Susan Larson, a writer, owns a rescue and rehabilitation centre for horses, Empowered Equines. One rescue, recently, has been more emotionally challenging than normal.
A Horse was brought out from a truck, an Amish horse, and led to the rescue and rehabilitation centre, the horse was in the worst condition, in fact the worse Susan’s friend had ever seen.
Many people have the opinion that horses overworked and abused like this would be better off dead, but Susan’s friend didn’t have such thoughts. She wanted to really make sure that the poor Amish horse was cared for and had positive experiences in his life, even if he then died soon after.
Poorly as the horse was, with sores everywhere, a hacked at tail and many other problems, not to mention bad joints and marks of abuse the Amish horse was worked to within an inch of death each day.
The animal didn’t have anything left, no emotions, no happiness, nothing, so when groomed by new carers and his wounds tended to, he didn’t even flinch.
The Horse really did seem dead inside, the fight had long gone, the horse did not show much desire to do much of anything, not even to interact with others, people or other horses.
A veterinarian tried to reverse the painful and sore wounds, all inflicted on the horse. Incredibly the horse had a genetic disease that was why he had misaligned joints and back, called degenerative suspensory ligament desmitis, similar the human Ehlers-Danlos condition.
Despite everything, the horse was still worked into the ground, whipped, and made to carry many heavy loads. Susan, whose granddaughter and daughter have Ehlers-Danlos, was especially upset.
Her granddaughter and daughter receive care and therapy, but, the horse, however, was mistreated and abused.
Windfall was to be the horse’s name, at least for now, while learning to heal and trust again, large doses of patience with a lot of hard work and sure enough, he is beginning to come out of that hard shell he developed.
Susan was really touched by the storey of this hose, now more than ever she is aware of the importance that must be placed on people supporting the animal rehabilitations centres and saving the poor mistreated animals who are so unfairly treated.
