Thanks to the power of social networking, this time Facebook, we now have baby pictures of Lucky. The lady who bred him sent us the pictures. What an adorable little guy he was!
He is still very adorable, but sadly he is a cryptorchid stallion. That is the only reason he is at the rescue. We have already received $175 for his gelding operation. The vet estimates the cost to be no more than $800. We only have $625 left to raise and we can then schedule his operation. Let's give this cute guy the gift of life, click here. 
Last night Trivia Star started colicking. Jason spent the entire night with him, and only got 1 hour of sleep all night. Our vet guided Jason over the phone in the treatment of Star. Unfortunately Star did not respond to the treatment, and at 27 years old it was just to hard on this sweet boy. He was taken to the vet office today where his suffering ended extremely peacefully. Due to his age it would be unfair to put him through any more treatment, especially with the limited possibility of success. Jason drove back to the rescue with the feeling of relief that Star was no longer suffering, but with sadness that Star had to go through the whole ordeal.
April, Larry and a few volunteers spent the day cleaning up the rescue and making it shine. One of the days projects was putting up the wall in the office for the medicine room.
It looks great and is almost done. Just needs a few more panels and some white paint. We think we are going to have a new rule: admission in the front gate at the new facility is a gallon of white paint. The fence posts need to be painted the office needs to be painted, white paint needs to go everywhere! If you're visiting the rescue, bring a gallon!
About the time everything typically settles down at the rescue and the sun was setting, something different was happening. Tawnee had been communicating over the phone for quite some time with a KB about some horses. We have gotten horses from him before in the past, but this time Tawnee said there needs to be a set price per horse. A flat rate as we will not line the pockets of KB's by paying more than auction price. We used to rescue a lot from a feedlot, but the prices kept getting more and more outrageous, far above market value or slaughter price. Tawnee and the KB agreed on a set price of $100 per horse and he was on his way as the sun was falling.
Before long he pulled up, everyone was waiting to see what would come out of his trailer. No one had any idea, other than he told Tawnee a couple were in really bad shape.
4 horses were rescued, unloaded, and paid for and then he was on his way.
There are three yearling colts. Cute little guys, wide eyed and full of curiosity. This is probably the most excitement they have had in their lives.
They are so cute! They haven't been handled much, and have spent their entire lives ever since they were weaned in a 12x12 box stall. They have never had their feet picked up or trimmed, just living day after day in their cells.
If you ever wondered what a horse's feet would look like just left in a stall, here you go. 
These poor horses are extremely lucky to have come to the rescue where we can get them the help they need with your support! It is really sad that they can barely walk with their long hooves.
They are definitely hungry, they loved their supper!
It's hard to see everything in the dark of night, but we do know that one of them has a pretty good sized hernia.
Their poor feet. This could have been prevented, even just by letting them move around after being weaned, instead they were neglected and their hooves just kept growing.
It is truly a sad case of neglect. We have never seen horses this young with such terrible flipper feet before. Truly sad.
Can you help get these hooves back to normal? Bringing these babies back will take a lot of time and financial support, but we know we can count on your help.
They all need to be gelded, have their feet trimmed, be wormed, vaccinated and given good groceries.
The other horse is a mature cryptorchid stallion. The people who had him before the KB could not afford the costly cryptorchid surgery, and had no stallion pen, so this poor horse has lived the last 3 years in a horse trailer!
His legs are twisted and deformed from the lack of movement and poor circulation. He also may have an old injury too.
His feet and legs are in terrible condition. This horse is what started the conversation between Tawnee and the KB. He said if we didn't take him he would be "heading down the highway." It doesn't require much imagination to know what that means.
His hind legs are scraped up. This poor horse, what a terrible life.
We are glad he is safe, but we have some serious decisions to make. He is a cryptorchid stallion and is a full sized horse. That means his surgery could run up to $1,000 or even more. Due to his legs being in such terrible condition, adoption would be practically impossible. However, he does move about freely, as if he is not experiencing pain, and is well mannered. This leaves us with two options: 1: humane euthanasia, and the peace of knowing he was spared the brutal trip to slaughter that ends in a terrifying and painful death, or 2: have committed lifetime sponsorships of at least $150 per month and raise the funds to have his surgery. We wish we had more options for this poor guy, but our options are really limited. At the new facility we do have room for him to live out his days in his own pen, if he has sponsors. We need 1 person or company to cover the $150 a month, or 3 people at $50 a month for his life. If you are interested in sponsoring this guy and helping out with his gelding, please let us know as soon as possible. We wish we didn't have to make these terribly difficult decisions, but in order to continue rescuing horses from terrible fates, we have to.
A huge "Thank You!" to Caroline R. and Josh W. for their very generous donations since yesterdays blog. If you can help any of the horses in todays blog, please click here.
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