Our new rescue mare...

[wendymac]

There is a herd of over 40 Quarter Horses that were surrendered to the Arabian Rescue Mission. The couple had SIXTY cats living in their condemned house. Apparently they had a bunch of junk cars sitting at their place, and a PennDot worker stopped to give them a warning. He saw the cats inside (and the smell!) and alerted the Humane Society. They took the cats (and most had to be euthanized because of Feline Lukemia). The Humane Society then called the horse rescue people, and they're in the process of vetting and finding homes for them. We adopted this mare, and I hope to go back to get one of the stallions (Moon Blaster). My daughter, one of my twin sons, and myself were down last Tuesday to help hold horses for the vets and farriers. It's about 3 1/2 hours from us, and we were gone for almost 19 hours. Then we went down yesterday to pick up the mare.

If anyone is in PA, and is interested in giving one of these horses a home, the information is in the link below. They're all foundation bred, super dispositions, with tons of talent...they just haven't had anything done with them (a lot of them aren't even halter broke).

Here's the Facebook page with all the information:
https://www.facebook.com/ArabianRescueMissionInPa

And here's Mysty. She's between 12 and 15, 3 months pregnant, and around 14 hands. VERY sweet mare, and is picking things up fairly quickly.

 

[luvthempigs]

How sad for all the animals involved. Glad to see brighter days are coming soon for them.

I wonder how many mares are in foal? Overwhelming to think about.....Glad to see you and your kids are able to help, very awesome of you!

 

[wendymac]

It was very sad. There aren't a lot in foal, surprisingly. Mine, and I think 3 others. They had 17 stallions in the same field together. Now, the field was around 40 acres, but that's still a lot. She mainly lost the horses because a few of the old ones were really thin, and she didn't get routine vet care for them. It's a shame for all of them. Without even knowing how to lead, the owners did these horses a HUGE disservice.

 

[luvthempigs]

I have never heard of stallions being turned out together. Anyone I know with stallions would keep them seperate. I thought because they would fight?

I cant imagine how much fun it was to catch, halter, lead and load on a trailer a horse who has never been handled :shock:

Caring for 40 horses even being out in the field is a lot of work and money.

 

[fuzz16]

Well i am glad someone stepped in.

Are you going to use her for a trail pony or see if you can get her running in shows. Are you keeping the foal?

 

[wendymac]

Oh, it was fun, for sure. LOL They did get a few panels from TSC, so the ones that were super hard to handle were run into there, where it was a bit easier to catch them. If the stallions had all been turned out in a small lot, there would have been a lot more injuries. But they had a lot of pasture, so they could separate. There was fighting, but I didn't notice anything more about the stallion herd than I witness with my geldings. The same with the mare field.

Brenda, right now the plan is to get her halter broke and general "mandatory" procedures set in. She's never been near a hose, had a bath, legs scrubbed...nada. In a week or so we'll start teaching her to free-lunge, voice commands, etc. We'd like to eventually have her running barrels, or (at the very least) a good trail mount. And yes, we'll keep the baby. Even if she can never be ridden, we have a lot of pasture so one more isn't going to make or break us. LOL

The only reason we even put an application in for her, in the beginning, was because my daughter's barrel mare hurt her stifle over the winter and still isn't sound. We had wanted the new mare to keep Gypsy company, and then the gelding Gypsy's been turned out with can re-join the gelding herd. So if the new mare can ever be ridden will be icing on the cake.

 

[fuzz16]

So nice to be able to have the ability to have what you do!!! Someday I would like to have a horse. I know a lot of people have mixed feelings towards horses being pasture ornaments, but if their healthy and well cared for then I say go for it. Horses are so herd bound anyways it's nice to have a companion. My MIL been looking for a companion for hers...19yo gelding. My daughter could run circles under him and around him all day and he'd just stand there, sweetest boy ever. She's worried he'lllearn bad habits though.

 

[wendymac]

I wouldn't trade my life for anything. It's not perfect, and we're not rich, but we're definitely enjoying it!

I have found that it's better to have at least 3 together. When you have only 2, they become so herd bound. The one you take away is crying because the one left behind is hollering. With three, they don't seem to care when 1 goes missing. And they're probably glad it's the missing one getting ridden/worked and not themselves. LOL

Anyway, I certainly usually don't go looking for nothing but a pasture ornament. But in all reality, if the horse isn't even halter broke at 15, it may never make a riding horse. And we won't sell Gypsy if we can't get her sound, so she definitely needs a buddy. We have a 30 acre field that's empty right now. My long-term goal (provided Gypsy will never be sound again and the mare is adamant about not being ridden. LOL) is to move her, the new mare, and the foal over there. Then, when it's time to wean, the baby will come back to the main barn and the two mares can live together for eternity.

 

[BabyRue]

It breaks my heart to see this happen time and time again. Sadly it is becoming a very common occurrence

I hope these beautiful horses get the loving homes they deserve. I wish I had more money right now. I would love to adopt one or two. I have been wanting to get a nice foundation bred QH for awhile now.

I can't wait to see more pictures of your new addition to the family.

 

[wendymac]

Same here, Sarah. Although they haven't had much (if anything) ever done with them, they all seem to have eager-to-please attitudes. I'll post a few more pictures this evening. We turned Gypsy, Mysty, and Chance out in the arena last night, and they got along great. Well, Mysty and Gypsy did...but Chase is asking for a friend of his own. LOL

 

[BabyRue]

lol You may have to humor Chase and get him his own friend. I had a QH Mare who fell in love with a sheep. It was the funniest thing ever. She hated other horses but she was glued to the sheep like crazy. To the point we had to build her a stall beside the sheep pen so she could be close to them in the barn.

I was working with a clients fjord pony tonight and the barn she keeps her at takes in a lot of rescues. This man has a small herd of horses that have been rescues. So I mentioned this to him and he said he was going to look into it. PA isn't to far from us so it might be doable for him. He just likes having the horses hangin out in his fields and he spoils them and lets them just be horses.

Off topic... the fjord pony I am working with is the cutest thing ever! This pony is hilarious and has the sweetest personality. She's only a yearling so we are not doing much with her other then ground manners and desensitizing.

Anyway... so when you getting the sheep for Chase? lol

 

[wendymac]

They're down by Pittsburg, so hopefully it'll be close enough he could adopt one or two. At this point, even foster homes would work.

Poor Chase! He's the one that was always out with Gypsy. He couldn't even eat at the round bale or drink out of the watering trough without her permission. Then we got Mysty. The first night, he was out with her and thought he was in heaven. She was trotting around and he was walking (trying to catch up and sniff). A few minutes later, while we were down with the rabbits) she must have told him what was what. We went back up about a half hour later and he was standing off by himself while she was eating hay. LOL Last night was their first night out in the big arena, all three of them. Gypsy and Mysty bonded quickly, leaving poor Chase standing off in the sidelines.

Chase is separated from the main herd because there's a stretch of fence between the pasture and the one hay field that's just 6 strands of electric fence (the rest is either wood/electric or no-climb horse fence/electric). He's the ONLY horse I've ever been around that will walk slowly through an electric fence. I have never seen anything like it before. At first we thought it wasn't working. So we checked it, the fencer was pumping out max wattage, and he STILL just walked through. And he's NOT getting a sheep, a goat, or another horse. LOL

I love Fjord ponies! They are so gorgeous! You'll have to post pics of her. I love their manes..gives new meaning to "bad hair day". haha