Miniature Horses & Ponies
Who doesn't find miniature horses and little ponies absolutely adorable? We most certainly do!
We feel very sorry for these tiny tots that end up at auctions and kill pens. When purchased by kill buyers, they get stuffed into stock trailers with full sized horses and get injured. It doesn't get any better when they arrive at the kill pens; they get shoved in with full sized horses and get beat up and starved down. Those that are not lucky enough to get saved, are sold by the kill pens to feed the carnivores at zoos. We try to help as many of these tiny ones as we can.
Buckwheat
We found this tiny little guy at a horse auction in June 2020. He was made to carry around a child way too big for him, and he really struggled. Awful! We noticed right away that he had something wrong with his back leg, it looked quite unstable. We felt like he would surely become severely injured on a kill buyer's trailer stuffed on with full sized horses and we didn't want him to have to be exploited any longer. We decided we were going to do what it took to win the bid, and get him examined by a vet asap.
We made sure we won the bid and had our quarantine provider pick him up and take him to her professional quarantine facility.
We named this cute little guy, Buckwheat. ❤️
The vet was called out to examine our new little guy right away. The vet found him to be healthy and friendly. The vet said that our little boy had two injuries, one that would heal and one that would not, sadly. His back was very sore and a little swollen, from carrying the heavy child and his leg.....the vet said that his rear leg had been broken in the past and it was obvious he never received any veterinary care for the broken bone, leaving it to heal crookedly on its own. The vet did not feel that he was hurting in any way, and probably wouldn't under light activity. It was advised that we limit his activity level so that he may remain free of pain and not put strain on his leg.
Buckwheat remained healthy in quarantine and arrived at our Rescue 5 weeks later.
My oh my what an adorable little guy he is! Absolutely huggable and lovable! We could see right away, how crooked his leg was, and how it wobbled with each step, and understood why the vet felt Buckwheat's activity should be limited.
We built little Buckwheat his own corral next to the other miniature horses so he could be near them but not be injured by them.
We absolutely love Buckwheat. He is such a sweet boy, loves people and is just wonderful. He will be with us in Sanctuary for the rest of his days.
WILLIE
Willie has a sad story.....We found Willlie at a Louisiana kill pen in early spring 2021. The owners of the kill pen threatened to send him and the other minis they had to become carnivore food. They listed Willie saying he was 6 months old. When our transporter and quarantine provider arrived to pick up Willie, she was horrified at the shape he was in. She said he was terrified, and shook horribly, he was so starved down under the thick wooly coat and so weak that he could barely walk. She looked down to see a huge swollen pocket where testicles used to be, with puss coming out. He was running a fever and in really bad shape. She took Willie to her home where she was going to quarantine for us, and she called the vet. The vet said this poor horse had been castrated with a dull, rusty, serrated knife! The vet also said Willie was no weanling, he was at least 15 years old! The wonderful woman that was quarantining him for us did frequent flushes of the cavity and administered antibiotics and kept a close eye on WIllie for 4 weeks until we sent our normal transporter to pick up WIllie. She literally kept WIllie alive, we are so grateful to her!
Willie arrived barely able to walk out of the trailer, the nearly 10 hour ride was hard on him. I reached for him and he shrunk away, hid his head and started to shake. My heart sank seeing his reaction, it was obvious he was beaten at some point in his life before he was picked up from the kill pen. Willie would walk to a corner and put his head low in the corner and shake when we entered his stall. He couldn't run, he could barely walk, his back end would weave and he would almost fall down from having no muscle left in his hindquarters. I put Carson in with Willie in the big double stall for companionship and comfort. Carson was just a weanling, not even a year old, and seemed like the best fit. We spent many hours, many days, weeks and months nursing Willie back to health. I would sit quietly next to Willie and feed him and talk to him and gently pet his bony body. His heart, his spirit and his body were so broken. The crippling fear of being beaten from the slightest move, hurt my heart for Willie. Slowly his weakened body started to improve, he started to put on a little weight and the infected sac healed. He became a little bit stronger every few weeks. For so long, we didn't know if Willie would live to see another day. It took a year to bring Willie back from death and to br completely healthy. He learned that we were kind and loving, and eventually he stopped shaking when we approached. In time, he learned to accept us, and Carson really helped Willie come out of his fear filled shell because Carson is such an outgoing love filled little guy. It took a long time for Willie to develop the strength to trot, and even longer until we saw Willie run for the first time.
