Tonight a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go to a local tack/horse auction and I said sure! I didn’t have anything better to do than sit in the cold for 2 hours watching used halters being auctioned off one by one.
I always make a habit of looking at the horses and tonight I noticed one in particular. He was hip tag 74. A three year old bay OTTB, still wearing aluminum shoes. He had been dropped off by someone who didn’t bother leaving his papers or telling the sale barn anything about him.
When he tried to pee in his stall he slipped and fell, getting cast, and unable to get up. His slick shoes flung sparks out on the smooth concrete floor. He eventually got up but he was covered in scrap marks.
I got to work networking on FB and soon had an offer from Friends of Ferdinand to purchase him. Then I had to get a friend out of bed to drive to the auction with a trailer. We stayed at the auction, in the cold, from 4pm to 10:30 pm to bid on hip number 74.
He was first horse in, and the only person bidding against us was the kill buyer. We won him for a grand total of $110.
Two total strangers came up to us and hugged us. They asked us if we bought that bay horse from the killer and they said they were so glad.
He loaded well, travelled well, and went into his temporary stall and sucked down water in between mouthfuls of hay.
He’ll soon be picked up by a vet to be checked for his future prognosis and then he’ll go into a rehab program and eventually for adoption.
We are having some trouble figuring out his registered name but I’ll post it when we figure it out. It starts with 0124 something then I think a 5
I bet he’s gorgeous with some care and food.