Hi everyone!
I picked up two abandoned horses a week ago (that’s a whole story) but now the vet is coming to do the coggins and health checks and I need name ideas on one of them. The gelding has already been named.
She’s a grey paint mare, cute, probably about 7. I’ll try to post a pic.
Names that can’t be used (already taken)
Callie
Annie
Shelby
Remi
Stormy
Misty
Lily
Thanks for the help
Not a great photo. Luckily they weren’t starved in the field they had been left in (behind an abandoned house 
) but their feet are really bad and this gal actually has pretty bad rain rot on the other side of her.
Merry
Cloudy
Abbie
Daisy
Delilah
Dolly
Angel, she told me that 
She’s very cute. Tell us the story. And thank you for rescuing her.
Perdita!
Story
I’ve been toying with submitting a little write up I did on them to COTH to see if they like it enough to put it in their ‘voices’ area. I wrote it in anger after I picked them up and it had more identifiable info about the previous owners and the shit they did, but I redacted that part after cooling off and not being quite so pissed.
But, I’ll post it here too.
For anyone who wants the TLDR version, the owners moved out of the state and left them behind their empty house. They didn’t tell anyone and the only reason I found out about them was his family member found them one day when she was checking in on his house and realized that it wasn’t ok to have two horses just abandoned in a pasture. I came and got them, which is a crazy story in itself but I won’t say too much because the guy who owned them was a technology CEO at a firm around here and with some more info it would be really easy for people online to find out who it was. And even though I don’t like the guy for what he did, I also don’t want anyone to harass him.
The gelding is a big draft from the Amish, the mare is supposedly a papered APHA but who knows. The mare got a bath today, she was very good for it. Sadly her lovely tail is actually just one big matted mess and she will probably have to loose it. We found out today that the draft (his name is Dutch now) has never seen a hose before. Or running water. So today he learned being sprayed on his feet won’t kill him.
Best Laid Plans
I’ve had a rough year. It started out with my main competition horse, Storm, tearing a ligament two weeks before our ship date to Ocala. Then Thistle, my young mustang, tore a huge chunk of hoof out and was sidelined for several months until it grew back. My newest purchase, Callie, developed laminitis in May. And just when everything started to be normal again, we had one of the hottest summers I’ve ever remembered. 105-110 degree days at the barn, with matching humidity. So I was thinking maybe it was time to buy myself a nice gift.
Back in July I started thinking maybe I needed to purchase something with a little more scope, a little younger, and ready to go show with me this winter. Storm is 21 and has had to step down in height. Thistle is adorable, and I will show him and keep him forever, but he’s really very short. And Callie is a good year or two out from being really rock solid. ( We still have daily arguments about the fact that a racing gallop is, in fact, not appropriate for doing cross rails). So I started looking. Turns out, so was everyone else. I was plopped right into one of the hottest horse markets I’ve ever seen. Think the housing market, but with 1200 pound animals, no agents to help you, and really no guarantees. Buyers were expecting me to purchase sight unseen because in the time it would take for me to go try their horse someone else would have put down the cash. Buyers were waiving PPE’s. Anything that was halfway decent had 100+ ‘interested, PM me’ messages on the advertisement.
But it turns out the universe had different plans. On a Wednesday night, at 8 PM, I got an ominous text; “You want two horses?”
I’ve made a point of trying to help horses in bad situations. I’ve taken on quite a few. Sometimes they come from downright abuse situations, sometimes it’s neglect, or just someone in way over their head when they realize a full grown horse isn’t as easy to care for as their dog. But this year, because I was really ‘at capacity’ and because I wanted to get myself a flashy youngster, I said I wouldn’t watch the craigslist pages. I wouldn’t go to the local auction where they run through half starved, half broken animals. I wouldn’t see it this year. So the worst sales of the year, the camp pony sales, had come and gone, and winter was approaching and no one had dropped off a sad animal at my doorstep yet.
But it turns out why I hadn’t gotten one yet was because there were two already out there that needed my help.
On Thursday, I drove out to see these horses. A pretty grey paint mare and a sturdy black draft cross gelding. They were in a field overgrown with horse nettle behind an empty house. The owners had left months ago and abandoned them. They had an automatic waterer, and there was still enough grass in the acre size lot that they were in good weight. But their feet. Oh my Lord, their feet.
I’ve seen bad feet in others I’ve taken on. Overgrown feet, shoes still on but so far forward that they are standing on their heels. Feet on a 9 year old that has never been trimmed. Feet on a thoroughbred where the Hoof had grown around the racing plates. But the feet on that draft horse might take the prize for the worst.
