We received word that Penny (Registered Name:  Spin Around) was helped across the Rainbow Bridge.  She had been having increasing difficulty with her hind.  She was becoming unsteady on her feet and would lose her balance.  It became extremely had for her to stand up after she had been lying down and she was lying down more often. She was 20 years old.

Thank you to United Pegasus Foundation for providing her with the care and attention she deserved these last almost 4 years.  She was a lovely mare that had had a very hard life and UPF gave her the best retirement care she could have had. 

A Fews Kisses for Penny before she leaves.

Bittersweet news! Penny will be leaving her lovely Foster Home with Bonnie & Kristy on Monday, November 1, 2010 to retirement with other horses, spacious surroundings, and quality care.

Thanks to Helen Meredith of United Pegasus Foundation, Penny will have a dignified retirement, room to be a beautiful Thoroughbred Mare with other mares, make new friends, and live life with no demands for performance or to be bred again. We are very grateful to United Pegasus Foundation and Helen for providing this opportunity for Penny.

United Pegasus Foundation

We feel this is the very best situation for Penny as she cannot stay with Bonnie & Kristy for an undetermined amount of time. Although they have both become attached to Penny and will miss her terribly, they are pleased that she will be able to live her life comfortably and receive the best care possible at United Pegasus.

We cannot thank Kristy and Bonnie enough for their hard work in helping Penny recuperate from being abandoned/starved/neglected....left in a riverbed to fend for herself. Poor Penny was so thin, in need of farrier care, multiple Chiropractic adjustments and someone who cared about her as an individual. She received that and more from these ladies. They worked with the chiropractor to help her heal from her hind end/pelvic, etc. injuries. She was able to be ponied with the other horses and got to see the world outside of a stall/pen. She was groomed and fussed over by Bonnie, Kristy and her children. She received treats, plenty of food, supplements and guidance on behavior. In the care of these two wonderful ladies she has blossomed and healed and I know how much Bonnie has become attached to her.

We are so very grateful to these ladies for stepping up and stepping in the help such a lovely mare in need of someone to care!

Ladies, you have made a Difference in the life of this mare! Thank you.

Happy Trails to Penny..........may you live long and prosper.

Penny is doing really well!  She had a chiropractic adjustment earlier this month and it seems to have helped out quite a bit!  She will need a follow-up adjustment in August.  As you can see, she has gained quite a bit of weight thanks to her Foster Moms Bonnie & Kristy!

Of course, no rehab would be complete without Spa Treatment by her own boy groom!

A little one on one conversation does well to soothe the savage beast too!

I just watched Penny take a roll in the dirt. Made me smile from ear to ear! She looked so happy!!

Ahhh nothing like a dirt bath in the sunshine!

ACK!  Now I have to get up!



Shake it, Shake it, Shake it!



That felt GOOD!

Spin Around aka: Penny is putting on weight. She had a spa treatment today and is now all bright and shiney like a new penny. I'm sure she is feeling much better after all the attention and care given by Bonnie & Kristy. She still has a ways to go to get to full weight after having been dumped in the riverbed without proper food & care. Who knows how long she was there before she was found.

She's making a comeback and is quite talkative about the whole thing! HA! Her energy level is up a bit and she even broke into a couple bucks and a trot! Yay!

She is doing great. Snubbing the timothy/orchard for the alfalfa now which means she's content enough to be picky! Very stiff in the back but it's because she doesn't move much from the hay feeder :)  When turned out, she gave a little buck, trotted off a few paces and then  stopped as that is all she had energy for at the moment.

Kristy, her sister, her kids and I picked up Dancin Shecky & Spin Around this morning. 

Shecky is very attached to Spin Around ( I think they are going to call her Penny because of her color) and became quite worried when Kristy started to lead her toward the trailer.  Our contact at DAS told us this was this case and that he would follow her.  He became pretty concerned and I thought I was going to go dirt skiing for a minute. 

Kristy led Spin Around/Penny to her roomy trailer and she loaded up after only a second or two of taking a good look inside.  Shecky led me to the ramp where I handed him off to Bonnie who walked him right in.

Both horses rode well.  No stomping or rocking the trailer while we drove over to TIER.  Shecky unloaded well after he figured out that it was a ramp and not a step down.  Once he was unloaded, Spin Around/Penny was backing up in the trailer trying to get out too!

We may have someone that is willing to take in Spin Around.  Waiting on confirmation.

We will try our very best to help these two. Sadly, old horses are hard to place so the gelding would most likely live out his last days here if he can be made more comfortable. I am more hopeful about the mare if the person who has expressed interest in helping her is still in a position to do so.

This is just the tip of the iceberg with horses being abandoned in our area. People seem to think they will be able to fend for themselves if dumped in the riverbed........or they are just total jerks and don't care. And, it is not always older horses that get dumped. Grrrrrrr!

Caring folks have come through for these two needy horses!  We have the funds to get them out, but would very much appreciate a little help for senior feed and upcoming farrier visits.

First off, I want to thank our farrier.  Val took time out of his schedule to go with me to DAS and give his opinion on whether or not these horses could be helped.  My intent was to find out specifically if Dancin Shecky&rsquos condition was something that could be helped and that he would be comfortable.  I truely value Val&rsquos opinion as he was a jockey at one time, managed a few racing farms and was raised around horses.  He&rsquos seen a lot, knows a lot and promised me he would give me a straight answer.  Quality of Life was uppermost in my mind for Dancin Shecky.  I also wanted his opinion on the pronounced &ldquodivot&rdquo  in Spin Around&rsquos back.

