Due to the rains in our part of California (YAY!) it gets a little muddy.  But that doesn't stop Breezy from teaching the menfolks at her new home the proper method of horse scratching!  When the students are ready....the teacher will appear!  Good Job Breezy Girl!

Several years of believing that some day, just the right person would materialize to be Breezy's very own person has come true today!

Breezy arrived at TIER in such deplorable condition that we were not even sure she would survive.  But survive she did!  Breezy is a somewhat insecure, well trained mare and not the type of horse for a novice.  She needed someone who was confident without being overbearing.  Someone she could trust and count on.  Someone to guide her emotionally and make a connection with her.Over the last year or so, Stephanie has worked with Breezy and the bond that developed between the two was quite obvious to anyone watching.  While Stephanie and Gail discussed the Adoption process, Breezy seemed to know what we were saying.  She kept nuzzling Stephanie (she's not been an overly demonstrative girl with anyone but Stephanie) and trying to pick her pockets for treats.

The look in her eyes said it all.  I am over the moon with joy for this special, special partnership.  Congratulations and Happy Trails to this wonderful pair of girls! Picture below is of Breezy checking out her new home!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to Dana Stark and Kelly Stark for taking Breezy & Marshall out on a stroll over some of the surrounding trails. Dana brought her big boy Cody along so that Marshall & Breezy would have a steady Eddy trail buddy to help them through this adventure. Your time and effort helps them mentally, physically and spiritually! They love the time you spend with them and Marshall even demonstrated what a goober he is!

Stephanie McGregor has been giving Breezy a little trail time.  She is doing well and listens to her rider.  She still gets in a rush to come home, but she's working on that!

From Rachel (Owner/Trainer at Firedance Farm):  She is coming along well, starting to relax and think.

Very high strung.  For an advanced, confident rider only.  She would be a great one person horse, if the human and her connect.  She gets very attached to her human.  She requires a confident rider/handler.  She does not tolerate anyone with a strong hand.  She responds well to praise, consistency, and gentle, confident treatment.  She is very athletic.  She loves to have a job.  She loves to go over small jumps and obstacles.  She has a great mouth and needs a soft snaffle bit.  She has a sensitive girth area, I found that an Alpaca girth works well for her.  She prefers a neoprene saddle pad.  She requires soft, smooth handling when saddling and bridling.  She has been ridden western and english.  She is more of an english horse, than a western horse.  She ties, loads, trailers, and bathes.  She is great with her front feet, you need to be aware when working with her hinds.  She stands for the farrier.  She would love to be someones only horse and to be ridden/pampered every day. She is better under saddle in an enclosed area, rather than out on trail, however, with the right human, she could be developed into an awesome trail horse.

Breezy was a bit worried when TALL, Dark & Handsome Dr. Moore came to help her. I guess she figured if she made herself taller/bigger he would be intimidated and go away!

A bit of reassurance from the Chiropractor and then he could help her out.

Hocks and stifles adjusted. Her stifles were really out. Breezy is a "stall walker".

She's a big girl and the BIG guy helped her tremendously. Thank you Dr. Moore!

9/2/2012- Almost 3 months after her arrival, Breezy is slowly gaining weight. Her weight gain did plateau for a bit (fairly normal for starved horses) and then she began picking up weight again.

She will have her first visit with Dr. Don Moore, our wonderful Chiropractor today!

Breezy does not seem to have very much "horse savvy" as she is not interested in the other horses at all. When put in the arena by herself, she does not go up to any of the other horses to meet them over the fence. Her neighbor, Melvin Black Jack (aka: Mr. Grumpy) is the only horse she seems to be comfortable being around. But, that is usually short lived as she will then get territorial about her hay and begin kicking at him so we have to put one of them back in their corral.

9-2-2012 is the first time we observed Breezy moving faster than a walk for any length of time. In this picture she was following Melvin Black Jack as he trotted over to visit Baxter.

