Here is a sad story that happened to my family yesterday after church. It is sad but it will hopefully have a happy ending to it. You'll see what i mean in a minute...

We got home from church at about two o'clock yesterday afternoon, and decided we would drive down to the horse pasture and go riding for the rest of the day, like we usually do on Sundays. So we loaded up the 'gear', (saddlles, bridles etc.)and drove the 15 minutes it takes to get down there. My dad got out to unlock the gate, and we looked down the fenceline that runs parallel to the neighbors cow pasture, and we saw a horse. Just standing there by the fence looking over. At a distance it looked like one of our horses might have gotten out and somehow gotten into the neighbors cow pasture. So when dad got back in, we drove up and, even from a distance we saw that it wasn't one of ours. We counted just to be safe and all our horses were still in our side of the pasture fence, safe and sound. We figured the neighbor just got a horse too, since we never had seen it before.

A little while later i was tacking up my horse in the barn, getting ready to ride him, when my mom comes running in! She said she had walked over to look at the horse across the fence and had looked down and saw his feet!! She said his hooves were so long, and so overgrown it looked like he was walking on industrial size aluminum cans!! She said he was so lame he was walking on the backs of his hocks and his feet were literally jacked out from under him every time he tried to take a step!! Well, i tossed my saddle on and rode over there with Emilee to look at him, and my mom was right. Only worse...

The horse (which we dicovered was a mare) who looked to be about 16-18 years old. Her teeth were literally rotted down to the gums and she was thin, i could count every rib on her sides!!

We couldn't just walk away now that we had seen her so it was decided that me and Emilee would ride our horses to the neighbors farm and ask about her, and see if they were aware of her condition.

We had to go across their cow pasture, otherwise it would be about a ten mile round trip to on the road and down his mile long driveway. We had a time of it riding the horses through the herd of cows. I swear that there was a bull in there just waiting to gore me to death for trespassing through his private herd of bovines. We even had to jump the horses over a 6 ' creek and my horse Gunner almost landed on top of me knocked me to the ground! Well, we did manage to get there all in one piece, that alone was a miracle! But we did get there. We tied our trusty horses to a rickity ole gate and went the rest of the way on foot, and all the way i was praying someone was home and would care enough to do somthing for this poor mare. I knocked on the door and a lady answered. We explained we had seen the mare next door and were wondering if they were aware her feet were in need of a trimming. She chuckled and all she said was "Larry knows...". Thats all she said. My sister then asked if we could talk to 'Larry', and she said she would get him. A minute later he came out, and we asked again if he was aware his mare was in need of a trip to a farrier. He looked at us as if we had two heads! He said "..she ain't no good for nothing anyhow"! Good for nothing! How could he even say that!! This horse that was suffering and could hardly stand on her own feet with out colapsing! And all he did was laugh and say she was good for nothing anymore? I wanted to scream in his face! It was all i could do to stand there quiet and let my sister ask about her condition and if she has had any treatment for her lameness. We asked a few more questions about her and came up with nothing but a bunch of crap about her hooves not being the bother but she was lame to begin with and she wasn't any good anymore and not to worry. He said he had had her in the barn all winter, which explained why this was the first time we had ever seen her before now. He didn't have anything to say about her care except she was once a good riding horse but she was now too lame to be any good to anyone. We were obviosly getting nowhere with this old coger so we had to think fast. I did the only thing that made sense to me, which was the first thing that poped onto my head, i asked if he would sell. He asked what we could possibly want with her since she couldn't be ridden anymore and was blind in one eye anyways. Emilee explained we would gladly give her a good home, and since we have kids here they would love to have her around to be a pet if he would be willing to let her go. I offered him $200 cash and he said....he would take it!!! I wanted to scream again!! Only this time it was because i was so happy she would no longer be suffering there. Emilee told him we would be back with the pickup and our trailer the next day anyways so she asked if he would be home then so we could come and get her. He said he would be home from work at 5 so we could come back then if we really wanted the old horse. We assured him we did, so after thanking him for his time, we told him we would be back the next day to get her. We walked back to where our horses were tied and rode back to our side of the fence. Mom and dad were waiting and we told them what had happened and they were so happy we had been able to purchase her. We are heading back there tonight now, with our trailer in tow to bring our baby home and hopefully help her to start a new life here. We are still trying to fill in details, making some calls and try to get our farrier to come out here tonight or tomorrow, and things like that. PLEASE PLEASE pray that all will go well and that by tonight we will have her home safe and sound. And pray we can get a hold of our farrier so she can be bit more comfy on her feet as soon as possible. We are hoping and praying for the best and all will go smoothly.

I promise to keep you updated as soon as i know more, and again please keep her in your prayers as it very well could be a long and painful road to recovery.

Happy trails and God Bless you all!
HorseLover<><