Heads up.......I totally forgot the camera so I didn&rsquot get any new pictures.  I had planned on taking pictures of Dancin Shecky&rsquos feet for everyone to see.  Sorry.  I guess that will have to wait until tomorrow! 

Yup!  Val really checked out his feet and legs.  Frog is so overgrown that it protrudes from the SIDES of both hooves!  But the good news is that he hasn&rsquot lost his sole.  There was no heat, inflammation or pulse in his feet.  Flies were buzzing around the blown abcess sites on both fores at the cornet band.  Shecky lifted his feet when Val asked and held them.  We didn&rsquot even have a halter on him.  Val talked to him the whole time in his low murmuring voice.  Shecky was a prince about the whole thing.
 
After checking out Shecky, Val said &ldquoLet&rsquos take a look at this sweet red mare&rdquo.  He started his murmur stuff and then checked her feet, ran his hands all over her.  Spin reached over and gave him a hug like a long lost friend!  Val kept rubbing her, telling her how pretty she was and she just sucked it up.  When I asked about the divot he said &ldquoNot to worry.  It&rsquoll fill in when you get some nutrition into her.&rdquo  I asked why it was so pronounced and he explained something that I didn&rsquot know and hadn&rsquot seen before.  He said since she was used primarily as a broodmare that her pelvis had expanded when in foal.  The weight loss just &ldquoenhanced my view of her frame&rdquo.  I guess most of the mares we have rescued that were under weight hadn&rsquot had many foals so this was a new one on me.  Live and Learn!  Her feet need trimming and most likely she will need dental work.  But he said she was a really nice mare and would fill out with good care.  He said  &ldquoShe&rsquos good to go&rdquo meaning he didn&rsquot see any major problems.  She continued to follow him around until we went back to Shecky&rsquos pen and hung her head over the fence near him.  Kristy, one of our HARD WORKING Volunteers, has graciously offered to house her during her rehab!!

Since Val hadn&rsquot said anything about Shecky and had gone over to Spin after checking him out, I was expecting him to tell me that the prognosis was not good.  When I asked him if we could help this horse he said &ldquoThis is totally doable.  No problem.  He ain&rsquot gonna win any races, he&rsquoll never be 100, but at 25 yrs. old he just needs a little assistance with groceries and his feet.  He hasn&rsquot lost his sole and in fact has a little extra that we&rsquoll get healthy again.&rdquo  Shecky also seemed to think the sun rises and sets on Val and nuzzled him up.  I asked him to check his teeth.  After a brief look & feel of Shecky&rsquos teeth, Val&rsquos comment was &ldquoOh Lord!&rdquo.  I guess that means we&rsquoll be feeding pellets, senior feed and scheduling a dental appointment. 

Val didn&rsquot want to do his feet today.  He said for us to get him to TIER, get some oil/moisture into those hooves because his hooves will split where the abcesses have blown if we don&rsquot.  He wants him to have a few days of moisturizing treatments before he tackles the mess that is this boy&rsquos feet. 

Our contact at DAS was pleased to hear the news about Shecky as she too thought it was going to be sad news.  While we were all standing there talking, I walked over to him and felt inside his sheath.  His sheath has a lot of edema and I&rsquom sure he has a bean the size of Texas, but there was so much thick/dried Smegma (sp?) in the opening I don&rsquot know how this horse peed without spraying his stomach!  Shecky had been nuzzling up and glad of company until I went to his nether regions.  He was none too happy about my visit there and kicked out a couple times.  Can&rsquot blame him as the stuff I did pull out was hard and dry.  Once he gets to TIER, Kristy assures me that her lovely sister Bonnie is quite proficient at traveling in the Nether Lands and will be glad to soften up that stuff.  When I mentioned it to Bonnie, she said........&rdquoNoooooooooo&rdquo  We&rsquoll see.  HA!

So, Kristy will be housing Spin and Shecky will come to TIER.  We will be picking them up Friday morning!!

TIER was contacted by Riverside Department of Animal Services regarding 2 horses that had been left in the Riverbed and, of course, are starved. We have 2 days to find them a place to go as DAS cannot keep them. If Shecky is able to be saved and TIER is able to raise the funds, we will bring him here. We need to try to find a home for Spin Around.

To Donate to help these horses: http://www.tierrescue.org/individual-donations/

Both horses have suffered neglect, malnutrition, dehydration. Their immune systems have been compromised and they are suffering the effects of starvation in that their eyes are weepy/full of mucous, the hair coat is bad, they need dental work, food, farrier work, vitamins, etc.

SPIN AROUND F, 1994 DP = 9-3-2-0-0 (14) DI = 13.00 CD = 1.50 --Dam of Kid Royal

Spin Around has also been starved, but her hooves don't look too awful. Supposedly she foaled last year. It appears as though she may have a uterine infection due to starvation/dehydration causing her muscles to shrink. When she passes manure it falls into her vaginal opening thus creating infection.

She also has a HUGE Divot in her back just before her croup. It is the biggest divot on a horse I have seen. I am not sure that chiropractic care would help or not.