Super Trooper

I just want to share our blessed rescue horse and his story while I have the chance.


A view of our pen at the rental house and the horses having some lunch.

At the end of May of 2012 my neighbor knocked on my door asking if I would take in a stray horse. Haha, I have never taken in a "stray" horse before, at first I thought she was pulling my leg.  We've had pleanty of stray dogs before, even a cat and a lizard once, never a stray horse.  As she was telling me everything I kept expecting her to laugh and say it was all a joke, lol.

Several of the neighbors found him out roaming around and were unable to find any one who recognized him. Nobody else really had room for him and at the time our pasture was empty, so we decided we were up for boarding him and figuring out whatever came next from there.

When I got to the neighbors barn to bring him home it was just a heart breaking site. The horse was just skin and bones, it was so sad. He was just so disconnected and sad, and moved so slow and broken down. Despite all that, he was still very friendly, tolerant, and calm. My good friend and neighbor Sherry who had stowed him in her barn long enough to come get me kept telling me what a sweet thing he seemed to be. None of us could imagine how he came to be so thin.

But if you could see past the bones, he was just a beautiful horse under all that emaciation.



This is how he looked when I brought him home that first night. It was May 25th.

Since we didn't get him until after 5pm on a Friday night, I wasn't able to get a vet out until the following Monday. I have never had a horse come to us anywhere near THIS thin, I was intimidated and super worried I might do something wrong to make him worse.  When I got him that night I had such a strong urge to make the vet come LIVE with us to be on the safe side, lol.

His feet were so sore, and a bit long. He was hardly able to walk from my neighbors house over to ours. He was trying his best to please us, but you could tell it was so painful for him to walk on the rough road. We had to stop several times because it was so hard for him. Once we got him to our pen and back on softer footing, he did much better.

And these are from the next day....

May 26th


Looking at these pictures still makes my heart sink...

All the many neighbor horses who lived around us were fat and happy and had lost their winter coats by this point. It was almost June and already getting pretty hot out, but this guys heavier coat remained because his body was so compromised and unable to shed.

Because he has such a noble face, and seemed to have such a faithful attitude despite having been through so much we decided to call him Trooper.

The following Monday our vet came out and gave him a full examination. They found he scored a 2/9 BSC on weight and needed to gain possibly up to 200lbs. If this is what a 2/9 looks like can you imagine what a 1/9 looks like?  All in all Trooper was diagnosed with a severe heart murmur, suspensory desmitis (ankles that have been broken down and don't stand up properly) in his back ankles, and thrush in is front hooves. She checked his teeth and said he was well over due for a teeth float (which she wasn't able to do that day because she had come out on such short notice). She estimated his age at 20-25 yrs old and felt he was most likely a Paso Fino with his build and gait. She did a heavy dose of wormer that day to take care of parasites and then had to go on to her previously scheduled clients. Although he seemed to be happy, she said he should never be ridden again because of his ankles and the heart murmur. Although a tad bit bummed, we weren't surprised.

So on the vets recommendation we began feeding him freely on orchard grass, and working him up to lots of equine senior each day. We eventually added rice bran and veggie oil into the equine senior and alfalfa into his hay mix, which worked out really well.  With proper nutrition came the ability to finally shed his winter coat by mid July I believe it was, and a body that was starting to function the way it should.

We were also able to get our "barefoot" farrier out right away, Troop had very under run heals and long toes to add to the already heaping pile of problems.  Poor boy, he just wasn't getting any good reports.

Later that first week in late May I found he was loaded FULL of huge ticks that had definitely been on him for a long time, but all of us missed them when checking him over because his body cavity went up so high on the inside of his hips. I could reach up to within an inch parallel of his hip bone, on the INSIDE of his thighs (you can see the hip bone sticking out near the top of his rump in the photos).  You shouldn't be able to reach that high up on the inside of a horses thighs, they are suppose to have a ton of fat and muscle up in there. Discovering the state of his under carriage was a whole new blow.  I felt so bad for Trooper.

My awesome neighbor Sherry and her son Michael came down that day to help me remove tick after tick after tick.  Some were the size of lima beans and it was tough getting at them because they were so far and high up into his thighs.  When THAT was over we all had a serious case of the eebie jeebies, lol.  I felt like I had ticks crawling all over me the rest of the day.  I think Trooper felt much better though!

