Spirit Wind Horse Rescue
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MEET OUR RETIRED HORSES
As with most horse rescues, there are always some horses that find themselves in a situation where they are not adoptable, these can be due to many different reasons as you will see below, however for those lucky ones that have found themselves coming to Spirit Wind Horse Rescue, we are able to provide them sanctuary for the duration of their lifetime. Here at Spirit Wind Horse Rescue we believe that all equines whether adoptable or not, have the right to a safe haven and retirement where they can live out there days in peace and dignity. Below are their stories.....
Finally we heard the sound of tires crunching on gravel road and a large truck and horse trailer pulled into my driveway, today was the day we would take in what I consider to be the luckiest horse in the world. These really nice folks got out the truck along with their daughter and friend who had accompanied them, we all greeted each other, but I was more anxious to see this horse. Finally we all filed toward the back of the trailer, the doors opened with a large creeking sound as the trailer was an older stock trailer. Hope and Manzie were running around, kicking and bucking, whinnying in greeting to the new rescue. And then finally, out came a big dark bay Thoroughbred, head erect, ears pointing forward, but a soft look in his big brown eyes. He stood their viewing his new retirement home, made a few little snorts, breathing in the smells around him. I named him Nelson, after Nelson Mandela, the man who survived years of imprisonment in South Africa, but came out victorious, it seemed appropriate and fitted him well.
Now I am sure you are all wondering why Nelson is the luckiest horse in the world, and this is his story relayed to us by the kind folk who relinquished him to us 3 weeks after they did not buy him.
The folks who relinquished Nelson to us had gone to the sale barn 3 weeks beforehand, the first Saturday of each month. They had specifically taken the trip to find their daughter a riding horse. After spending most of the afternoon there, they found the perfect horse, a pretty little mare who was shod. They bid on the mare, went and paid for her and then left. A friend had offered to bring the new mare back to their house that afternoon after the sale. The daughter was so excited to finally have a riding horse to call her own.
Later that afternoon, the friend pulled up to their house with their new horse, they all stood around anxiously waiting to put her in the barn, a name had already been chosen. But when they saw what walked out of the trailer, they all stood around with eyes wide open, mouths gaping and were wondering where this emaciated old but rather large horse had come from.
It turns out that the friend who had offered to bring the horse had not paid much attention to the craziness of trying to load a number of horses in the trailer all at once, so the only way to do it was to run them in, which he did, however, he failed to notice at the time that the mare was absent and in her place was a large emaciated thoroughbred.
A call was immediately made to the sale barn, but it was to late, they did not know what had happened to the mare or anything more about the gelding, frankly they were completely unhelpful and these folks were now left with a horse they could not ride as he was also showing small signs of lameness.
And so they took him into the barn, called a vet out the following week, had his shots done, wormed him, floated his teeth and then called us to see if we would be willing to take him. Well of course we would, for we realized that somehow the universe had been watching over Nelson, we believe that he was a horse headed for slaughter but due to some strange and almost impossible fate, Nelson got on the wrong trailer.
So now Nelson resides with me, he is a companion to my younger mare Hope and they seemed to have formed a strong bond. He cannot retain his body heat when he gets wet so he has a big blue horse coat that he wears on rainy days. He does not like to be confined and I believe it is due to the fact that at one point he was on the track. He has a tattoo on his upper lip that has faded with time and we are unable to read it correctly to find out his age, but we estimate it to be almost 30 years old. I am baffled as to how he ended up at the Delta Sales yard, but he did, and I guess it was part of his journey for if he had not I would never have met this gentle soul, who reminds me each day that each life is precious no matter what species we are, as he sways from side to side when I take to long to give him his grain. We love you Nelson!
Nelson - The Luckiest Horse in the World
Nelson is almost 30 years old, he will live out his days with his foster family.
nelson's story.....
written by: vendla stockdale
It was a warm summer evening in early August of 2008. The trees were
beginning to make long shadows in the pasture and a cool breeze started
drifting our way from the Grand Mesa. My current horses Hope and Manzie
were showing small signs of excitement, I guess they knew something was
up, they always do. My co-founder of Spirit Wind Horse Rescue and
friend Beth had just driven up the driveway along with my husband
just returning from work. They were all there, awaiting the
arrival of the luckiest horse in the world.Nelson is almost 30 years old, he will live out his days with his foster family.
nelson's story.....
written by: vendla stockdale
Finally we heard the sound of tires crunching on gravel road and a large truck and horse trailer pulled into my driveway, today was the day we would take in what I consider to be the luckiest horse in the world. These really nice folks got out the truck along with their daughter and friend who had accompanied them, we all greeted each other, but I was more anxious to see this horse. Finally we all filed toward the back of the trailer, the doors opened with a large creeking sound as the trailer was an older stock trailer. Hope and Manzie were running around, kicking and bucking, whinnying in greeting to the new rescue. And then finally, out came a big dark bay Thoroughbred, head erect, ears pointing forward, but a soft look in his big brown eyes. He stood their viewing his new retirement home, made a few little snorts, breathing in the smells around him. I named him Nelson, after Nelson Mandela, the man who survived years of imprisonment in South Africa, but came out victorious, it seemed appropriate and fitted him well.
