Today was everything real rescue is about, and it is what Heart of Phoenix has been built on for over 15 years.
Saving Horses usually means helping People.
It isn’t that I believe helping horses isn’t enough, it is just that horses live existances interwoven through the lives of humans in such a way, it would make little sense to fail to realize the connection and to be glad we can help both beings.
I started my life as a child without indoor plumbing. I have raised livestock and cared for horses for many years. I can’t imagine lacking access to running water.
Yesterday, I was so thankful we could do what needed done in a situation where the bare essentials we believe in today were lacking causing a tremendous struggle for horse and human.
An senior lady with limited mobility was living in under difficult conditions, to say the least. She does not have road access to her home and no running water, and she hasn’t for a long time. She is in rural Appalachia and reached out for help a few weeks go.
Hearing the situation, we did not think it seemed an emergency, so we did not rush there. Then yesterday, our volunteer, Teri (pictured here taking a live trap to help the woman also catch a feral cat that needs assistance), went and found we really needed to step in quickly.
The owner had an elderly stallion she had cared about for a long time. He free roamed the mountain. He, like she, had limited mobility, and his was due to founder and arthritic issues. The woman’s family hoped to have her move in near them, but she has been staying for years at this location to keep her horse.
Where was a crippled stallion to go? He could not go with her if she left.
I frankly wish more horse owners felt this level of commitment to their horses. She simply was NOT leaving him behind, no matter what is cost her in terms of struggle.
She knew he needed a humane end of life outcome, though, now. But inaccessible road conditions and inability to bury him at that property she did not own meant she needed help badly to make this happen. A vet going to an off road situation wasn’t likely. A trailer could not get there, nor equipement, easily.
When our volunteer, Teri, went yesterday to see the situation first hand, she messaged me asking how soon could we help.
Hearing the full story, I said I could come immediately.
So we went, and when I walked up to the shed the lady has long appreciated as her home,
She said to me,
“I’ve been following you for what seems twenty years. I’m so glad to meet you finally.”
And she gave me a hug.
She said she knew we would help and do what was kind and decent for her and her horse.
The fact that she trusted me and Heart of Phoenix is beyond a value I can explain to you.
The little things aren’t so little, are they?
I thought about how my Daddy laid a foundation of service before my eyes as a little girl, and being willing to do what is needed for others is so vital, and it may not look like you envision, and that is okay.
We gave him pain meds, and we walked him to where we left the trailer. She said the last time someone tried to haul him out, he proved impossible to load. And while he mulled it over for ten minutes, he got on with little effort on our end.
We had one of our vets meet us after-hours at the rescue, to limit the stress in the stallion, and he was at rest and pain free within about 15 minutes of arrival.
When you invest in Heart of Phoenix Equine Rescue,
There is no doubt you’re pouring impact into the lives of people and horses that are sometimes forgotten.
We don’t forget. It matters to us.
Please consider a donation to this horse’s story.
We have heartbreaking photos and video of this situation, but we have opted to not share them to protect this lady’s privacy.
But I will tell you, that horse stood by her little porch and waited for her to give him some carrots and tell him goodbye, and it was something really quite beautiful. I was honored to see it and help.
Don’t lose your humanity. I haven’t.