In hopes that he had just been wandering for months and that some poor family was really missing him, we went knocking on doors around the neighborhood, checked craigslist, and also checked with the pound.  We didn't find anyone who was missing him.  When calling the pound I was informed the state requires that all stray horses be fostered for around a month in order to go to through a process of giving the owner time to come forward.  If no owner comes forward they begin advertising the horse and it's condition in local papers to be put up for auction. I had no idea we couldn't just keep him if owners didn't pop up, so that process had me really nervous. The bright side was that we were allowed to keep him with us and foster him here, but I was worried sick someone would out bid us on auction day and he end up in a bad situation. Many horses are bought at auctions in this area and taken to slaughter houses in Canada to harvest.  It's a harsh process to put a pet through.  Thankfully the auction was held at our house (which is pretty far out of town) over a month later, nobody else showed up to bid, and we got to keep him for the high price of $5.00. 

Best 5 bucks I can recall spending.

This was taken 6-7-12, about two weeks after we got him. Before the auction but still so very thin.

That process with the state is a whole other story in itself, I could go on about.  I'll skip it for today.



This was taken 8-23-12. This photo and the ones below are easier to see his broken down ankles. They are pretty bad and squat down pretty low. This isn't something that can be corrected according to our vet and farrier. I've not ever had a horse with ankles like this...  Thankfully, so long as he isn't carrying much more weight, they don't bother him. So far anyway.  So for that reason we probably won't be going for the goal of adding 200lbs as the vet first estimated.

After he was finally ours we were able to float his teeth, and make the last adjustments to his food.  It was then he finally started to really put some weight on. Or then that we finally noticed it anyway.

This is what our boy looks like today (9-9-12), about 3 months after he originally found his way into the neighborhood!









Until writing this post I hadn't realized how much of a difference these 3 months have made for him.  Showing my mom today she said, "Wow, he looks so ROUND now!"  Haha.  He really is looking round now, less jagged and bony.  His hip bone still sticks out a bit, along with his spine, but his ribs are almost all hidden now.  We're all excited about the progress so far.

We've pretty much fallen head over heals for Troop, and he's made such a bond with us in return. His personality has blossomed so much in the last 3 months too.
It's always the rescues that seem to appreciate what they have so much more than the others isn't it?

Trooper has gone from disconnected but cooperative, to completely dependent and connected to our family.  He looks to me for direction, follows along for companionship, and seems to especially love when I pull his bangs out of his eyes.  He didn't do any of that when he came like he does now.  He now has a warm look of love and appreciation in his eyes, and he's one of those that wants to sit by your side and quietly just BE with you.  Does it get any better than that?  Yes it does!  My 4 and 5 year old boys can lead him around and groom him, he is so gentle and sweet. They are learning so much around him. Our mare Sage is very sweet but she is 6 and just doesn't know her own size, so I don't really trust my boys to just run around her at this point. Trooper on the other hand is so slow and steady, sweet and gentle, he is perfect for little ones to learn around.

And with hardly any weight, it doesn't hurt if someone accidently gets stepped on, lol.  That's truly the only positive I can think of with having a starved horse.

I let Trooper out of the pen during the day to graze in the lawn, and he never runs off even though he could. At the end of the day he goes to the gate and waits for me to come out of the house and let him back in the pen, I guess he likes it here enough to call it home.

Something else neat to discover is he seems to know it all, not in a haughty way, but with an old quiet wisdom. Even just his eyes alone show and old quiet and wisdom in them.  Beyond that I believe he was an amazing riding horse at one time. We've never ridden him, but figured out he knows how to neck rein, spooks at NOTHING, and knows his way around barns, farriers, tack and trailers better than any of us.  And back when he first came and colic was a much bigger risk, he moderated his food intake better than I did!  ...Our mare would eat until she burst if we let her, but Trooper just knows...

I don't know how much longer he'll live. Really, it may not be much longer.  I hope he has a few good years left in him but I don't really know at this point.  When we see he isn't happy or comfortable anymore we'll have the vet out to put him down, but we feel like God sent such a diamond in the rough to us when Trooper ended up in our neighborhood.

And that's Troopers story in just 3 months time.  People are nice and say how lucky he was to find us...  I never would have thought I'd say this about an unridable horse, but I think the blessing has really been ours.

Runaway

Meet Jenny.

A sweet lab mix kinda gal who doesn't know how to stay home.

I almost hit her last night when she ran in front of my car. I was taking a friend home at 10pm, the weather was frigid and blowing and I felt awful when I couldn't figure out where she lived. So after knocking on a couple of doors I packed her up and took her home for the night.

