A Horse Rescue Organization
Digger: Thinking about Christmas or maybe the next helping of Senior feed? He loves it! (the Senior feed, not sure how he feels about holidays.)
Here’s a quick look at Digger when he arrived at Sky Ranch and a couple weeks later! What a difference a little care and nutrition can make! Digger is doing amazing and we’re sure he will only improve even more!
At Sky Ranch Sanctuary we love Christmas: the chaos, the over-spending, the overeating, sugar indulgence…all of it. And we love sharing our Christmas enthusiasm with our horses. Our horses get carrots every day, but on Christmas we add in some Mrs. Pasture’s Cookies and apple slices. (OK, our horses are not strangers to those extra treats on other occasions, but at Christmas it’s a special mix of all the favorites.)
And we are grateful that these wonderful creatures get to enjoy our human celebrations with a full stomach, shelter, recreation time, and TLC. It’s chilly here on the California Central Coast today, and it really does feel like Christmas.The horses have their winter coats, and they are feeling especially frisky on these cool days.
We at Sky Ranch want to wish everyone, two legged and four legged, the Happiest of Holidays.
Spirit has been with us now for just over a year. She arrived from Animal Control on Halloween in 2014. Unlike in Digger’s case, her owner didn’t die; just took off and left her and another horse behind. The sheriff’s department had to dart her with anesthesia in order to catch her initially. And when she came to live here some weeks later, we had trouble catching her.
(The reason she had to stay awhile with Animal Control even after we offered her a home at Sky Ranch was because in this type of case, an owner must either relinquish ownership to the authorities or the case will be tried in court. Often the owner will give up ownership to avoid prosecution.)
Weight back on, Spirit is a beautiful, lively mare with a mind of her own. She can be a little pushy when begin lead, but never aggressive. She can get impatient and will kick her stall or paw at the fence if we aren’t getting things taken care of as rapidly as she would like. She still isn’t crazy about lifting her feet for cleaning or trimming, but we got her through one trim and will take on the challenge again next time. Fortunately she wears her hoofs down naturally and doesn’t need trimming as often as the other horses. Looking at her, and enjoying her sweet but bold spirit, we can’t help but wonder why she was left like that. Guess we’ll never know.
Some days I can’t believe how lucky I am to be part of Sky Ranch Sanctuary. Four years ago I could barely dream of taking on such a project. My two beloved Thoroughbreds had died of age related conditions, Snitch, my Arabian, had an injury that would limit him to pasture time only and with my limited riding skills I couldn’t imagine starting a new relationship with a younger horse. My experience with Ditto and Poco seemed to be taking me to the next logical step in my life with horses: caring for horses who were desperate for care. When I proposed this to my husband Scott, I expected “the look.” My love of my horses had drained our coffers for years. But instead I got not only his verbal support, but his financial generosity, and actual hands on help when horse care is physically challenging.
For example, when Snitch developed a nasty canker in his foot, my farrier and vet developed a treatment which involved screwing a metal plate onto Snitch’s foot to keep the foot clean and allow the medicine, packed into the hoof, to remain there.
Snitch is a horse that never stands still. He has danced through his life and that includes when he’s in the cross ties for grooming, a hoof trim or any other reason. He dances. Getting the medicine stuffed in his hoof changed daily and removing and then re-screwing the metal plate was an incredible challenge. I did it once or twice by myself, and when I was done wondered how I actually had done it! But Scott rose to the challenge, asked me nicely to just go elsewhere (I can get a little “instructive” [bossy?] when it comes to my kids and my animals) and said he would take care of it …and he did. And he did it numerous times without losing patience with the “moving target” and without complaint. And that’s just one example of his helpfulness.
There was the time Scott’s brand new shoes became covered with blood while he helped out with Poco (no one, horse or human, was seriously hurt) but I’ll save that tale for later.
Though in our earlier years together I didn’t think of Scott as an “animal person,” he has always been kind and attentive to every creature I have brought into our life, and there have been many. And now with my dream of Sky Ranch, he not only has encouraged me and supported me with words, but has generously helped get us off the ground and set up to provide the best possible care for these horses.
We have the horses’ backs and Scott has ours.
Digger has been here two weeks and we already think he’s looking better. Returning him to his ideal weight and condition will take time, but we’re trying to do it the best way. His teeth have been done, and though his mouth is in much better shape, two teeth had to be pulled and some were already missing. His front teeth are very short, and it’s difficult for him to eat hay. (He sure loves to try!) He’s getting senior feed and alfalfa pellets with a flake of alfalfa, to work on as best he can. He can eat the looser, fluffier parts of the hay but leaves the rest.
We noticed some swelling on his lower legs and especially the left behind. The vet treated him with steroids, and he will be getting a quarter of a Previcox tablet daily for inflammation. We’re hosing down his legs daily, taking him for a walk to get things moving, and wrapping his legs until we see some improvement. Dig has some dermatitis on all four legs, and we’re using a special shampoo weekly for that. It’s hard to know what caused the swelling, but we are actively treating the symptoms.
Dig had his feet trimmed Friday and stood there quietly like a pro. He has been very cooperative and seems to know we’re trying to help. Though the emaciated condition of a rescue horse is the most obvious issue to be addressed, many other related problems can present themselves.
One of the greatest rewards of these efforts is seeing the horse’s personality come through as good health returns. When I first met Sheldon a few years ago, he just stood quietly and didn’t seem too interested in anything. Now he’s ready to go at a moment’s notice and greets us with enthusiasm when we come to the barn; and when we step into his stall, he welcomes a hug! He prances out into the pasture. We can’t wait to see Digger blossom.