Beau, Belle, Jack & Lucifer's  Rescue Page
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Press-Enterprise readers may be familiar with the scandal of the California Protection horse rescue in Hemet. 70 plus horses were seized from this facility, starved, injured and neglected almost to death. The horses were housed with Doug Williams at Lavendar Hills Ranch in Nuevo for the last 14 months while legal proceedings against the former owners were in progress. About 2 months ago, there was an auction of these horses and at least 49 were placed in new homes. With some dying, and others being privately placed, most had found homes. On February 18, 2004 I received a call from Josh Sisler of Animal Services, asking if I might be willing to take some of the 6 horses left. Believe me, these horses need help - please see the website for pictures that will curl your hair.

I was able to place the two healthy horses with Alex and Mary, who have been in the market for a couple more horses for a while. These two are healthy and sound, but the appy/mustang mare is completely untrained; and the quarterhorse has some violent reaction to being saddled. I wasn’t sure if Alex and Mary wanted to take on training issues like this, but the two charmed their way into the hearts of both Alex, Mary and their friend Christy. This is a match made in heaven as it turns out - I hope to report in the future of happy family trail rides!

Here are current photos taken within days of these horses coming the The Golden Carrot.  We will keep an ongoing journal (BLOG if you wish) so you can monitor the process of their recovery.

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Beau

Beau:  is at least 16.2 hands, deep red chestnut TB gelding. I don’t have the microchip information on his age yet. Beau did everything he could to be sure I’d bring him home, despite his badly damaged left foreleg. He was trembly legged, and Doug Williams advised that until shortly before I saw him, Beau was spending a lot of time lying down. Although he’s skinny, with his size he’s really not as bad as some of the others - I suspect he was injured in that group pen and began to lose weight after that, when he couldn’t compete as successfully for his food. Beau is a talker - he begins urging me to hurry up with the food as soon as he sees me. The first night that I brought him his final feed of the night, he was so thrilled at getting the unexpected third meal that he stopped, hay sticking out of his mouth, stretched his neck over the side of his stall and "hugged" me, briefly but definitely, before diving back into his feed bin.

Belle:  is a 15.2 hand white ‘freckled’ TB mare (maybe Arab cross). (I hate the term "flea-bitten", preferring to call this ‘freckled’). She looks like a small PC, is quiet in her manner and easy to handle. She is thin, and has some scarring on her back legs, but I have a lot of hope for this little lady - her eye is bright and interested when I approach with feed, and she’s already letting me know she prefers alfalfa to grass hay. Belle is either timid, or more depressed than I realized at first, refusing to meet the other horses over her fence, instead clinging to the fence rail between herself and Beau. Although she had not been bonded to him at Lavender Hills, they are fast becoming best friends.

Jack:  is a 16 hand, 15 year old TB gelding, chestnut in color. He’s very thin, with a long horsey face which sports a blind left eye. It looks as though he may have been kicked or suffered a severe infection, as that eye is sunken deeply in his face. He has no vision in it at all, as witnessed by all the bite marks on that side of his body showing that he never saw his attackers coming. He is also easy to handle and mostly interested in food, of any sort. He loaded into the trailer easily and stood chomping steadily while we struggled to get his friend and protector, Lucifer, loaded. Jack is remarkably unspooky for a one-eyed horse; but in part, it is his singled minded fixation on food that makes him seem calm. I believe a hurricane could occur, but as long as it didn’t blow his food away, he’d ignore it.

Lucifer:  This is a pure white QH/Arab cross gelding, approximately 25 years of age, skin and bones but full of cussedness. His former name was "Sage" but he doesn’t answer to that name, either ignoring it or walking away. I’d already named him Lucifer - for the beautiful angel who was really a devil at heart, so Luc it is. Between his debilitated condition and his age, I may not be able to help this guy a lot but I will try. Could be his grumpiness has to do with pain - so I’ll try a few things to get him willing to lift his back feet, and be groomed and worked with from behind, and if I can get him less reactive, I’ll ask Laurie Henkel to see what she can do for him. He’s sweet to handle at the front end, with funny lip-flapping while thinking, and bright eyes and inquisitive ears. He fought being loaded despite the food he could see inside the trailer - standing outside the trailer, neck stretched out about 8 feet trying to reach it; then standing with his front legs in the trailer, but his hind legs still on the ground, while he ate. That turned out to be too uncomfortable, and I really think the only reason he got in the trailer was to get to that food. He cow-kicked me in the thigh when I stumbled and tried to brace myself on his hip, and bucked madly when the butt-strap was applied to encourage him in. This one might turn out to never be useful - but still, take a look at his picture. Could YOU walk away from him? (Note: after writing the above, I went out to check on him and Jack, and bring them an additional feed of grass. While there, I took a moment to brush them out - and this guy LOVED being brushed, and showed no interest in kicking me while I worked on his back end. Go figure)

These horses are the rejects. They aren’t perfect anymore, through no fault of their own, and so our disposable society wants to toss them out, turn their backs, and let these guys fade away. The woman who ‘rescued’ them did them no favor, as it turns out. She had them all in a herd, and as always happens, the older, the disabled, the timid suffered. They can’t compete for food and I have found from personal experience that you can never throw enough food into a herd. The dominant ones get fatter and fatter, and the timid get weaker and weaker. That’s mother nature’s way, but these are domesticated horses, many probably never having had to compete for their feed in their lives until now. We breed horses to be less aggressive and dominant - so they will be easier for us to handle and use. We then have an obligation, I believe, to protect them and provide for them.

These horses need your help. I need your help, to give them a second chance. I’ll have increased feed needs, not only due to the extra horses, but because of their extra needs. They have not had their feet trimmed in 14 months; haven’t been wormed or vaccinated; I’ll need to build two more stalls (at a cost of approximately $250 in materials per stall) and at the very least Lucifer needs the attention of Laurie Henkel. I’m making a plea to each and every one of you to donate what you can for the next year. Can you help? Every little bit helps - please think of the Golden Carrot when your tax refund comes in! How about going to the Winnies’ Cookie site and ordering a Pal’s Pail for TGC? It’s only $20 per month and will make an amazing difference for these horses. How about a sponsorship of one of these sweeties? Or a partial, or office sponsorship? My other faithful sponsors have made this rescue possible, but more is needed. Get in touch with me if you want to sponsor someone and I’ll let you know what the fee would be. I will be needing fly masks for them this summer; and for next winter, blankets as well.