She didn't have anything but her rabies tag on so I called her vet this morning and had her owners call me. They had her micro-chipped and the rabies tag on her but of course you can't figure anything out with those at 10pm at night. I suggested an ID TAG. After all, they never run away during business hours.

Pete was ecstatic to have someone fun spend the night (don't worry, they slept in separate beds). Even though it was a pain talking her into my car and worrying about her peeing on my floors (she didn't thank heavens) Pete thought it was all very worth it and thinks we should really do it more often.

This message has been sponsored by the idea of getting ID Tags for your beloved pets.

Traveling...

Marty and I leave tomorrow morning at around 3 am to drive to Soldotna for a few days. He has to take a certified welding inspection class down there. So it won't be tons of fun for him but we rented a small apartment and Pete and I plan on turning into tourist and painting the town pink while he's in class.

Pete needs a little brushing up with dog obedience so with a leash and treats in tow, hopefuly we can polish him up quite nicely.

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Meanwhile, we found another dog out on Schrock road yesterday. I hit 5 different neighborhoods looking for someone who recognized her to no avail. We've immediately left her description with the pound and put up signs today but unfortunately we will have to drop her off at the pound in an hour or so. We can't have 2 dogs with us at the place we'll be staying so hopefully her owners will find her and take her home. I'll let the pound know not to euthanize her with out calling me first. I'm sure I could find a good home for her if her owners don't claim her.

She's a sweet little thing. I think she's a Jack Russell mix. House trained, gets along great with our dog and cat and is well mannered. I'm sure she's loved, she came with a collar and an expectation to sleep up on our bed (which didn't happen).

Anyway, the frustrating part is her owners haven't posted their own signs, haven't called the pound, haven't taken measures to make sure she remains safely at home, haven't put ID tags on her pretty little collar, and have not fixed her. Yes I believe she is currently in heat on top of it all.

If you'd like to take her home she'd love to have you!!

More Pet Stories..

Marty and I went camping this last weekend in Ninilchik with Autumn, Stacie, Jarrett, Amber and their boys. We dug up razor clams on Saturday which was so much fun. Except poor Stacie overdosing on marshmallows Saturday night the entire weekend was a blast. I'm so glad they invited us along.

On Sunday we stopped in Soldotna and went to church. Tony Cloud had a great lesson reminding us how important it is to read Gods word.

Not long after we got on the road we came upon a sheep dog mix running down one of the busiest highways in Alaska. It crossed the road a few times so we immediately tried to call it over to us. The dog wanted nothing to do with us and kept running doing anything to avoid us. After several attempts at calling it and trying to deter it from the road it finally darted off into a swamp and we lost site of it. We even had a trooper join in and try to help out. I really wanted to follow it home and speak with the owner but at least it got away from the highway.

So we get back on the road and not 15 miles down the road in Sterling on the 5 lane highway yet another dog comes darting out into the road. Not only did we nearly hit it but 2 other cars as well. We stopped just before we hit it and the dog stayed in front of our car. I got out and tried to call it over but the little dog just ran under our car to the other side. I continued in trying to call it but it just ran. I followed the dog determined to find it's owner, over to a church. It ran right up to the front door and looking inside as if it knew it's owner was inside. So instead of trying to get the dog I figured I'd go inside and see who I could find. The dog went under a ford truck parked near the door and stayed put. The church was still in session, the person I spoke with wouldn't make an announcement but instead came outside to help. I wish he would have just made a quick announcement. He decided his dog would be helpful in getting this little dog to come, I knew it wasn't gonna work. I went back to the dog with treats Marty found and was trying when something spooked the dog from behind it (I think the other guy with his dog). Yet again this little dog tore past me, across the parking lot and into the middle of the 5 lane hwy yet again. It just stood out in the center lane, so I ran after it shooing it out of the road. Thankfully nobody was driving by at that moment. We followed it home. I'm sure it was home because the dog once in the driveway had enough courage to stand it's ground instead of running. Nobody was home so I let the dog into the pet door, jammed it closed and left a note asking them to be more responsible in the future.

So you'd think this would be it wouldn't you? 3 Dog stories in a month! I usually end up finding 2 or 3 in a year!

