SHHS offers a lifetime home where abuse and neglect are a thing of the past.
We found Leo in a cow pasture. He had pretty much been left to die but I just couldn't let him stay out there and starve to death without trying to do something help him.
Following is a condensed version of Leo's story.
It is unfair that this beautiful, intelligent,sensitive creature; who gave so much in his lifetime to his humans; wasn't even given the comfortable retirement or humane euthinasia that he deserved.
In Loving memory of Leo!
Leo - Thoroughbred Gelding
A horse has no future. It cannot greet the sun and say today will be better. It can only reflect upon the days of past experiences. It is our job to create a positive past. ~ Karen West
This is Leo on the day that we discovered him in the cow pasture. I took a few pictures 'just in case' .
Then I called the sheriff.
June 2008
Leo ended up in this cow pasture because his owner didn't want to put him down herself so she asked her friend to do it for her. The friend figured that if he was able to get around and eat that she would just wait and see... So she put him out in a pasture with a bunch of cows and several other horses to fend for himself.
That is when we found him. After speaking with the sheriff's dept and then getting in touch with the new owner. Thankfully she agreed to let us to help him. This series of pictures is while we were waiting for the coggins to come back so we could move him legally. She allowed us to come on the property and feed him 3 times a day and doctor his wounds.
We had to fight off a couple dozen cows and two other horses every time we fed him. I had to use my truck as a shield so he could eat in peace.
Once at the Sanctuary Leo was treated like a king. He had the run of the property and all of the volunteers loved him and babied him; Leo was definitely a special guy.
He thrived under all of the attention and good nutrition. We started out feeding him 5 small meals a day. As you can see by the pictures below he started to put on weight and was really starting to look good. In August we took in a 34 year old Quarter horse mare named Royal, the two of them bonded almost immediately! Read the story of Royal and Leo's initial meeting here.
Royal and Leo
In September he developed an abscess in his right front foot which set him back a bit but he pulled through it and continued to do well. Then he developed an abscess in his left hind foot. I was out of town for several weeks and Dutch and Pat soaked and wrapped his foot tirelessly.
With both his left front and right hind feet compromised it was impossible for him to stand to have his hooves trimmed. Without even asking, our volunteers were there ready to help hold him up so we could try to get him trimmed and get some relief from the pain.
The left hind abscess blew out at his heal bulb but he didn't show any relief from the pain; then the coronet at the front started to swell as if it was another abscess. We treated it every way that we knew to treat it and it just got bigger and bigger and never drained like a typical abscess.
Under the assumption that it was an abscess our vet told us to keep soaking it, and apply icthamol dressing to try to draw it out.
It was very painfull for Leo ~ he couldn't walk at all for over two weeks. What we were doing wasn't working and I couldn't stand him being in pain any longer so I had the vet out to do 'something'! It turns out that it wasn't an abscess, it was pythosis. The vet opened and debrided the wound as best he could. It seemed to give Leo some relief from the pain and by the next day he was scooting around the yard a bit. We were all very hopeful.
Known by many names including Pythosis, Phycomycosis, Florida Leeches, Gulf Coast Fungus, Swamp Cancer, the disease caused by Pythium insidiosum is bad news. Lesions on the limbs are characterized by the formation of tumor-like masses with fistules and serosaguineous discharge. Pythiosis is caused by the aquatic fungus, Pythium insidiosum and is common in the tropical to subtropical areas of the Gulf Coast region of the United States, South America, and Australia. It normally infects aquatic vegetation and organic debris. (HorseAdvice.com)
Lesions on the limbs are characterized by the formation of tumoral-like masses with fistules and a serosanguineous (consisting of both blood and serous fluid) discharge.
I know this picture is difficult to look at. This is the reality of the abuse and neglect that happens all too often. Our purpose as a sanctuary is to give these horses a voice and help stop the abuse, be it passive abuse out of ignorance or intentional cruelty.
Christmas Day I found Leo lying down with Royal standing near by. He had actually been walking around the day before, we had such high hopes that he would regain his strengh and be able to fight it, but now he was in such pain that he couldn't even lay up on his sternum. When I looked at the bottom of his feet he had blood draining out of several abscesses. It was time to make the decision I had been dreading.
You can see the pain in his face, it was unbearable for all of us.
Leo
It is the difficult horses that have the most to give you. ~ Lendon Gray
Penelope - Mare
A good man will take care of his horses and dogs, not only while they are young, but also when they are old and past service ~ Plutarch
Tally-Ho - American Saddlebred Gelding
Being loaded for the ride to the Sanctuary by former owner.
This is the view that we saw the most of the time when he first came to the sanctuary. Him leaving ~ he has no trust for humans at all!
His best bud Hanovi
Tally came to the sanctuary in July of 2008 ~ his owner had rescued him from isolation in a field - she'd done a good job of getting some weight on him (we are still having a hard time keeping his weight on) but his main issues are psychological. He is skeptical of everything that humans do.
His previous owner had to move out of state and couldn't keep him. With Tally being as psychologically damaged as he was she was afraid to place him in the wrong environment ~ Horses like Tally bring out the worst in people. People either try to intimidate them and bully them into 'behaving' or they get scared of them and treat them like they are dangerous monsters.
