gotten in forever. So, now it has been almost a week and a half since I got her and Jaime has seen her three times to adjust shoes and make sure her feet were doing slightly better. I have been at lifesavers living on Azania. Today I got home after three days of being at the ranch and I went to feed. I had the best gift that will last me a year. A paint mare walking quickly across her pen to see if I had added a pile of alfalfa on top of her three way!!! I could just cry. She has a long way to go and alot more vet and farrier visits to get her there but maybe someday she will make some little girl happy and have a person of her own again.....

Thank you Jaime Osbrink for being so willing to make a special trip to come see her and do her shoes so often despite your busy schedule!!!

And Chris Jones for giving me some extra hay for getting her weight back up and Thank you Doc Connelly for being the vet to talk me through the hard decisions and how to go about righting what some unkind person has done wrong to this poor girl.