forever in our hearts

11-6-2021

We had not intended to rescue any horses at auction tonight at Elkhart Horse Auction. Having just saved 2 miniature horses the past week, we were not thinking it was a good time to save another. Then we saw this poor lonely, starved cremello weanling  in a corral before us, and we knew we needed to help her if we could.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               She came through the auction ring at almost 1am. Only a kill buyer bid against us. We made sure we won her bid for $650. We then turned to social media to ask our wonderful followers for  help to pay for her and bring her to quarantine. We were able to get her paid for and out of there within 18 hours. 

Thank you all for the loving support you have shown this beautiful filly. She is now safe with our quarantine provider, where she can begin the healing process. We have named her Blessing.

Blessing arrived a little after 7pm filthy, covered in mud and tired tonight. As expected, she was very hungry and thirsty; these are two things she will never again have to face. 

Blessing has a cough and a little nasal discharge, we will be starting her on antibiotics. Blessing was far less frightened than we expected her to be, for a filly who was unhandled. She seems to have either been too tired to be concerned about new people and a new environment or she decided we were okay.  She allowed us to pet her head, neck and her back, and she seemed to like it. She also let us put a blanket on her to keep her warm. Blessing seems to be a thinker, which is really nice! She was thinking about  what we were doing instead of freaking out and being dangerous. 

We look forward to getting to know Blessing and working with her, when she is out of quarantine. 

11-9-2021

We were able to trace where Blessing came from. This poor girl came from a breeder who bred to a stallion from the Hart Ranch in the Dakotas.  As is their common practice, they breed many broodmares and sell the babies at large production sales every Fall. This little girl was taken to a sale on September 17th, and we found a picture of her in the catalog for the sale. She was "Lot 640" listed on the Coggins and the picture of her says "Lot 640" on it. How horribly sad that this precious little baby was reduced to a number.....This beautiful baby was pulled from her mother, shipped to a sale and bought by a kill buyer who inside of 2 months, hauled her to many auctions over more than 1,400 miles and neglected and abused and starved her. How someone could do this to this baby....... absolutely heartless! We have her now, and we will show her what is like to be loved and cherished.

11-11-2021

Blessing continues to deal with the kill pen crud. The vet says we are fortunate that it is just flu and not strangles. Her appetite is good and she seems to be gaining a little strength with food in her stomach. She likes the blanket we put on her on cold nights and seems to be grateful to have people who care about her. She is at a sensitive age and has been starved so badly and traumatized, we worry that her weakened heart will not hold up. We continue to pray and hope and build a future with her in it.

11-12-2021

Today Blessing was turned out for the first time. It is a sunny day and she seemed stronger today, so we let her soak up some sunshine for 2 hours. To our delight, she felt good enough to run around some and kick up her heels. We continue to pray she will make it. 

11-13-2021

With the heaviest of hearts, I come to you today to have to report that Blessing has died sometime in the early morning hours in her sleep. She looked peaceful, there was no signs of pain or discomfort.  Blessing was such a sweet girl, and we were really looking forward to having her in our lives for the next year or so. We wanted so badly to make it up to her, the callousness of her breeder to only consider her a number and a dollar sign and for the men who had exploited her, abused her and starved her in the slaughter pipeline.  Who knows how many auctions she was forced into from where she was initially sold in the Badlands all the way down to east Texas. It makes us so sad and angry, what this poor girl had been through from the time Blessing was taken from her mother. Once a vibrant, healthy full of life four month old shown in the ranch catalog sale, became a starved abused, frightened 6 month old. She endured 2 months of hell that we tried everything to make up for. We will miss Blessing terribly for who she was and the future we were robbed of, at the hands of selfish, greedy men. Run free and happy over the rainbow bridge into Heaven, beautiful girl, we were Blessed to have you for 7 days. We will miss you and honor you all of our days.

 We are very sad to have to share with you that little Bean has passed away.....
We are shocked and devastated that this little precious soul's life was so short. We are left with questions swirling around our heads but thankfully no what if's, because we did all that we could do.       
This morning when we awoke and headed outside, we found Bean laying down a little ways away from his friends. We got him up and checked him over. We found him to feel a little too cool and his gums were pale. He tried to lay back down so we assumed we were dealing with a colic. Our helper walked little Bean while I grabbed a blanket for him and some Banamine.
Our helper continued to walk little Bean while I started calling our mobile vets. Last night we had a big storm from the north roll in and the barometric pressure change was pretty big. Pressure changes can cause colic so we made several checks on all the horses during the night. As a result of the pressure change, every vet I called was busy with colics and could not come to us. We loaded little Bean up into the back seat of my truck and rushed him to the vet. This sweet boy was scared, but he stood still on the back seat of my truck while my helper held Bean's little head.
We lifted Bean out of the truck and walked him into the clinic just like walking a dog. Bean stood tied quietly while the staff looked for a small enough tube to use on him and I kept petting Bean to reassure him. The vet performed an exam and said his vital signs were good, there was bowel sounds in all 4 quadrants of his intestines and there was no reflux. His gums were still a little pale though. He received Buscopam for pain Xylazine for sedation to put the tube in his stomach through his nose without hurting Bean. The vet tubed him and pumped oil, water and electrolytes into his stomach. We were told that it was likely a mild gas colic and to not let him eat until tomorrow, and to give banamine every 12 hours for 3 days. Bean rode home quietly in my truck. He looked very tired. We unloaded Bean and placed him into a clean stall. We kept a close watch on Bean while taking of the other horses. 3 hours after we came back home, and 10 minutes after we last checked on Bean, we found him passed away.
Bean was only with us since March. In that time, he received lots of love and good care. We never know what has happened to these victims of the slaughter pipeline. We will never know if there was something congenital wrong with Bean from the obvious inbreeding that his registration papers showed. What we do know is this tiny baby boy somehow found himself in the slaughter pipeline before he turned a year old. He left his breeder in Arizona and spent 2 months going to who knows how many auctions....used as a pawn for money, before winding up at a Texas kill pen before we found him. It is true that people dump horses at auctions that have hidden health problems and lamenesses. Bean may have been one of those with a hidden defect. We will never know..... All we can be sure of is that we are blessed to have been able to save this 1 year old baby boy from a kill pen and show him lots of love and peacefulness here with the friends he made, for the last 4-1/2 months. Possibly God wanted him in Heaven more.....  Bean is with the Angels now. Rest easy baby Bean, we will miss you.... 📷📷📷📷📷📷📷📷

We found baby Bean at Lonestar kill pen in northwest Texas on March 25, 2021. His registration papers said that he had just turned 1 year old on March 15th and was born in Arizona. We felt really bad for this baby that he had become the property of a horse trader and had spent the last couple months in  the slaughter pipeline. We freed him from that awful place as quick as we could and he was transported to quarantine at Witherspoon Ranch transport and quarantine facility. Thankfully little Bean did not have to stay long in quarantine because he remained healthy. Bean arrived at the rescue 40 days after we saved him from the kill pen and he seemed to feel at home right away. He bonded up quickly with Sprout, Tinkerbell and Freesia.  Bean has sprouted legs and grown quite a bit since his arrival. Bean is about 32" tall and cute as can be!