This is not the end though. On Tuesday Marty and I were driving up Lucille when I see a horse a mile up the road. It's coming straight towards us and had a line of traffic behind it. A vehicle was driving along next to it, trying to get it to stop. I am sure it was doing around 25-30 miles an hour in speed down the pavement totally freaked out. So I holler at Marty to stop and I jumped out ran out in front of the horse and started waving my arms frantically saying Whoa! It actually worked, I got the horse to stop and Marty brought me a dog leash. The horse had NO halter on so this was all we had to hold it. I then hear the person who had been driving next to it and see it's our neighbor. She has 4 horses and her and her daughter are very experienced with them. They rescue animals a lot so I assumed this was maybe a new rescue of theirs. I gave the horse lead over to the daughter and she began trying to make the leash into a halter but something spooked the horse, it reared and the girl was almost hit in the head with a hoof. She let go of the leash, it fell off the horse, and the horse took off again. It turns out this was not our neighbors horse, like us she was just out on an errand and came upon a loose horse.

So we turned around and followed it hoping to get another shot at catching it. I called 911 and reported it as it was headed for the 5 lane parks hwy and was sure to be hit. Just before the hwy it turned off onto a dead end so I let dispatch know and got off the phone and followed the horse on foot through someones front and back yard and into a graveyard. It was going to fast to keep up on foot. We saw a police officer and started talking to him when he got another call, the horse was 5 miles down the road already!! We all drove over and another police officer had caught it. The owner was contacted because a neighbor had seen the horse get out and followed it the whole way. The poor horse was a beautiful Tennessee Walking horse, had gotten a minor cut on its back leg and had gone lame from an over 6 mile dead run on pavement. It was heart breaking. When the owner finally got there 5 of us and the officer were still there. Everyone was very nice to the owner, we were all just so glad the horse was not hit and was going home to recover. The officer pointed out the cut and she was glad he did. I then told her just before the horse was caught he looked like he had gone lame with such a bad limp. I said it in a very friendly way and all she did was glare, turn her back and ignore me. Nobody was within 10 feet of the horse so we wouldn't spook it more but she took the horse and walked even further away to make calls for someone to come help her with a trailer or a saddle to ride it all the way home. She never said thank you to one person except the police officer. If it wasn't for all the people standing there she wouldn't have an alive horse. She had no idea what had taken place and never asked. She didn't even thank her neighbor.

It turned out to be the second time that day the horse had gotten out. And strange enough the second time that particular police officer had caught it.

FRUSTRATING

Yet Another reminder to take good care of your pets.

Responsible Pet Ownership...

Meet "Bear", a loving and attentive Weimaraner/lab mix. Bear spent the weekend with us after we found him out on the highway. I really want to tell you the story but it's really long and not nice of me to publicly slam his owner, soooo....

Let me just take this opportunity to remind everyone of an ideal setup in kind and responsible pet ownership...

• Microchips are fantastic and inexpensive - I think around $25 nowdays
• A Collar that they can't get out of...
  
• Some people worry that if the dog chain or cable gets bound up the pet could be strangled wearing a choke chain or a collar that isn't loose enough to get out of, but leaving them unattended on a chain while your not home is just not the safest of options. Leave them in the house, garage, kennel, or in a fenced in yard which are all safer options. They could still get out but not strangled, and they are protected from other stray/wild animals this way too. - and just to clarify I don't have anything against using a chain from time to time while pet owners are home because if a dog is in trouble they'll make enough noise for you to come to their aid.
  
• Dog tags - with the dogs name and owners contact numbers should be on every dog, even with microchips, and even if they don't run away. It's better to be over cautious and they only cost around $5.00. You can get them made instantly at Walmart, Petzoo, Fred Meyers, or plenty of other stores selling pet supplies. (Bear was found after hours with only a license tag on. My only option was let him go, and possibly be hit - or bring him home for the night. Not everyone would have had the option to bring him home.)
  
• Licensing tags - Required in the Mat-su Valley but not required in all boroughs or towns. Should be on their collar if ya have one.
  
• Rabies tags - again, should be on the collar, not in the file box.
• Dog Obedience classes - Your pet does NOT own you, YOU OWN IT! If your not able to control your animal don't give in. EVERY animal can be trained in the time you should already be spending with it. If you can't afford training, let me know and I'll send you some great stuff so you can get started at home.
  
• Spay/Neuter your pets!!! I know it's expensive but if you can't afford it your not ready to own a pet yet.
  

We think of our pets as part of the family. We just don't think a dog should be allowed to roam as it pleases, ESPECIALLY one than isn't fixed; and life tied to a chain can be a lonely life.

Now go give your pet some luv...