Meet Pearl, New Horse

[canesisters]

Awww, sweet Pearl. She's got some catching up to do.
I wonder if a horse in poor condition would benefit from the loose livestock minerals that cows get? Perhaps a boost in minerals would be helpful - IF she'll eat it. The one Eva gets has kelp in it and smells like fish... not very appetizing, but she seems to like it.

 

[digitS']

Now looking her up, I see my memory is poor, lol. Apparently not a flip doll. Even a new outfit didn't do anything about that nose, though.
https://www.pinterest.com/sharedpath/pitiful-pearl/

We were so driven to make everyone the same in the 1950's. After the war, with McCarthy ... that was the political correctness of the day.

If you couldn't be the same, because of personality, appearance, brains (!), you would be pitied - probably at best. Ignored, for sure ...

Steve

 

[baymule]

I had a breakthrough with Pearl. I found her scratchy spot, where the bottom of her neck joins her chest. I started scratching and she stopped eating hay, even stopped chewing the mouthful she had. I walked back a few steps and she followed, wanting more. I scratched some more, stopped and she went back to her hay. I went out the gate and she came to me, so I went back in and gave her more scratches.

Training note; always leave on a positive. Then their last memory of you is that it was pleasant. Walk away leaving them wanting more, don't keep on until you become annoying. I am no trainer like @bobm and I certainly don't have his well of knowledge and experience to draw from, but I try to find what works.

 

[canesisters]

 

[bobm]

I had a breakthrough with Pearl. I found her scratchy spot, where the bottom of her neck joins her chest. I started scratching and she stopped eating hay, even stopped chewing the mouthful she had. I walked back a few steps and she followed, wanting more. I scratched some more, stopped and she went back to her hay. I went out the gate and she came to me, so I went back in and gave her more scratches.

Training note; always leave on a positive. Then their last memory of you is that it was pleasant. Walk away leaving them wanting more, don't keep on until you become annoying. I am no trainer like @bobm and I certainly don't have his well of knowledge and experience to draw from, but I try to find what works.

Bay, most horses have a happy scratch spot that they enjoy having scratched . My I suggest that you spend a little on a good Vet. exam to see if there may be an unknown injury or arthritis in the spine or hip or ? that would just render the horse a pasture ornament money pit or on the other hand a sound horse that you can safely ride and enjoy. I once purchased a very well bred Appaloosa yearling colt( major stakes winning race horse parents) that was drop dead gorgous with perfect conformation as well as perfect chestnut markings , and great loving personality for a princely sum. Upon a Vet. soundness exam, the Vet. found a pencil eraser size bone necrosis in the right rear patella that made this horse useless for racing and even to be ridden and eventually not to be able to breed at maturity. Purchase cancelled , and I saved myself a lot of greef and a ton of dollars !

 

[baymule]

@bobm this horse will go to the vet for a check up. But there is no recourse, no refund. She came out of a slaughter pen. It is buyer beware and I fully understand that. If she were a registered, valuable horse that I was buying from a breeder, and paying big money for, then you bet your boots I would do exactly like you said.

And no, I am not some bleeding heart “save the horse” type. I agree with horse slaughter. Lame, sick, old and crazy horses are a drain on their owners and need somewhere to go. There are a lot of very nice horses that through no fault of their own, that go to slaughter. I saw something in this starved mare. Time will either prove me right or wrong.

 

[seedcorn]

My $$$$ is that you have a great acquisition-if owning a horse can ever be called that........

 

[baymule]

My $$$$ is that you have a great acquisition-if owning a horse can ever be called that........

Owning a horse is a hole in your pocket that you dump money in. We already have two old seniors that are too old and sick to ride. We have checked on having them put down when they no longer have that shine in their eye, their ears pricked up and they are telling me that they are done. It will be expensive. A farm call is $75, to euthanize them is $125 each and we found a man that will pick them up and bury them for $250 each. So just for them to die will be $825. It would be much cheaper to take them to the sale and get a couple hundred bucks apiece and send them on their way. Joe and Sparkles gave me the best years of their life and if I am nothing else, I am loyal. There is no way that I could put my two friends on a truck to Mexico to be slaughtered. My husband feels the same way that I do. We'll suck it up, do what has to be done, pay for it and cry our eyes out.

For people who maybe don't feel the way I do about their old horses (and there are lots of them, the kill pens are full of broke down old horses) or maybe they just can't afford it and getting a few hundred bucks is better than spending money they don't have, slaughter is the answer. I am not against slaughter, I am against the bleeding heart do-gooders that got horse slaughter shut down in the USA. It moved to Mexico and Canada. It now involves a long ride to a holding pen, followed by another long ride to slaughter. I am sure that in Mexico there is not a lot of laws for animal welfare. I have read some pretty horrible accounts of how horse slaughter is carried out. Congratulations to the idiots who made it worse. Maybe it is better regulated in Canada, I hope so.

Comments on the Facebook pages of the kill pens trend toward getting it outlawed to even ship the horses out of the country. That means that horses will starve to death, be turned loose to run up and down the roads or shot by desperate owners with nowhere to go with unwanted horses. The man that owns the kill pen where we got Pearl said that during the 2 year drought we had here in Texas a few years back, he shipped 40 loads a week to slaughter. A load is 30-35 horses. People had no grass, hay was brought in from other states and was $125 a round bale on the low side and up to $250 for a single round bale. Horses were taken to auction where nobody but the kill buyers wanted them.

There is no easy answer. I would like to see horse slaughter brought back to the US where it could be regulated to be as humane as possible, but nothing will ever satisfy the idiots who scream animal cruelty.

I will shut up now. Rant not over, I am still ranting in my mind.

 

[seedcorn]

Agree with rant. People with power & money are a problem. Wish there was a good answer.

 

[Nyboy]

Some of my favorite dogs are buried in my yard . Bay you have merrigold and acres why not bury them on the farm where there bodies can nurture the land of their home. I know nothing about horses but remember 2 friends who had horses talking one had justhad her vet put down her horse a bullet right to the brain. quick, painless and cheap