Now I am sure you are all wondering why Nelson is the luckiest horse in the world, and this is his story relayed to us by the kind folk who relinquished him to us 3 weeks after they did not buy him.
The folks who relinquished Nelson to us had gone to the sale barn 3 weeks beforehand, the first Saturday of each month. They had specifically taken the trip to find their daughter a riding horse. After spending most of the afternoon there, they found the perfect horse, a pretty little mare who was shod. They bid on the mare, went and paid for her and then left. A friend had offered to bring the new mare back to their house that afternoon after the sale. The daughter was so excited to finally have a riding horse to call her own.
Later that afternoon, the friend pulled up to their house with their new horse, they all stood around anxiously waiting to put her in the barn, a name had already been chosen. But when they saw what walked out of the trailer, they all stood around with eyes wide open, mouths gaping and were wondering where this emaciated old but rather large horse had come from.
It turns out that the friend who had offered to bring the horse had not paid much attention to the craziness of trying to load a number of horses in the trailer all at once, so the only way to do it was to run them in, which he did, however, he failed to notice at the time that the mare was absent and in her place was a large emaciated thoroughbred.
A call was immediately made to the sale barn, but it was to late, they did not know what had happened to the mare or anything more about the gelding, frankly they were completely unhelpful and these folks were now left with a horse they could not ride as he was also showing small signs of lameness.
And so they took him into the barn, called a vet out the following week, had his shots done, wormed him, floated his teeth and then called us to see if we would be willing to take him. Well of course we would, for we realized that somehow the universe had been watching over Nelson, we believe that he was a horse headed for slaughter but due to some strange and almost impossible fate, Nelson got on the wrong trailer.
So now Nelson resides with me, he is a companion to my younger mare Hope and they seemed to have formed a strong bond. He cannot retain his body heat when he gets wet so he has a big blue horse coat that he wears on rainy days. He does not like to be confined and I believe it is due to the fact that at one point he was on the track. He has a tattoo on his upper lip that has faded with time and we are unable to read it correctly to find out his age, but we estimate it to be almost 30 years old. I am baffled as to how he ended up at the Delta Sales yard, but he did, and I guess it was part of his journey for if he had not I would never have met this gentle soul, who reminds me each day that each life is precious no matter what species we are, as he sways from side to side when I take to long to give him his grain. We love you Nelson!
Aspen - bred, starved, relinquished due to possible animal cruelty charges
It was an early fall day here on the Western Slope of Colorado, for the past three weeks we had been working with the Sherrif's Department on a case of animal cruelty, a breeder had a rather large number of horses on their property that were in an extreme state of emaciation due to financial problems. Due to pending animal cruelty charges they agreed to relinquish 8 horses.
It was still warm, that end of summer type of day, we rallied up our volunteers and headed down to the property with three horse trailers and numerous people offering to help. When we walked around the property we could not believe what stood before us, it is possibly one of the worst cases we had ever seen to date. So many horses, ribs showing, heads down, a sadness just infiltrated this area that is to hard to describe in words. Which horses would leave had already been decided, we ended up with 6 horses initially and then later another two, the ages ranged between 10 and late 20's. All these horses were brood mares and had obviously done nothing more then breed their entire lives.
Aspen was 10 years old at the time, it took us over an hour to load her and her pasture mate Willow into the trailer, I do believe it was only due to the emaciation that they finally loaded as we don't believe they had ever left the property they were born on. They finally got to their foster home and were kept corralled as we were not sure if we would ever catch them again.
