Wednesday, March 25, 2009

3-25-09

Today we received a great update about Bailey. "I just wanted to give you a quick update on Bailey. We made it home safe and sound. He rode well in the trailer although he was pretty vocal the whole way. He is doing well here and we absolutely LOVE him. Merlyn, our pony, can boss him around so he loves him too. I saw your write-up of us in the blog. "The nerds" I love it! We get called that all the time. " They were the ones that drove the colorful "nerds" car on Sunday's blog.
We had a new volunteer come out today to get acquainted. Naomi loved visiting all the horses. And then, Gemini was the lucky horse she spent a good 2 hours grooming. Gemini really loved the attention and special care.

Somebody emailed us concerned about a Craigslist add that she had seen. Her email went like this: "This was posted on a horse forum that I sometimes read and thought if you had a place for another horse this one might need a rescue. It is a 9 year old OTTB that will go to auction friday if not taken. Free." Thank you Katie for emailing this to us! Tawnee checked out the Craigslist writeup and found it very concerning. It had phrases like "1st come 1st serve" and "if he's not gone by friday he will go to auction." It's always concerning when someone posts a free horse on Craigslist, and the way it was written up, the horse had to be gone or else... Tawnee called and left a message, hoping to hear back soon about the horse and that it had not already ended up in the wrong hands.

Gemini's potential adopter came out to visit him today with Pastor Larry. Pastor Larry is working hard finding potential homes for the rescued horses, we really appreciate it! Tawnee showed Gemini to them and they were thoroughly impressed with him.

Caroline gave Tawnee the nod of approval and said "Yes I will take him to be mine." You can tell that someone likes red. It happens to be her favorite color. Gemini's ID tag here at the rescue was red, and as his adopter Caroline got to keep it for a memento.

Gemini loaded up like a champ and soon he was off to his new home. He will be living at Pastor Larry's facility and will get to live next to Peanut and the others Larry has brought into his ministry.

After closing time we got a call from the Craigslist poster about the 9 year old Thoroughbred. Yes he was still available. We considered this an emergency situation, and as a horse went home today, we had room for another. We got the truck and trailer ready to head out and hit the road for the over 100 mile trip. The owner wanted the horse gone already and it was truly a 1st come, 1st serve situation. We had no way of knowing if a KB was on their way or not. The horse had to be gone by Friday. There was just no other options.

When we arrived we found a thin TB bay eating hay. His owners said he was hard to catch, opened the gate, and smiled at Tawnee. They smiled as if to say "He's your problem now." It took Tawnee an entire 30 seconds to catch the horse and have a halter on it.

His owners just stood back in amazement. They discussed amongst themselves on how Tawnee caught him so fast. "Guess she knows what she is doing" was the consensus.

Then they proceeded to tell us how bad he was at loading. "He reared up, slashed his head on the trailer, he doesn't go in a trailer period!"

Tawnee led him up to the trailer, let him have a look at it, and a few seconds later he was in. His old owners were just speechless by this time. There was no fight, no pulling back, no rearing, perhaps he knew he was coming to a safe place where he will not be sent to slaughter or an auction?

Boo-A, the TB, was purchased about a month ago from a horse trader. He was really skinny when they purchased him. He has been gaining weight since then so they said. They rode him when they purchased him, and then, when he got home the next day he was bucking and kicking and just unridable. They also stated they are beginner horse owners and that they didnt' know too much. Perhaps Boo-A took advantage of the situation? His evaluation will tell for sure!

The sun was setting by the time we were heading back to the rescue, and of course...

Tawnee was snapping sunset photo's while Jason drove. She was surprised at how well this one turned out, and she just insisted it end up in the blog.

It was well after dark by the time Boo-A made it back to the rescue. He took a hopping leap out of the trailer.

He settled into a stall and has good food and water for the night.

We would love to be able to rescue each and every horse like Boo-A that is facing uncertain futures. Often we are forced to turn away from Craigslist adds, and this is mainly due to a lack of funds. It all takes money, it takes fuel to rescue the horses, it takes money to buy the hay to feed the horses, it all takes money. If you would like to help rescue more horses like Boo-A, please click here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another GREAT JOB TODAY!!! Wow, Boo-A seems like a good boy! He is certainly a lucky man! Congrats on the new adoptions!! The sunset pics are gorgeous!:0) THANK YOU! for your wonderful work!

Cut-N-Jump said...

Kudos for all that you do!

I'm sure Boo-A is greatful you had the space and were able to come to his aid.

I'm betting his bucking was probably from ill fitting tack, unsteady riding or a combination of both. Hopefully nobody got hurt and he will come around quickly.

 
Response.redirect("horsehumane.wordpress.com");