8-19-10

Some days start earlier than others. Today Tawnee was jolted out of bed with a phone call at 5:27 am. A kb was on the other end. He was waiting at the rescue with a load of horses if we wanted to buy them. Tawnee drug herself out of bed and hit the road.

When Tawnee turned on to Four Junes, sure enough, he was there waiting.

Soon he was backed up to the pen and the horses were starting to unload.

They were a little bewildered. This poor old guy is completely blind and very insecure with his new surroundings.

The paperwork was done and Tawnee was quite surprised when the kb handed her the registration paperwork for one of the horses. Usually kb's don't care about registration, but since he knew we might want him, he had the papers with him.

The sun was just starting to peek up over the eastern mountains as the kb was driving away.

The horses were definitely trying to adjust to their new surroundings. No doubt it was a long and confusing night for them. Some of the horses that were brought in were from the staging area, others were gotten from private parties. All of them could have easily ended up heading south over the border... Tawnee posted the pictures on Facebook and asked for name suggestions. We really appreciate all of your ideas!

This is an older blind Appy gelding who is named Keller, in honor of Helen Keller.

He is completely blind in both eyes and we can only imagine the terror of being in the slaughter pipeline. Every step you take, not knowing if there is a wall or a giant edge you can fall off of.

This is a registered American Saddlebred Horse gelding by the name of Daystar's Sperkle. Born: 5-29-1989.

He is dreadfully thin and needs a lot of groceries.

This is Jerry, he was from the staging area. The interesting thin about this guy is he has an old pair of shoes on the front.

We can guess that he was sold or given away and then starved. People very rarely pay to put shoes on an emaciated horse.
He does have a brand on his hip, it appears to be a C with an upside down V. If anyone knows this brand, please let us know!

Miss Kitty is a blind mare. She may have limited vision, but it is hard to tell.

Meet Amina. She is an Arab mare who is very beautiful, sweet and friendly.

This is Casper, he is an older gelding. You can see he was most likely born a paint because he has the markings that were dark when he was younger, but with age has grayed.

This is Flicka, she is another Arab mare.

The last horse is Trinket. She is a little horse and she has something wrong with her hind end. She has shoes on all 4's.

They all had food high on their priority list. You could see the hungry looks in their eyes.

So it was off to the hay pile which got giant while Jason and Tawnee were at training. The hay guys just kept coming and coming, 3 loads of hay with a total bill of almost $2,000. It is really nice hay. They want us to spread the word that they have some really amazing fresh cut hay right now. If you need hay, give give Ray a call or text him: 530-308-5343.

Soon the Gator was loaded up and the hay pile got a little smaller... The hay wagon has over 150 hours on it already! That is a lot of feeding time.

The new horses were so excited to get some food. They just couldn't wait.

Soon they were all enjoying a nice breakfast.

Then it was time for the horses in the 15 acre pasture to get their breakfast too. We just can't wait until we can get some irrigation going. Can you imagine this all green and pretty?

Tawnee was getting the hay ready to throw off the hay wagon, and she looked down to see Forest begging. What an adorable guy.

When the hay wagon was put away, Crow hopped up on it, wishing he could go for a ride. We are forgetting about looking for eggs, he is crowing quite regularly now.

Tawnee put the blind Appy in a nice stall as he was very confused out with the other horses. She started scratching his neck, and you could see a look of sheer bliss sweep over his whole body.

His lips were twitching and he couldn't get his head raised high enough while enjoying a nice massage.

While Tawnee was rubbing him, she noticed that his eyes were tearing up. She actually saw two tear drops fall as if he was crying because someone loved him. It was very touching.

Soon Keller's massage was done and he was enjoying some nice senior feed. His troubles are truly over.

Tawnee did a search for Daystar's Sperkle. She found a website where he had been listed for sale previously. She was able to find pictures of Sperkle back in his glory days. We don't know how long ago this was, but...

...right now those days are long behind him and he is just a rack of bones.

It's hard to believe that this is the same horse. It just goes to show that just because a horse looks beautiful, is jumped and shown, that it is not safe. When their glory days are over, often horses are just dumped into the slaughter pipeline. So sad.

To keep horses from being dumped into the slaughter pipeline when their glory days are over, the euthanasia clinic is this Sunday. So far $1,160 has been donated for the clinic to provide financial assistance for people that cannot afford end of life care for their beloved horse, won't you help raise the thermometer to the top? Click here.

Many thanks to Trudi R., Angela T., Kathleen T. for their generous donations today. We couldn't do it without your help!