Aspen unfortunately managed to injure herself rather badly, it was truly a touch and go situation, the vets gave her a 10% chance of living. But here at Spirit Wind Horse Rescue we knew she was a fighter, and so after many thousands of dollars, Aspen did recover, her leg has healed from the injury and she is able to bear weight on it without any problems. However due to lack of training, or little interaction with humans Aspen is not an easy horse to work with. She is terrified of needles and will react sometimes rather violently when she sees them, it was almost impossible to work with her feet and so through much patience we are finally able to get her feet trimmed. She was halter broken by the vet that took care of her at his facility during her recuperation, as she had never been halter broke before, and if she had, it was certainly an extremely long time ago. Aspen however has a sweet soul, she loves human contact as long as no needles are involved, loves being groomed, however this horse due to behavioral issues will remain with Spirit Wind Horse Rescue as we accept her as she is and know that sometimes it is hard to change the past.
Daisy's owner left the state and put her in a boarding facility in the area, he did not call to find out how she was, he did not make arrangements to move her to his new home, he did not try and find her a new person to take care of her, he did however pay her boarding fees.
At some point during the 3 years Daisy was at this facility she was severely injured, the vet believes she may have been kicked by another horse, the leg was severely fractured, possibly broken and so she was left, left to take care of her injured leg on her own. No one was notified of the injury, a vet was never called. Finally, a friend of the owner went by the facility to check on her, she was extremely alarmed at the state of Daisy when she saw her, it was through this friend that Daisy found herself at Spirit Wind Horse Rescue.
Her leg had healed, yet it stands now at an awkward angle, her back is out due to trying to compensate for her injury, but Daisy stands tall, she forgives and she moves on. She still has a zest for life and now stands in a herd of three, all with injuries of some kind or another, and so together they show us that every day is a blessing.
More to come........keep checking this space for more stories on our permanent members
It was still warm, that end of summer type of day, we rallied up our volunteers and headed down to the property with three horse trailers and numerous people offering to help. When we walked around the property we could not believe what stood before us, it is possibly one of the worst cases we had ever seen to date. So many horses, ribs showing, heads down, a sadness just infiltrated this area that is to hard to describe in words. Which horses would leave had already been decided, we ended up with 6 horses initially and then later another two, the ages ranged between 10 and late 20's. All these horses were brood mares and had obviously done nothing more then breed their entire lives.
Aspen was 10 years old at the time, it took us over an hour to load her and her pasture mate Willow into the trailer, I do believe it was only due to the emaciation that they finally loaded as we don't believe they had ever left the property they were born on. They finally got to their foster home and were kept corralled as we were not sure if we would ever catch them again.
Aspen unfortunately managed to injure herself rather badly, it was truly a touch and go situation, the vets gave her a 10% chance of living. But here at Spirit Wind Horse Rescue we knew she was a fighter, and so after many thousands of dollars, Aspen did recover, her leg has healed from the injury and she is able to bear weight on it without any problems. However due to lack of training, or little interaction with humans Aspen is not an easy horse to work with. She is terrified of needles and will react sometimes rather violently when she sees them, it was almost impossible to work with her feet and so through much patience we are finally able to get her feet trimmed. She was halter broken by the vet that took care of her at his facility during her recuperation, as she had never been halter broke before, and if she had, it was certainly an extremely long time ago. Aspen however has a sweet soul, she loves human contact as long as no needles are involved, loves being groomed, however this horse due to behavioral issues will remain with Spirit Wind Horse Rescue as we accept her as she is and know that sometimes it is hard to change the past.
Daisy - forgotten and abandoned at a boarding facility by her owner
Daisy, just like her name is sweet and fragile, we are not sure how long Daisy will have with us, but we enjoy her each day that she remains within our care. Daisy was once someone's riding horse, she was probably a calm and wonderful horse to ride, a treasure, to be taken care of. But, her story does not unfold like this, her story is one of abandonment, loss and probably worst of all, her days are numbered with us here on this planet we call earth. Daisy is only 12 years old.Daisy's owner left the state and put her in a boarding facility in the area, he did not call to find out how she was, he did not make arrangements to move her to his new home, he did not try and find her a new person to take care of her, he did however pay her boarding fees.
At some point during the 3 years Daisy was at this facility she was severely injured, the vet believes she may have been kicked by another horse, the leg was severely fractured, possibly broken and so she was left, left to take care of her injured leg on her own. No one was notified of the injury, a vet was never called. Finally, a friend of the owner went by the facility to check on her, she was extremely alarmed at the state of Daisy when she saw her, it was through this friend that Daisy found herself at Spirit Wind Horse Rescue.
Her leg had healed, yet it stands now at an awkward angle, her back is out due to trying to compensate for her injury, but Daisy stands tall, she forgives and she moves on. She still has a zest for life and now stands in a herd of three, all with injuries of some kind or another, and so together they show us that every day is a blessing.
More to come........keep checking this space for more stories on our permanent members
