A few months later Levi was a different horse. His dental problems were repaired as best we could. He eats an oatmeal of Alfalfa Cubes and Equine Senior (about 20 pounds per day) and as evidenced by this recent photo, he has regained his weight, but more importantly, he has found his SPIRIT, Dignity and Pride.  He even kicks it up a bit in his turnout pasture. 

Misty

"Levi's Old Lady"

Misty and Levi are the funniest old couple....I like to call them "Wayne and Evelyn" after my Dad and his wife.  It is definitely an inside joke, but to know my Dad and Evelyn, they "bicker" constantly and complain about one and other. But try to seperate them and you have a real fight on your hands.  They are totally devoted to one another and cannot stand to be kept apart.

Before

   After

Misty is and isn't a "rescue" horse.  She actually belongs to a close friend of ours, Chelsea Lloyd who is currently a student at Western States College. 

Chelsea originally "leased" Misty to a family in Florence, CO when she started College.   Misty was a strapping 1200 pound 15+hh Arabian and despite her advanced age, she was spry and very sound when she went to live with this family.

Misty was always an easy keeper, according to Chelsea and her parents.  They should know, they have owned her since Chelsea was a very young.

During the school year, Chelsea kept in touch with the family caring for Misty and was disturbed to hear that she was not doing well.  The family said she was losing weight and they suspected that Misty had cushings disease or some other maladay. They assured Chelsea that the vet was involved and they were doing everything they could for her.

When Chelsea finished the school year and made her way home, one of her first missions was to visit Misty and find out what was wrong with her.  What she found was devastating.  Poor old Misty was in a pasture along with 23 other horses, mostly mustangs and much younger and stronger than her.  There was no food in the pasture, it was all rocks and dead trees. Misty looked like a walking skeleton.

Misty's right hind leg was swollen to about 3 times it's normal size due to a puncture wound in her groin area.  Chelsea was told that she had skewered herself on a dead tree and it had happened a few days ago and the vet had examined her and gave them a treatment plan. Whatever it was, it was not working.

Misty was so weak from malnutrition and her injury and the resulting infection that it took over 7 days of free feeding her hay to get her strong enough to load her into a trailer to transport her to DreamCatchers.

Once she arrived, we began a regimen of Pennicillin 2 times daily and cleaning and irrigating the wound.  This brought the swelling down but there was still a persistent oozing from the wound.  We called the vet out and he lanced the wound and what he found inside was enough to set the strongest of stomachs churning.  What appeared to be decomposing wood filled the wound.  He thoroughly cleaned the cavity of the wound and treated it with a strong antibiotic.

Misty seemed to be healing fine. She was slowly beginning to put on weight and get her energy back.  We were encouraged.

Then one day in October, just after the first cold snap, Misty became very stiff in her hind quarters and could barely walk.  She refused to come out of her stall.  We were at a loss as to what was wrong and we feared that she had developed bacterial arthritis in her joints from her infection.

We made a very difficult phone call to Chelsea's mom.  We told her that Misty was having trouble walking and that the mistreatment she had suffered in the last year may have taken a bigger toll than we had thought.  We told her that we were calling the vet, but we wanted her to prepare Chelsea for what might be horrible news.

The next day, while waiting for the vet, we noticed an adema forming on Misty's belly just in front of her mammaries.  It had never occurred to us that her wound  we had thought was completely healed could still be the problem. It had been 3 months with no sign of infection.  Upon closer inspection, we could tell that it had re-opened and was expelling fluids again. 

Well, long story short, the vet treated it with mastic which helps wounds fester out foreign objects and we kept her on antibiotics for a few days and she was back to normal.  Now the wound is completely gone, you cannot even see a scar and Misty is back to her normal weight.  She runs like a yearling, tail up, nose in the air just like the Arab she is!

We have added Misty's story only as an example of how good horses get into bad situations despite our efforts to make sure they are well cared for.  Many horses end up with kill buyers the same way, good intentioned owners sell them to seemingly wonderful people and the rest as they say is history.  Misty is part of our family and welcome to stay with us as part of our Senior Herd for the rest of her life.  Chelsea helps out with feed, supplies and vet care when she can.  Misty works off her board the rest of the time by letting kids love on her, groom her and occassionally ride.