Blackie and Red: the rescued

posted in FSHR Horses, Horses, Rescue Horses | Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

“Red” and “Blackie” were rescued Thursday Feb. 11, by voluntary surrender  to Fresh Start Horse Rescue. I applaud the people who had them for making what must have been a very difficult decision.

Red-Day One

This surrender was the result of numerous calls to the Sheriff’s Department by members of the community, and personal inquiry by Fresh Start board members.

"Blacky" - Day One

Day One

When we arrived to pick up the horses, the son came out to assist us. He tugged the wire gate partly open through the deep snow. There was some green hay on the ground; it was impossible to tell whether it came from under the crumpled silver tarp or if someone had thrown it over the fence as had become customary for that neighborhood.

Red's Butt...our vet scored him a 1.5 on the Henneke scale.

Up close, the horses looked even more horrid than they had appeared from the road. Their eyes were dull, and their heads were lowered. The red horse was like a skeleton. The black’s hips and backbone stuck out, even though covered by inches of woolly fur. They were nibbling at the hay. I was feeling very emotional, but unable to express my feelings. I ran my hand over the long, wavy coats, sorrel and coal. My husband and I put blue rope halters on them. He took the black mare, and I took the red gelding.

Upon being haltered by strangers, they became agitated. Daniel led the black mare out first, and the red gelding began to whistle his weak little whinny and his eyes grew large. Fortunately he didn’t have the energy to completely freak out. He is a tall horse, and seemed ready to run me over. Since there was only a narrow opening where the wire gate was folded back in the  snow, I tried sending him through ahead of me. He stepped through and stopped, his hindquarters still in the opening, not yielding them. I felt like an idiot on the end of the lead rope in his kick zone. I pulled his nose around enough for me to get through the opening past him, and he put his face right into the wire of the fence. Awkward!

I’m not very graceful when I’m in emotional mind. I backed him out of the wire without him getting hurt, and we turned around. I realized that I had not compensated for the fact that his eye was totally clouded over (duh!). I was surprised by how strong he felt as he poured on the juice to follow his friend.

Blacky's hooves were very long and cracked, affecting the way she stood.

The next challenge was passing from the deep snow to the smooth concrete driveway. Neither one of them was quite sure if they should step on it! But they finally did. The black mare loaded first into the front of the trailer, and the red gelding followed her. They loaded easy, setting the tone for how they would be…complete angels.

An unexpected friend dropped by to tell us she was glad we had them, even before we had them unloaded from the trailer!

Red in his blankie

After we unloaded them, the first thing we did was put blankets on them, so that they wouldn’t have to use up any more energy keeping warm. We tied them to trees by the shed where the blankets were. Red got a big blue one and Blackie got a beat-up, but warm, white one. Once they were blanketed they seemed very relaxed. It was already getting dark by the time we settled them in our quarantine pen…a sizable enclosure made of logs. It contained a man-made roofed area,  several trees, and a big trough of fresh water. It was a big change from their open pasture area, though, and I felt bad to put them through it. We gave them each a flake of hay and told them we loved them.