9-13-09

Sit back, grab some popcorn (some coffee perhaps to keep you awake?) because today's blog is quite long, and even includes some threats of physical violence. Sit back and enjoy the blog!

Today was an auction rescue day. Thanks to all of your generosity, the goal of $1,500 was met! Thank you all so very much for saving horses today.

This morning Jason and Larry used the water truck to water the driveway. Hopefully it cut down on the dust as it was a busy Sunday. After the driveway was watered they hooked up the stock trailer and headed out to the auction.

April was making her famous senior mash, and Mr T gave her the evil eye like "You had better give me some or else..." Instead April grabbed it and ran to give it to the horses that need it. Mr T certainly does not need fattening treats.

We had a great volunteer come out to help out where she could. Thank you so much for cleaning the tack room and for making the oldest senior on the place feel loved with his special equine salon treatment.

The weatherman keeps telling us it might rain, so Tawnee went around cleaning and moving stuff. She got the outside organized a lot today.

Linda came to the rescue to help out with the horses. She did a great job, thanks so much for coming out today, you did great for your first day.

It was a busy day with owner surrenders. These folks had owned this horse for 5 years and were no longer able to keep her.

While the papers were being signed over for Tracy, the horse above, Tehya was hanging out in her pen enjoying a nap until she saw Tawnee with a camera. She must not have wanted to be on the blog today. She jumped up as soon as the picture was taken.

As one trailer was leaving, another trailer was pulling in with yet another owner surrender. It's an older mare in her 20's with founder. Her owners were sadly unable to keep her any longer.

The good news is we had some adoptions today! Snazzy and Cedar finally went home. We've been so behind on adoption's, but they waited patiently and today they were able to take their new family members home.

They got in the trailer without a fuss ready for their new adventure. They both looked like they gained a few extra pounds here at the rescue. They're a little rounder and chubbier than when they first stepped off the trailer.

April has been enjoying riding Mini a little too much, in fact, she decided she wasn't going to share Mini with anyone and adopted her today.

We are very appreciative that all the funds for the auction was raised. So many horses need help! This news link shares a dirty little secret. Some people try to make folks believe this doesn't happen, the fact is, it happens every 5 minutes. Thanks to your donations, today you were able to be a part of saving horses from such a fate that could have awaited them. Watching this video, in one of the shots you see a poor old Appy who is very thin. His last days were filled with pain and sorrow. Some folks try to make you believe that the killers only want the fat horses, the truth is, they will take any horse that can make them a few bucks. This poor poor horse, his owners should have been responsible and done the right thing, but instead his last moments were filled with terror and agony. Click here to watch the video.

Finally Jason and Larry arrived at the auction and began looking into the horses faces, the faces with unknown futures ahead of them.

Before long the auction was in full swing.

After the sale, a total of 8 horses were rescued. Many thanks to an anonymous person who donated $50 at the auction, it really helped! Enjoy these photos and short descriptions of the rescued horses.

Yearling Filly.

Yearling filly, sister of above.

Bay 9 year old off the track TB. He is said to be aggressive. Apparently it's the truth, he kicked Larry unprovoked during the loading process.

4 year old.

8 year old Appy mare cross.

Paint stallion with over 50 foals on the ground. Won't be a stallion much longer.

This poor guy is camera shy, but he's an older TB in his 20's.

4 year old quarter pony.

While loading the horses into a trailer, like we have done many many times over the years, harassment commenced. We have a loading / transportation method that works great, one that ensures that the horses get to the rescue safely. It's the same method we used when we were flown to Nebraska to load over 100 wild Mustangs in 1 day under the watchful supervision of the Humane Society of the United States, the attending veterinarian and the local and state police department.

First a lady came up ranting and raving that we were being very inhumane to the horses, were treating them like cattle and that they were suffering terribly. Our trailer has 3 large compartments, in the 1st compartment was the stallion, tied up to the front so he wouldn't be bothering the horses behind. The middle compartment had 3 horses and the back compartment had 4 small horses, which had plenty of room to move about freely. Left free as it's the healthiest way for horses to travel, according to the latest research. Especially when you don't know how or if they tie! Apparently this wasn't good enough for the lady, who raised her voice in protest and took lots of pictures and video.

Next this group of self proclaimed "cowboys", with beer in hand, started harassing and causing a real ruckus. They were yelling and screaming at the horses while Jason and Larry were trying to load them, causing unnecessary stress to the horses. Click here to listen to some of the secret microphone recording of their harassment hosted on Youtube. We chose not to share their video to protect their identities, perhaps they were too drunk today? They did openly proclaim that they slaughter horses and chop their heads off. They also threatened Jason repeatadly and said they are definitly going to jail someday after beating him up. Auctions and threats of physical violence, it just seems to go together for poor Jason. Certainly not the first time.

It's amazing the crowd that livestock auctions attract. Tawnee has seen some horrific loading scenes at the auction. Multiple stallions crammed into open trailers with mares, even before they were in the trailers they were rearing and fighting. But the horses were crammed and shoved with no mercy. According to Mr Cowboy above, he can fit 18 horses into a trailer the size of ours, which only typically holds 9-10 depending on their size. It's amazing how upset horse traders can get with rescues.

Finally the horses were all loaded safely and they arrived back at the rescue without a scratch. The auction is behind us for another month.

The horses peered out of the trailer before the doors were open, wondering where they were.

They all began unloading out of the trailer, their first thoughts were of finding some food and water.

They were all tired and bedraggled from their long day at the auction.

Once the loose horses were turned out into pens, the tied horses were led out one by one.

They are definitely enjoying having a nice yummy supper!

All in all it was a very long day, but the new horses are all settled in for their first night at the rescue.

Thank you so much everyone for pulling together to make this auction rescue possible! A huge thank you to: Kathy M. - Carla G - Norma C. - Suzanne F. - Shari W. - Cheryl R. - Judith S. - Jeanette C. - Sue K. - Anonymous - Jennifer G. - Jennifer H. Your support is greatly appreciated and we know the horses are thankful.