Whenever he gets unconfident you can see he's ready to fight and If he gets scared and has to move his feet, it's obvious that he expects something to happen 'to' him; some type of punishment. Over the past few months of us not reacting negatively to his fear and not MAKING him stand still when he needs to move, he's changed quite a bit. instead of having to run backwards away from us he now will just move his head or take a step back. Baby Steps
The really nice thing about him is that he wants to trust - he loves to be groomed; on his terms of course. He has fallen in love with my sister and follows her around like a little puppy, unless she has a halter in her hands of course!
Each small step toward gaining his confidence in us is cause for a celebration ~ we actually act quite silly whenever he lets us go a little further with him. It was quite a momentous occasion when he was interested enough in us to actually sniff an outstretched hand and months before he would take something from our hand.
We have a long way to go to gain his trust but we have all the time he needs.
The picture above was taken on the day she arrived at the sanctuary. Her previous owner had put a stallion in with her and several other mares to breed them! Fortunately she did not become pregnant.
Penelope is what I would consider a feral horse with human issues. I don't know what happened to her in her previous life but whatever it was has left a lasting negative impression on her that we are trying to overcome on a daily basis.
This is penelope about 7 months after her arrival.
This is Two-tone Timmy; he is one of the reasons we started this sanctuary.
Timmy was the victim of just plain ignorance! He was used as a breeding stallion for a back yard mini factory. The weird thing is that the people had his feet trimmed regularly but they weren't at all worried that he was starving to death.
Luckily their trimmer was very proactive and that's how we became involved. The threat of a call to the law by the farrier was all that it took for them to release him to us.
Two-tone Timmy - Miniature Horse
June 2007 - Timmy on the day of his arrival
August 2007 - Just thirty days later he looked like a different horse, but still has a ways to go.
November 2007 - Here he is at his full weight.
This is Timmy with King - don't they look like little punk gangsters.
Our vet came and checked him over and discovered that his back teeth were so long that he couldn't possibly chew his food properly. With him being so thin and comprimised we had to feed him in very small amounts 5 times a day. The pictures above show what he looked like 30 days after he came to the sanctuary.
We also had to keep him isolated from the rest of the horses because he was still a stallion but he was so thin that you couldn't even see his testicles. In August when he'd gained some weight and was doing better we made an appointment for his 'brain surgery'.
Once he was healed from the surgery we put him out with the rest of the ponies and minis to finish rehabilitation with the herd.
Daisy - Standardbred Mare
Daisy is one of three horse's we purchased from a gentleman locally. Penelope was also one of the three (see her photos above). Daisy was pregnant when we took her in. She's a very gentle quiet mare.
Here she is 'slightly' pregnant with her colt Scutter.
Scutter less than 24 hours old (Scutter means: to scurry and scamper about) he definately lives up to his name.
Got milk?
Here he is at 6 months - isn't he a cutie! Looks just like his mom, except for the white pastern.
Frolic: Mare
Willow ~ Anglo-Arab
This is willow the morning after she arrived at SHHS. She was found in a cow pen, hock deep in mud. When I got there she was down and nearly unresponsive. After a dose of banamine and a quick call to our vet and then a call to her owner (who was out of town) within 20 minutes she was up and ready to travel to the sanctuary.
The wound appeared to have been caused by a wire fence, she probably kicked at another horse through the fence (I say this because I've seen her do it since) and when she brought it back through it 'degloved the skin from her leg. Someone had tried to wrap it, but the wrap had slipped down over her fetlock and was pretty much useless as the skin flap should have been removed. There was no way it was going to grow back to the leg!
Here she is a week later, our vet was out to remove the flap of skin from the bottom and cauterize the wound. (She was put under general anesthesia for this procedure) My job was to wrap the leg every two to three days and spray it with a special solution. I wrapped her leg religiously for 6 weeks. On Sept. 17th she was finally healed enough to go out with the horses at the 'Ranch'.
On March 27th she kicked at another horse through a wooden fence and re-injured the left rear and caused some superficial wounds on her right rear as you can see by the picture above. I was back to wrapping her leg for another 6 weeks!!
This is Willow now,. You can see next to the end of her tail that there is still a scar on her left hind but she has no issues with the leg and hasn't stuck it through any fences lately! She's a very dominant horse and loves to run backward kicking at other horses so I'm amazed she hasn't injured herself again.
Isn't she beautiful!!!
Hailey ~ Quarter Horse Mare
This is Hailey, her name has been changed to protect the 'stupid'. Her owner told me that she couldn't keep weight on her unless she fed her expensive supplements and couldn't keep the other horses (who weren't starving) from eating her food. The only 'truth' that was told was that she was a very sweet gentle 'kids' horse. She's a lovely girl.
After we got her up to her normal weight, which only took a couple months. Her regular ration of food is about one cup of grain 2 times a day and all the grass hay she can eat.
Hailey was Jessicas partner in our spring camp. Very cute!
Frolic is about 26 years old. Her previous owner out-grew her and was going off to college and the family just couldn't afford to keep her any longer. As you can see she was under weight. She was also terrible about being caught, having her feet trimmed, loading into a trailer, you name it. If it wasn't her idea, she wasn't going to cooperate!
Frolic wanted to walk all over me so we had a little discussion.
This is Frolic at our other facility where we actually have grass! These two pictures show that she's put on a bit of weight.
