Day 1,  August 16, 2008

Saturday 1:30 p.m.

We ducked under the electric tape to walk through a 12′ x 12′ space that was home to the grey Arabian we didn’t get to meet; he had already died and lain there for days.

Walking carefully around piles and stashes of an extraordinary amount of backyard junk, I scanned for the horses. At one hundred feet, junk; at two hundred feet, more junk but no horses. Finally, the chain link cage appeared, and I caught my first glimpse of Fin. A horse in a cage? With no roof, no siding?  Can what I’m looking at inside the cage still be classified as an equine, or at least a still-living equine?

I glanced left and saw two more ramshackle pens, each holding a Chestnut Arabian, Star and the other stallion, Bader. I asked Dusty Lowe where the fourth horse was. Dusty had come from his farrier appointment to meet us and check out the lay of the land and the equipment we thought we’d need to remove the four horses turned over to the  Jackson County Animal Control officer the night before.

“She’s back here.” He said, and began walking even further from the frontage road, over a bridge and creek, to a large pasture filled with starthistle and blackberry bushes. We ducked under the electric tape to walk through a 12′ x 12′ space that was home to the grey Arabian we didn’t get to meet; he had already died and lain there for days. After a bit of searching and calling, I caught sight of Sara, the liver chestnut mare, who walked right up to me to inspect the visitors to her field.

Clearly overweight with a huge crest, Sara stood in sharp contrast to the starved horses on the other side of the blackberries.  Tarweed covered her face and legs and there was no food in sight.

Dusty and Wayne and I walked and talked and figured out the best way to get the trailer in, and whom to load that afternoon. Fin, the 3-year-old stallion, and Star, the 3-year-old mare, had never been handled, nor were they halter-broke or used to trailering. The decision that afternoon was, therefore, simple: load Bader, the 16-year-old stallion and Sara, the 19-year-old mare.

Wayne turned the trailer around while we haltered up Sara and Bader. Bader, with his astounding and massively matted mane and huge dreadlock, actually looked quite fancy as he pranced down the road with Dusty, calling out to everyone as he neared the trailer. He leaped right in–and then right back out, and then back in, and then out, and on the fifth time, Dusty simply closed over and latched the divider, and we organized for Sara. We think that she and Bader might be the parents to the two 3-year-olds, and they were doing an awful lot of catch-up chatter.  Sara needed a bit of encouragement, but she finally stepped into the trailer without too much fuss.

The trip to Eden Farm was completely and thankfully uneventful, as was the unloading. Dusty did call me “chicken”, but only once, as I told him I’d feel a whole lot better if he would take Bader out of the trailer. A piaffing stallion behind a metal gate that has to be unhooked and rehooked with one hand while maintaining control of said stallion with the other is not as easy as it looks, and Dusty has done this job many more times than I, as he hauls and moves livestock for a living.  I’ve forgiven Dusty the chicken slur, especially as Bader nearly ran him over leaping out of the trailer!

Their stalls were ready and both horses wasted no time in entering them and settling into a flake of nice clean hay. None of the horses had had water when the Sheriff’s deputy, Animal Control officer, and veterinarian Tom Timmons arrived the night before, and there was but one bale of hay left in the shed. Part of the bale was fed that evening, but by Saturday afternoon there was again no hay, and none of us knew whether more would be forthcoming from the prior owner.

Enter Barbara Wood, who very kindly volunteered to drive to Fin and Star and feed them each a half-bale of hay. She reported that they were calm and interested in the hay, and that Star was completely out of food, so the timing was perfect.

Two rescued and two to go, with the next pick-up scheduled for Sunday morning. We all left for home to clean up for the annual Equamore Summer Festival, which was starting at 4:00, tired but happy to have started Bader and Sara on the road to health and well-being.

Day 2,  August 17, 2008

Sunday 7:30 a.m.

Like lightening the door was closed and we stood still, waiting to see what would happen next. The mild stomping ceased and we considered our next move. . .

Sunday morning came early as we headed out again at 6:45 to meet Dusty and attempt to load Fin and Star. Dusty had gone ahead and recruited some fence panels to help us funnel the horses into the trailer. With panels inside Fin’s “cage” and the trailer backed right up to the opening, Dusty and I took our positions on either side of Fin, and began the process of slowly moving him toward the pen trailer. He was so weak and as such didn’t put up much resistance. Once he saw that we weren’t going to move, he lowered his head and began sniffing the ground just in front of the trailer’s entrance–quickly we brought the ends of the panel together as Wayne prepared to close the door. Within 30 seconds, Fin picked up his head and stepped lightly into the trailer. Like lightening the door was closed and we stood still, waiting to see what would happen next. The mild stomping ceased and we considered our next move: take Fin by himself to Eden Farm and return for Star; or load Star right behind him.

Dusty opined that he thought we should just put Star in and go in one trip. I reminded him of his thoughts the day before: “Well, he could rear up and come over the divider to get to her and get all hung up…”. I chanted this back to Dusty, worrying with my heart in my throat about the possible what-ifs. “What if Fin is desperate to mount Star and tries to climb on top of her,” I nearly whined. Dusty’s response was simple. “Heck, he’ll hit his head on the roof before he manages that!” I felt considerably relieved.

Nevertheless, we all agreed to go ahead with an attempt to load Star, which meant opening the door again, at minimum. Star had earlier eaten some grass hay pellets from my hand-with great difficult chewing them–and had allowed me to stroke her face; no dice when Dusty tried to slip a halter on her, however, so we went with the panel plan.

We retrieved pliers and wire cutters to remove the stapled-on fence, backed the trailer up, stood ready with panels, and began the loading process again, this time with the distinct possibility that Fin would leap out of the trailer the moment the door was opened to allow Star in. Star expressed a bit more resistance, swinging her matted mane this way and that, but within a minute she had joined Fin at break-neck speed, both now loose and untied in the back of my three horse, slant load trailer. The stomping and ruckus continued for some 15 seconds, and was followed by utter silence. I peeked in and there they stood, head to tail, cozied up at the far end of the trailer. We didn’t hear another peep from them the whole way to Eden Farm either, making for a second, uneventful trip.

Both young horses were greeted in their stalls by Bader and Sara, with much snorting and regaling of tales, all four seeming happy to see each other again. We rolled on home, satisfied that these horses now have a chance not only to survive, but to do so with full bellies and new-found dignity. The stallions can’t be gelded until their body scores and condition improves, which is at least two months down the road. We suspect from their condition that they’ve had no worming, foot care, dental care, or so much as a brush run over them in years, if ever. Slowly and carefully they’ll be introduced to proper food in proper amounts, and will be wormed carefully in a week or so.

We are so appreciative to Dusty for stepping in quickly to help these horses, and to the continued support from the volunteers and donors of the Equamore Foundation.

There are now 32 horses at Equamore, and while we do our best to take only horses without alternatives to their care, it seemed especially urgent to help Animal Control and the Sheriff’s Department to remove these horses from their hellish conditions.

With this in mind, we would be most happy to accept a variety of donations.   Please see list to the right for examples of how you can donate.

Fin, Sara, Bader, and Star all send you whickers and whinnies of thanks for caring about them, and look forward to your visits to the farm for an up-close-and-personal meeting.

Sincerely, and much relieved,

Jannalee

President, Board of Directors

Equamore Foundation