According to the previous owners, they had been done a few months back. I quickly determined that was a lie. When horses haven’t been trimmed in many months, or possibly years, they start to grow differently. The hooves widen and crack and splay out the the sides. The growth lines are distorted. The underside is covered by the bars which have folded over. And, one of the best signs is that the horse acts like it has no idea what you are doing when you try and trim it. In horses out in the wild, the feet don’t do this because they walk so much that they are naturally worn down. And even in horses confined to pasture, if the pasture has enough room and harder terrain they will still self trim to a point. But when you have two horses in a small lot on clay soil? That isn’t going to happen.
The mare had chipped off enough that her feet weren’t as terrible. But the gelding, the draft, was really bad. His toes were long enough he was rocked back in his heels as if he was wearing long slippers. He had several huge cracks and there were rough, fibrous pieces of hoof sticking out. I knew then they were coming home with me. I checked their teeth and determined the mare was pretty young, probably 5-7. The gelding was 10-12ish.
The next day my poor father, who is regularly dragged along to help his crazy daughter rescue animals of all sorts, drove out with me to load them up. They were good sports about it and got on without much trouble. I’ve found this is the case with horses I’m getting from these situations. I personally believe there’s some sort of guardian Angel who calms these horses and tells them they need to get on the scary box, because life will be better when they get off of it. The draft barely fit in my trailer, but we squeezed him in.
I then went out and turned off their automatic waterer. There was a dead rat in it.
They are home now. They are getting time to adjust. I took some time to try to clean up their feet a bit; the mare had a rock so deep in her sole I’m not actually sure how she was walking. I had to pry that sucker out of there. The gelding is in too much pain up front, but he did let me trim his back feet up a bit.
I gave them their first tiny grain meal in who knows how long; when the mare heard the sound she ran as fast as her sore feet could take her.
I will never understand how this happens. These horses were not abandoned because of a financial issue, or a health reason, or even a lack of knowledge. They were abandoned because a family decided they were moving and those horses weren’t convenient anymore. They decided those animals weren’t so much fun, and they wanted a lifestyle change, and they would just leave them in a field. Behind their empty house. They didn’t even have the decency to call me. One of their relatives, realizing there were still horses behind the house and that that probably wasn’t ok, reached out. The owners didn’t even care enough to give me a call and make sure I wasn’t a meat buyer or part of some animal sacrifice cult.
They didn’t care.
But I do.
Go hug your horse. Go tell him you love him. And make a promise that no matter what, you will do the right thing for them. You won’t leave them to suffer in a field behind an abandoned house with a dead rat in their water trough.
O.M.G. I’m nearly crying. What a rotten thing to do to those poor animals. Like they were so much trash or toys to abandon. I’m glad you stepped up to help. Thank you for that.
As far as mare’s tail, Show Sheen Show Sheen. I had to care for a horse that has a tail that was a board. Took Show Sheen and applied liberally and picked out what I could. Lather, rinse, repeat, etc etc til I had tail picked completely apart and only lost a handful of dead hair. Use a large wide tooth comb and if you can find one with a sharp end or rat-tail, that’s great for digging into knots. Where are you located? I love projects like that.
I’m in northern Virginia. I’m going to try in a few days to pick it out, I’m probably going to liberally soak it in conditioner overnight tomorrow, let it dry, and then show sheen or I also like cowboy magic and try to get it out. She’s a friendly girl but doesn’t have a long attention span right now (super common with rescues, she will get better at standing and waiting for me as time goes on)
Yeah, skip the cowboy magic for now. Try the Tresemme leave in conditioner. Makes their hair like human hair. And so easy to comb.
Well, if you lived near NorCal I would come over and happily fix her tail.
Wow, what a saga. You are my hero. These horses might, with some rehab, make decent family horses.
When a tail is really bad I start with scissors, upward motion, to cut free the ‘coil’ or ‘rope’ in the center.
I’d say the opposite - spray liberally with Cowboy Magic or some kind of show sheen and let it dry. Don’t try to untangle wet.
You definitely don’t need to cut the whole tail, but a few well placed scissor cuts might make a huge difference. I have a heavy tailed pony that lives out 24/7 and he gets those twisted dreadlocks. They will come out but you need patience. Usually if you cut an inch or two off the bottom it helps unlock the knot.
Of course not. It has to dry first. I thought that was a given.
Op - can’t wait to see what these poor kiddos look like with some care and good groceries.
Dahlia
i have always loved the name Celeste ; heavenly
Jesus. That’s a story and a half. I’m glad they had a guardian angel, and that it’s you. Do you need any help? A dribble of some coin here or there that might make it easier?
Thank you, that’s very kind. But the best thing you can do if you want to help out is donate to a local horse rescue.
I am not a 501c so to me it feels wrong accepting money from anyone.
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