Breezy is putting on weight, eating and drinking well. When she first arrived she would take a few mouthfuls of food, walk over to the water barrel, drink and then rest. The poor girl just did not have the energy to even eat!

At first, she could only manage to eat 1 1/2 flakes of hay per day and some pellets. She is now eating 4-5 flakes of hay, a larger amount of pellets along with Senior Feed.

She is still quite thin and it will take some time to get her up to full weight. We are still guarded about her condition, but she is bright eyed and is now vocal at feeding time. She has FINALLY shed most of the yucky old hair coat.

Thanks to "Bath Goddess" Peggy, Breezy got a full on beauty treatment. Breezy has been here 3 weeks now and is putting on a bit of weight. She is still quite thin, but her appetite is good.

Peggy was very gentle with application of soap and conditioner as Breezy's skin (especially along her topline/rear) is sensitive due to the dry waxy crust, hair loss and old weeping patches from neglect & starvation.

She was a very good girl! Breezy played with the water a bit and watched as Peggy sprayed her udder to get the built up gunk loosened up.

After her bath we put her in the arena. Of course, I missed the shot where she rolled. Quite a bit of old/dead hair came off during bathing. There is still a lot of hair that will probably come off in the next few days during grooming. Previously she had not been shedding because her body was sending all the nutrition she was getting to her vital organs. Shedding/hair replacement was not high on the list of body fuctions until sometime earlier in the week.

Rocket, was VERY interested in this lovely girl! They introduced themselves over the rails, squealed at each other, then Breezy gave a little buck and wandered off. Rocket seems to be saying..."Hey, Why'd you take off? I still want to talk to you."

She continued her inspection of the arena. Breezy didn't do the usual 'Roll, Buck,Run, Kick' thing. She just quietly checked a few things out. Her energy level is still low and she has a long road of recovery ahead of her.

She munched on hay for a bit in the arena. It has been very sunny and hot recently and we didn't want the bare patches along her spine to get sunburned. After some time in the arena she returned to her covered stall.

We will keep a close watch on her for the next month or so. She is eating and drinking well, but because of the long term lack of food and the impact on her organs, there is still the possibility of her body shutting down. Things can "go south" in a hurry and we are guarded about her physical ability to recover.

BIG Thanks to Peggy the "Bath Goddess" for all her hard work and kindness.

Breezy is doing well. The past 2 days she has consumed the hay we have been giving her. She is also eating all of the soaked hay pellets/beet pulp/vitamins/psyllium mixture. We will be increasing her hay today.

When she first arrived she could not consume more than 1 1/2 flakes of hay per day. The simple act of eating exhausted her. Her poor tummy had shrunk so she was unable to eat more too. After her teeth were done and her mouth had healed, her hay consumption increased.

Originally, she was only getting alfalfa hay and the soaked pellets. Over this past week we added a flake of Orchard. She was cleaning up the Orchard and leaving part of the alfalfa, so I increased the Orchard to 2 flakes and 1 flake of alfalfa. I was feeding small flakes initially, but have increased the weight of the flakes. She is eating everything. Yay!

We are still very guarded. We have had horses here before that have experienced long term starvation and the damage to the internal organs can be irreversible sometimes. So, for at least 2-3 months we will be carefully watching her. In the past, we lost a beautiful Arabian mare after she had been with us for 2 months. Granted, Tori was an older mare, but long term damage does not only negatively impact the older horses. Young horses are also vulnerable to the ravages of starvation/neglect.

The Rain Rot along her spine is clearing up. She is not as sensitive along her topline and the medication seems to be doing the trick. She will get a full bath/spa treatment in the next few days. I'll try to get some pictures soon. We've just been very busy and the heat just sucks the energy out of me.

We moved Breezy from the Round Pen to a 24 x 24 stall. She had begun pacing and fidgeting in the Round Pen. She seems to be happier in her own stall. Her neighbors are Katrina and Melvin Black Jack. Melvin is his grumpy self and Katrina is more interested in Zeke than she is in Breezy. But, being in closer proximity to other horses has helped her to settle a bit more.

