One of the horses rescued by SAFE in 2014 was a 14 year old Quarter Horse gelding named Finn. His owner contacted us early in the year after a puncture wound in his right shoulder became infected. Turns out he had been running around in his pasture and managed to impale himself on a branch, and his owner couldn’t afford to have a vet out to see him. She treated his wound herself for a few days but when it began to become infected, she called SAFE for help. Fortunately, a recent adoption meant that we had space available and could take him. Finn spent several days at the vet clinic being treated for his wound, which was very deep but it was draining well with no debris in the wound and no signs of necrotic tissue. Finn is a good example of a horse that ended up in rescue through no fault of his own. Had he not gotten hurt, he would probably have been fine. But the point is that horses DO get hurt. Before becoming a horse owner, you have to consider how you’re going to deal with unexpected vet bills. It’s so easy to get in over your head with horse ownership. And in the end, it’s the horse who suffers. 

Ruby’s story has a happy ending, but it starts so sadly, with suffering and loss. Ruby was discovered by local law enforcement inside a small dark shed. She was severely emaciated, suffering from parasite overload, and on top of all that…she was pregnant. She was taken immediately to our vet clinic. The young mare seemed grateful for some kind attention. In her weakened state, she could barely walk, and often stumbled all the way to her knees. In her severely emaciated state, it was difficult to imagine a baby inside her, but we could feel the foal kicking. We prayed that she would be able to recover her strength before her foal arrived, But two days later, Ruby went into labor. She was too weak to push but with a lot of assistance from the vet, a beautiful bay filly with a star and four white socks was born. But Ruby herself was so young and she had no milk. The foal couldn’t regulate her temperature and she could barely digest the milk replacer she was given. As the hours ticked by, it became clear that she was done fighting. It was time to let her go. The sadness was overwhelming but took some peace in knowing that she did not die alone in the dark and cold. After the foal passed, it seemed important to give her a name to acknowledge and celebrate her brief life. Something feminine; a name that represented her innocence and conveyed hope. She was, and always will be, a SAFE horse. We named her “Grace.”

After nine years as a SAFE horse, an adopter finally arrived for Honeycutt. At the time, he and Sinatra were living together at Bonnie’s farm in Silverdale, and although Bonnie was very sad at the thought of Honeycutt leaving, she didn’t want to get in the way of his happiness. Sinatra and Honeycutt had formed quite a bond, which was rather remarkable because Honeycutt was a fairly dominant horse in his herd and Sinatra had never really gotten a grasp on normal horse behavior, so he could be quite the pest. But Honeycutt took him under his wing, almost as if he knew Sinatra was a little “special.” He showed an incredible amount of patience toward the younger horse, who followed him everywhere like a little white shadow. So when Honeycutt’s potential adopter came to visit, Bonnie asked Sinatra to please be on his best behavior and maybe both of them could get adopted. Of course Sinatra was a holy terror that day, screaming for Honeycutt, banging repeatedly on his metal gate, and even breaking into the barn aisle and dumping the grain bucket and the garbage all over the floor. But the adopter surprised us all by saying that he didn’t think it would be right to take Honeycutt away from Sinatra, so he offered a home to both of them. The friends moved to a big farm in Onalaska where they could live among all sorts of farm animals and still be together.