I just wanted to show off my new rescue. She's a 10 year old registered AQHA Appendix, her name is Ima Kaycee, and even now she's gorgeous.
My wife and I went to the Missoula horse auction yesterday, just to take a day off work and spend some time together around horses. We were walking through the pens behind the auction and came upon this grulla mare, she had a saddle on, but you could see her hips sticking out at least 6 inches, and if you reached up under her saddle, you could easily feel her ribs. We hung out with her for awhile, and she really seemed to appreciate the attention, so we discussed it, and decided that even though we really didn't need another horse, she needed owners who could feed her, and that we'd bid on her up to a certain point.
Turns out, we know several of the hired riders at the auction, and we found the one who was hired to ride her through, and we asked him to give a signal whether or not we should bid on her while she was in the ring. When her turn came, he rode her in (he's about the best trainer in Montana,) he saw us sitting in the front row, rode by, and just said "hell yeah." So we bid on her and got her, and saved her a trip across the border to the meat processing plant. We went home, got our truck and trailer, brought her home, (her head was buried in the haybag all the way home,) put her in one of our quarantine pens, gave her a few leaves of grass hay, alfalfa hay, and some oats, and some weight gain vitamin and mineral supplement that we picked up on the way home, and she seemed happy.
This morning, before we left for work, we were pleasantly surprised when we went out with her feed and she was knickering up a storm. And when we got home from work tonight, she was waiting right at the gate of the pen for us, and nuzzled both of us when we came in, and we didn't even have any food with us at that moment.
Montana is a small community, and we looked into things last night after we bought her, turns out the person who sold her is a friend of a friend's friend, and sold her because he didn't think he'd be able to feed through winter with the cost of hay. I called the guy and asked how long she's been skinny, and he said she's not skinny, she's an appendix, so that's the sleek thoroghbred coming out in her. If you could see this horses' eyes when she sees food, you'd know she's starved, and what's more, when my wife examined her teeth, the said the edges on them are extremely sharp, and over 1/4 inch high, so they haven't been floated in years, so no matter what she eats, she can't chew it, therefore, can't digest it.
To me, the pictures are horrible, but to non horse people, they might not look bad. In a healthy horse, you should be able to see a hint of their ribs, in her, you can actually feel the circumference of each rib (you can put your fingers between them.) The muscles in her hind end are all gone, apparently she's been using them for food.
My wife rides professional rodeo, and we really take pride in our horses, and she feels this one is well worth saving as a pleasure horse for me, but she taped her and weighed her and right now she's about 895 lbs, and 15.2 hands, and she should be at least 1100 lbs at that height with her build, regardless of the fact that she's an appendix.
Anyway, I thought I'd share some pics now, and share some a month from now, and a few months later. It's really sad that people are starving perfectly good horses just because they can't afford the hay. If this guy had brought this horse to the auction a few months back when she was eating fresh grass, he probably would have been able to sell her for 4 times the price, just because of her color, she would have gotten a good home, and we woudn't have to have outbid a meat buyer to get her.
[/IMG]
[/IMG]
Sorry the pictures are so big, I thought I downsized them on photobucket, but they didn't seem to downsize.
Tim
My wife and I went to the Missoula horse auction yesterday, just to take a day off work and spend some time together around horses. We were walking through the pens behind the auction and came upon this grulla mare, she had a saddle on, but you could see her hips sticking out at least 6 inches, and if you reached up under her saddle, you could easily feel her ribs. We hung out with her for awhile, and she really seemed to appreciate the attention, so we discussed it, and decided that even though we really didn't need another horse, she needed owners who could feed her, and that we'd bid on her up to a certain point.
Turns out, we know several of the hired riders at the auction, and we found the one who was hired to ride her through, and we asked him to give a signal whether or not we should bid on her while she was in the ring. When her turn came, he rode her in (he's about the best trainer in Montana,) he saw us sitting in the front row, rode by, and just said "hell yeah." So we bid on her and got her, and saved her a trip across the border to the meat processing plant. We went home, got our truck and trailer, brought her home, (her head was buried in the haybag all the way home,) put her in one of our quarantine pens, gave her a few leaves of grass hay, alfalfa hay, and some oats, and some weight gain vitamin and mineral supplement that we picked up on the way home, and she seemed happy.
This morning, before we left for work, we were pleasantly surprised when we went out with her feed and she was knickering up a storm. And when we got home from work tonight, she was waiting right at the gate of the pen for us, and nuzzled both of us when we came in, and we didn't even have any food with us at that moment.
Montana is a small community, and we looked into things last night after we bought her, turns out the person who sold her is a friend of a friend's friend, and sold her because he didn't think he'd be able to feed through winter with the cost of hay. I called the guy and asked how long she's been skinny, and he said she's not skinny, she's an appendix, so that's the sleek thoroghbred coming out in her. If you could see this horses' eyes when she sees food, you'd know she's starved, and what's more, when my wife examined her teeth, the said the edges on them are extremely sharp, and over 1/4 inch high, so they haven't been floated in years, so no matter what she eats, she can't chew it, therefore, can't digest it.
To me, the pictures are horrible, but to non horse people, they might not look bad. In a healthy horse, you should be able to see a hint of their ribs, in her, you can actually feel the circumference of each rib (you can put your fingers between them.) The muscles in her hind end are all gone, apparently she's been using them for food.
My wife rides professional rodeo, and we really take pride in our horses, and she feels this one is well worth saving as a pleasure horse for me, but she taped her and weighed her and right now she's about 895 lbs, and 15.2 hands, and she should be at least 1100 lbs at that height with her build, regardless of the fact that she's an appendix.
Anyway, I thought I'd share some pics now, and share some a month from now, and a few months later. It's really sad that people are starving perfectly good horses just because they can't afford the hay. If this guy had brought this horse to the auction a few months back when she was eating fresh grass, he probably would have been able to sell her for 4 times the price, just because of her color, she would have gotten a good home, and we woudn't have to have outbid a meat buyer to get her.
[/IMG]
Sorry the pictures are so big, I thought I downsized them on photobucket, but they didn't seem to downsize.
Tim