Breezy is doing well at this point.  Physical rehabilitation is going to be a long journey.  She is eating well and vital signs for her condition are good.  The vet did not feel that it was necessary to do a blood analysis at this time because her response to being fed properly has been so good (eating well now that her teeth have been done, drinking well, manure is fine, etc.)  You can actually see the difference in her in just this short time.  Amazing!  Will be adding a bit of psyllium to her diet as she has probably ingested sand while searching for food.

No heart murmur, which surprised me.  Most of the starvation cases that come in DO have heart murmurs until they get back to health.  Although she seems to be doing okay so far, we will be keeping a close eye on her for the next few months.  In the past, we have had extremely emaciated horses that were doing well and 2 months later they suddenly crashed.  She has not been lying down or showing signs of discomfort.  

She does have rain rot and was pretty tender along her spine/rear area.  I have washed her off and topical treatment applied.  2 days later the sensitivity has almost disappeared.

Of course, when the vet arrived she did not pin her ears or avoid being caught as she normally does.  We do have our guard up when handling her or entering her area.  Once she has put on some more weight we will put her in an area where she can socialize over the fence with other horses.  Gradually, we will see how she does turned out with other horses.  Perhaps a "horse behavior tune-up" by other horses will help her attitude. 

Breezy was visited by the Tooth Fairy on Sunday, 6/10/2012. Her teeth were in very bad shape. She has MULTIPLE lacerations/ulcerations on the inside of her cheeks. She was very protective of her mouth when Phillip began working on her. The worry lines on her little face were quite prominent at first.

After Phillip had done the teeth on the upper left side and gave her a bit of a rest (see the filings on the rasp from just her upper left teeth below), she moved her mouth around and she just calmed down! The worry lines lessened right away.

After her teeth were done we put her back in the round pen. She immediately went to her soaked pellets and finished them up. She then went to her hay and ate for quite awhile. This really surprised me because she had been taking a few bites of hay and then rinsing her mouth out, going back for a few bites and rinsing, etc. After a short time she would stop and just rest because the effort took so much out of her. After her teeth had been floated she ate for a longer period of time before resting.

We did find out that she LOVES carrots. She was given a handful of baby carrots to see if she could chew them. She had finished them all up and was begging for more before we could get out of the round pen! HA!

We are still guarded about her recovery. She has not laid down at all and there are no signs on her hocks, ankles, etc. that she has been lying down. I think she knows if she does lie down she may not have the strength to get up. It's only been a few days, but she does have more energy, is eating better and for longer periods of time.

When I come out to feed, she begins talking/nickering. When she sees the feed bucket she nickers. She does pin her ears when approached and avoids you. She has attempted to bite once. We are being careful because of her strong attitude right now.

WDF Elstons Seabreeze (We are calling her Breezy) arrived in the late afternoon. The Riverside County Horse Coalition had been contacted about Breezy on 6/7/2012. After viewing the pictures and hearing the owner's plea for help, Volunteers Mel (leading Breezy) and Cindy H. of Hendeson Ranch picked this poor mare up and brought her to TIER.

Mel had gone out earlier in the day to see if she could help the owner with feeding issues. Once she saw the mare & spoke to the owner, she immediately contacted RCHC & TIER to let them know the situation was critical.

A call was made to Cindy of Henderson Ranch and she agreed to transport the mare to TIER.

Breezy is in bad shape. She is only 8 years old, her teeth are very bad and she needs help. She will eat a few mouthfuls of hay and then slowly walk to the water barrel, rinse her mouth out and slowly walk back to the hay to eat again. She was given some soaked pellets and ate them up right away.

The Tooth Fairy has been called and will be here Sunday to do her teeth. We are guarded in our refeeding efforts. Taking it slow. This beautiful and kind mare is in very bad condition.