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Meet My Horses
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Sunny
Sunny (aka. A La Plage) is an ex-racehorse rescued from slaughter by United Pegasus Foundation. He suffered a broken knee and had two corrective surgeries. For 6 years he was on the adoptive horse list with UPF, but never found a home due to his injury. I first saw Sunny in the UPF newsletter and knew that he had to come home with me. I didn't care about his injury and knew that I had opportunity to give him the extra TLC that he required. He'd had lameness issues that resulted from multiple abscesses in his hoof as well as a contracted heel.
After 4 months of aggressive hoof trimming, his foot is on the mend and he is no longer suffering lameness due to his hoof. Sunny has the sweetest disposition and loves his one-on-one time. He follows me around the pasture even when the other horses are eating. Although he will remain retired due to his injury and arthritis, he still gets tons of attention and supplements to keep him comfortable.
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Smokey
Smokey (aka. Pic O' Them All) is also an ex-racehorse rescued from slaughter by the United Pegasus Foundation. He suffered a broken sesmoid which took many years to heal. His bones eventually fused and even though he has limited mobility in one ankle, he has very little scar tissue, suffers no pain, and has been given a clean vet check with the okay to ride. He came into my life because he was Sunny's best friend. Two weeks after bringing Sunny home, Sunny became so depressed without his buddy that I went and adopted Smokey, too. With a ton of groundwork and lessons in ground manners as well as overcoming trailer phobias, Smokey has become one of the best trail horses I've ever ridden. He confidently crosses creeks and blue plastic tarps and rarely shies or spooks. He is such a wonderful horse that I feel extremely blessed to have him in my life.
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Sam's First Day |
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Sam
Sam is my Big, Fuzzy, Huggable Mud-Bunny! He was rescued from the Canadian slaughterhouse by United Pegasus Foundation in September 2002. He is one of approximately 50,000 foals that are sent to slaughter every year as a mere "byproduct" of the Premarin (Prempro, Premphase) Drug industry. These foals and fillies are termed PMU (pregnant mare urine) foals, as the urine from their mothers is used to make this hormone replacement drug.
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Sam, being of unknown breeding, is obviously a draft mix. At approx.15 months old, he now stands 16.2hh and weighs near 1100lbs. He is learning groundwork skills, picks up his feet, ties well and rarely spooks. We go for adventure walks, crossing creeks, logs and other fun obstacles like noisy black plastic (nothing phases this big boy!).
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Sam's First Show - he was 16 months old here. Latest update at 20 months... Sam stands 17.2hh
Sam is the most lovable little guy, even handling the horrors of gelding with grace and forgiveness. Recently, we've been ground-driving and getting used to saddles and other equipment. Our lessons remain short as Sam is still such a young baby, and he's given plenty of time to be a young colt.
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My three Boys - Sunny, Smokey and Sam |
Baby Oscar - my 2003 rescued PMU foal |
Oscar
Oscar is incredibly sweet natured and very gentle... he bonded with me so quickly that he thought I was his Mom... I needed to let him be a horse for awhile by leaving him alone with the other boys because he was not bonding with the other horses, he would just wait at the fence for me to come pet him... now he's bonded quite well with the others and they all watch over each other in turn...
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