Except Shadow was just a weanling the first time we rescued him. These photos will enlarge when clicked on. Some of them will enlarge more if you click on them again.
Rescued Oct. 2009. We assisted. Same herd as Bella. Shadow went through a period when he could not get up without our help. He spent about 2 weeks in the hospital. He was full of worms, and that was a main problem. along with the fact that he needed some groceries. But when the worms are this bad, the groceries don't do a lot of good. After about 2 weeks at the vet clinic, he was strong enough for a foster home.
Here he is in Feb. 2010, in foster care. looking some better, but still kind of sad.
He must have known he was about to be sent back to hell.
I don't know exactly when, as we were rudely dismissed from the case and the officials would not give us any more information. They did not want us to know that Shadow and the other 7 horses were all returned to the neglectful owners. That was spring 2010.
ok. fast forward to now. March 2011.
This is how he looks now. He is a little bigger but not much.
Same as with Bella, you can follow Shadow's backbone and the "shelf." can even see some of his ribs through his winter hair. And yes he's full of worms; thus, the full looking tummy. Shadow is actually in a little better condition than Bella, if we just look at body condition score.
This is Shadow's 2-year-old year. Back in Oct 2009 we were told that Shadow's mama is/was (don't know if she's still alive; there was a "dead pile" in Jan. 2011) a registered quarter horse.
he is very very sweet. He just kind of stands there like "ok, where am I going now, wonder if there will be food this time, do with me what you will, I am under your command and who am I to ask for anything I am just a skinny little horse who does not deserve any more than my owner wants to give me. that's the life of a horse, and I accept it. I accept whatever happens to me, and I will be nice and cooperative no matter what that is. Even if it hurts. That is what I deserve; I am just a skinny little horse."
He must have been able to graze during the summer months. And then starved again during the winter.
I have no idea how he survived. He had no shelter this winter. Officials removed him from the same owners in late Jan. 2011. His second rescue, and he is not yet 2 years old.
This time he was taken to a court appointed caretaker who put him in with 17 other horses and fed them all like cows. Mares, stallions, big guys and little guys. All together in a feedlot type situation. Shadow had been there for 40 days. None of the horses had received any vet care. Not even something as basic as a fecal check and dental check. And eating ground up cornstalks and hay. Like cows.
I recently remembered something the salebarn lady told me. (these horses were originally going to go through a loose horse sale; and the sale manager told me a little about this.) She was involved in "the rescue" in Jan. 2011. She said when they got all these horses to the new place (the feedlot), they wouldn't even eat the first day because they didn't know what feed was. I didn't think too much of it at first. But then I asked both her and the guy who was feeding them, what it was they were feeding them, and now I think I understand.
I guarantee you these horses have no problem eating what horses are intended to eat. and for starving horses, that would be excellent quality hay including some alfalfa. And possibly some horse feed/grain. you know, stuff that is actually for horses. I guarantee you they would not have waited a whole day before they started eating that. Of course, I can imagine there would have been quite a bit of fighting going on with all 18 horses mares and stallions and big guys and little guys all in one pen, if they had really good feed.
We do not have pictures of them from Jan. 2011, because we only found out about this a few days ago.
We immediately found a way to purchase him, so he is ours now.
But nobody had much compassion. The court-appointed new owner charged us $406!!!!!!!!!!!!
But there was no way we were letting Shadow go through a public salebarn complete with a well advertised loose horse sale and acknowledgment from the sale manager that there are usually 5 or 6 kill buyers present at her sales.
Ah well. Shadow is ours now.
We heard that 9 of these 18 horses were returned to the owners again!
not sure what has become of the other 7. But we did not get enough donations to purchase more than 2 of them, at $406 a piece. You know what. the more I think about that, that is just mean. I mean that the guy wouldn't take any less than that, after we explained to him that we had already rescued them once. Mean. just mean.
We could still use donations for these horses. We have enough to cover the purchase price of one of them. But not the second. and now there are Vet bills too. Please use the Donate button at the top of our home page here. Or send checks to Horse Help Providers, Inc., 25337 470 Ave, Crooks SD 57020.
We are 501c3; donations are tax deductible according to laws for 501c3 nonprofits.
