Promise's story, for me, starts with a Facebook link posted on December 1, 2010 by a friend listing 32 horses in immediate need of purchase (at $75 each) to save from slaughter. I had been volunteering to exercise horses at a local hippotherapy center and really enjoyed my time there, but let's face it, it doesn't compare to having your own to love. I put out a plea for my friends in horses to see if they could help and also to see if anyone had any pasture I could put a horse on.
My Father-In-Law, Huey, replied to me the next morning that we could use his front pasture for some of these needy horses. He had recently had most of the fence changed over to board and the cows were not using that portion of pasture. I think I said "are you sure?" about 5 times before I finally realized that this could actually happen! It was pouring rain out but I wanted to go over and see this lot of horses. Huey and I agreed that we didn't need pasture ornaments. We both wanted horses that could be handled and potentially ridden.
I drove out to a 2 acre pasture to find emaciated, mud covered, sad little horses with auction stickers still stuck to them. The story was this : out of an auction house in Tennessee, the unsold horses were purchased by kill buyer to be hauled down to Mexico for slaughter. Some were auction house leftovers, others were from a separate neglect case in Polk County that left 30 some horses at the auction after confiscation.
It was cold and raining, I'm walking through the suctioning mud, I'm trying to come up with a quick plan of assessment. As the horses started walking around and moving together I was losing track of who was who. I decided that I would try and touch first, if the horse allowed that I would look at legs and feet next. If I didn't see any gross abnormality I would look at the rest of the structure and then record the number on my scrap paper under my raincoat.
I went through the herd. Most ran from touch. Some looked so thin they might not survive, others had long wounds and scars. I found a little black horse that I liked, I took her photo and wrote her number down.
I picked my way through the rest of the herd. The whole time I did so I had a shadow. A chestnut mare walked where I walked, stopped when I stopped, and in general made sure I didn't overlook her. She was a pretty little thing, very skinny, with a drop in her belly that made me think she could be pregnant. A scary situation considering her very poor condition. I put my hands over her and checked her out. She stuck her nose in my jacket and tried to wiggle into all of my pockets. By this point it was getting harder to see much as the rain picked up. Looking back now I realize this is when I missed her outward turned hind leg. In the mud I assumed she was just needing to balance that way.
I came back home to tell Huey about the girls I found and he agreed to take Beauty for his son David and we could have Promise, putting both mares over on his pasture. I called in to claim both girls and heard the bad news, moments earlier Georgia Department of Agriculture locked down the entire lot of horses with quarantine for possible Strangles. No one was going anywhere until it was resolved. Huey and I had already chosen the girls and weren't going to walk away at this point so I paid for both horses and we waited to see what would happen.
Strangles went through the lot for sure, hardest hit was Beauty. She had open abscesses rupture within days of the quarantine beginning. She was fairing well though, eating fine and seemed strong enough to get through. Promise presented a whole new set of worries as we considered what would happen if she was indeed pregnant. After going out to care for, blanket, and worm the girls, we planned to have a blood sample drawn to determine for sure. We got the results the following week that Promise was not only pregnant, she was in the third trimester and could foal at anytime in the next few months.
After many, many, phone calls and contacts I was able to get a reprieve for our girl. She showed no signs of Strangles whatsoever AND we had pasture that was isolated. We were allowed to move her to our own quarantine and start her 30 day clock immediately. Promise was going to get the best shot at a healthy foal and delivery. December 18, 2010 we brought her home right at sunset.
There was a long road ahead for Promise still. We knew she had been on tall-cut fescue, something late term pregnant mares must avoid due to complications including lack of milk production, going over-due, and red bagging. She was badly underweight, body score of 2, and you can't just throw feed in front of a skinny horse. You must start slowly, allowing the gut to become readjusted to feed, allowing their legs and hooves to slowly bear more and more weight. She was put on Omelene 300, carefully rationed out to up in small increments over weeks. We also gave her a round of Sand Clear to help flush the dirt from her body and allow more complete digestion. Slowly, the weight began to fill out her body.
Promise also began showing us a little more about who she was. Promise will rear if startled. Promise will kick, straight out towards you, if you attempt to handle her near her right rear without asking first. Promise also loves to have her head scratched and has a pregnant lady habit of dozing off while you give her body a good rub down. Promise does well with a bridle on and allowed me to sit on her once for just a moment while we were assessing her level of training without wanting to strain her body.
We discovered after veterinary exam that she is about 15 years old, not 4 that we were told when we purchased her. That same exam also confirmed that her right rear may have some long term issue that could make her not able to be ridden. It's hard to say at this point since the foal's weight is carried by her right rear. I was devastated at this news, but it turned out a blessing as we found Whisper very shortly after.
The veterinary exam also included giving her a mild sedative and manually checking her pregnancy. It seems that we should hope to welcome her foal mid-March to mid-April. There is both a full moon AND a dog agility trial I am entered in over a weekend in mid-March so I'm thinking it's going to be then. We've gotten her to a point in her health where she should have no trouble surviving the birth. It is still unknown what lasting effects her starvation has had on her foal and it's formation.
She met Whisper this week and is so much happier. Horses really just aren't meant to be alone. She has also honed her pick-pocket skills to include my truck, my pockets, and my grooming caddy.
Beauty remains, with the rest of the original herd, in quarantine. Her abscesses healed and were completely gone as of a few weeks ago. This allowed a vet to mark the herd as "clear" and our 30 day clock began on them to have their final re-check for release. This should take place February 18. In the meantime, the group of all of the owners (each horse in the herd now has an owner and a home to go to when it's all over) have come together to pay for feed, hay, and begin medical care on many. Chris and I go out and feed the herd on a regular basis and have come to know many of the horses well.
No horse in the herd died in those early weeks and most have put on weight already. I enjoy seeing them looking stronger each time I go out. Promise and Whisper will do great with Beauty and we can't wait to see her out there too.
