Allie and Duchess
Some
of you may remember Duchess' & Allie's stories from last year. To
recap, I bought Allie out of a trail riding facility. Only to find out
that she was much too old and had a knee bone spur that deemed her
unable to ride. I bought her along with 6 others that day who were all
in danger of meat buyers. Yes, not a reputable riding facility. Anyway,
one of the other horses was "Chocolate" whom Allie became her
"babysitter" when Chocolate became "pleasantly confused". We had to put
Chocolate down and Allie seemed lost. The following weekend, I bought
Duchess out of an auction house only to find out that she had been
beaten blind with a 2x4 a few years back. It seemed fitting to pair
these two together and it had worked nicely. A couple weeks later,
(what "seemed" to be) the perfect Adoptive home came to adopt Duchess
& Allie. It was a mother/daughter combo who wanted a couple pasture
pets to help mow their pasture, get love & attention. Five months
into their adoption, the Polk County Sheriff's Dept. seized Duchess and
Allie as they were badly emaciated. I was in Alabama when the Sheriff's
Dept. called to inform me of the bad situation. I quickly sent Cortney
to the address to get our own pics and help the Sheriff as needed to
prosecute the adoptive family. I will find these pics and post them on
the website soon. These pics will not be for the weak. When i got back
to Florida and looked at the pics, their appearance took the wind out
of me. It was THAT bad. The prognosis for survival was not good. This
day, our procedure changed to every 4 month farm checks instead of
the every 6 months, for the 2 year adoption period.
If you have a problem agreeing to farm checks, so we can be sure the
horses are safe & cared for (during the 2 yr adoption period),
don't come to us looking for a horse. It's that simple. This experience
was a rude awakening to me.
After a couple months, Polk County Sheriff's Dept released Duchess
& Allie to our rescue again, stating that they would have destroyed
both these horses had we not been there with arms wide open awaiting
their release. Once we got them HOME, we had their teeth floated,
shots, coggins and started a serious feed schedule to help increase
their weight at a speed not to induce founder. After 3 or 4 weeks, one
of our most helpful Foster Moms stepped up to care for the two girls!
This same Foster Mom (Cathy) also has my other blind horse Streak.
Cathy has demanded custody of these two girls until the perfect
permanent foster home can be found for them. Yes, I meant FOSTER home.
These two will NEVER be released from my custody again. They will NEVER
suffer another day of abuse in their lives. So if you dare to want to
foster these two, be prepared to deal with Cathy direct.
Allie is taking more time to increase her weight. Doc says she has a
tooth that is rotting that needs removed. We didn't want to traumatize
her the day we floated her teeth. So we chose to wait until her
strength was right to pull that tooth. Her knot in her knee is being
treated (again) with MSM & Glucosamine and she is doing great.
Duchess is just Duchess, she is AWESOME! She is the Red Roan Appy who
is totally blind. She follows the bell sound that is clipped to Allie's
halter. Yet, she thinks nothing of going her separate way to
investigate with her young personality. She's only 9 yrs old. She would
be a perfect therapy horse for special needs (as she is 100% sound
& sane both on the ground and under saddle). I'd love to see a
woman Foster her who wants to bond totally with a horse. Once Duchess
trusted her human eyes, I believe she could conquer the world! I
honestly mean that! The pictures posted here are how good
they look now after their near death experience just a few months
earlier.
Due to the arthritis in her knee taking too much out of the quality of her life, we had to put Allie down. She surely will be missed. Here are some pictures of Allie and pictures of Duchess for you all to view.