Today, you wouldn't even know that Willie was ever beaten, starved down, weak and almost died. He is the kindest, sweetest soul. Willie is happy, healthy, well adjusted, strong, very well fed and beautiful. He knows his name and comes when we call him.
Willie lives in a tightly bonded small group with Carson, Buttons and Sweet Pea. Willie is extremely special to us, and he has a lifetime Sanctuary home with us. He will never know a life of pain, hunger and fear again.
carson
Carson.....This very special, irreplaceable boy has stolen my heart.
I saw him at a kill pen, this tiny little guy with the big brown eyes....I swooped in and rescued him. I had Melanie pick him up right away and learned that his pictures must have been taken some time before, because on arrival to the kill pen, Melanie, my trusted quarantine provider, found him to be skinny and very, very sick. Melanie called the vet out as soon as they got Carson to her quarantine facility.Carson had a very high fever, he was dehydrated and had serious pneumonia and the kill pen crud. He was so weak, he could barely walk far enough to the water bucket or to eat. His breathing was terrible, so loud and labored. The vet put Carson on 3 different antibiotics, to aggressively attack the pneumonia. I was very concerned to put so many antibiotics into a 5 month old baby, but understood that he wouldn't live without antibiotics. After a week's time, Carson developed severe diarrhea and the vet said his condition was grim. I prayed about it and made a difficult decision to have Carson picked up and brought to me. I was worried the diarrhea was from the antibiotics stripping his body of good bacteria as well. When Carson arrived, we were afraid to open the trailer for fear we would find him dead. Thankfully Carson was alive and I carried him to a stall. He was too weak to walk and the diarrhea was straight liquid. I made the decision to give him Bio Sponge and probiotics and give him breathing treatments and discontinue antibiotics. I gave Carson electrolytes and mash and literally slept with him. I had his food and his water within 3 feet of where he lay, he was too weak to walk further. Within 36 hours the diarrhea had stopped. This little guy would lay on me and look into my eyes. It was weeks before I could no longer hear his labored breathing from a distance, and it was weeks before he had the strength to walk across his double sized stall.. The first time he was strong enough to whinny to me, melted my heart. He pulled through, and the bond we have together, from all those days of sitting with him in my lap and sleeping by him and hand feeding him.... Carson is my special boy. I can call his name and he comes running to me. He is more precious than gold and I am blessed to do this life with such a special little guy. He is loved by all who meet him.
Oats
We found little Oats at an auction in August 2020. We rescued 3 miniature horses that night. Teeny tiny Squirt, and badly foundered and pregnant Jasmine all were rescued and taken to quarantine. Our quarantine provider (also a farrier) let them settle in and watched for illness for the first two weeks before he gave them much needed hoof trims. Once he started working on Jasmine's hooves, he realized she needed more specialized hoof care and he took Jasmine to Texas A&M University to his instructor for radiographs and for the instructor to trim Jasmine. We decided to leave the 3 of them at quarantine longer so Jasmine could receive corrective trims at A&M every two weeks. Just before Thanksgiving, Jasmine's hooves were grown out in the correct balance she needed and she was given the okay to come to the Rescue. Thankfully none of the 3 got sick and they were well on their path of gaining much needed weight. Little Oats was not excited to join the minis group at the Rescue like Jasmine and Squirt were. He was skittish and defensive with the other minis. Upon closer look, we could see clouding in Oat's eyes. We had the vet out and he confirmed that Oats was definiyely sight impaired, poor boy. When the vet was here, we had Oats castrated and vaccinated abd he spent 2 weeks in a small pen by himself while he healed and we were able to handke him more and teach him that people are okay. After Oats healed, we chose to try moving Oats out into the pasture with the big horses and Oats seemed much more comfortable right away. Oats seems to think he is a big horse, and he gets along wonderfully with the big horses. We did try to reintroduce Oats to our minis herd and he was miserable and bullied the others his own size. Oats is living happily among a herd of full sized horses, he has adjusted to his limited sight, and is enjoying his life. Due to his sight limitations, no one has wanted to adopt Oats, and that is alright with us. Oats can live out his life as a Sanctuary horse. Jasmine and Squirt have been adopted into wonderful homes.
Oakley
