This is taking FOREVER.

I rescued Nacho in late May of '09. She was wormy and really needed groceries. For the past 7 months, I have been doing everything I could to put weight on the mare. I'm finally seeing progress. Once a horse gets skinny, it's really hard to fix!!

Before her rescue, tail braided because she was squirting out "brown water":


Here she is less than a week after rescue:



And here she is today:

Congradulations!!! Looking so much better, and the hard work is showing. Few people realize just how hard it is to put weight on a horse once it gets down. Ive seen more than one person get a horse and think "Oh a little hay will fatten her out and get her looking slick". So wrong...

She is really good looking now and love her color. It seems odd though how fast worms pull the weight off animals verses how long it takes to get it back on.

Horses are great examples of if you can't afford to care for it don't buy it.

When I went for my first horse I went for a mare but ended up buying his neighbors gelding. The gelding was almost starved to death, no worms just starved. The neighbor walked me out to his pasture so I could see how that guy "cared" for his horses. The only thing out there was barbed wire, dirt, and a empty 5 gallon bucket full of nasty stagnate water. Said when he told him he was selling his horses he asked if he could sell his horses for him too. You could not only count every rib but put your first 3 fingers under his ribs. No fat no muscle. The neighbor had been feeding and watering them on his property for a week because his neighbor didn't. You could literally wet blanket him with just a walk around for 30 minutes. When we finally got the weight put on him (after a year) we learned he was not a woman's horse by any means, totally kid safe but just no women.

She's looking amazing Katy. It makes you wonder how anyone could let a horse that beautiful get as bad as she did!

i liked it when people rescue animals......so i will say thanks for the horse coz the horse cant talk so i will say it for him thanks

Great job! She is looking really good.

It's hard to put weight on them for sure (at least when you need to lol.)

Years ago, we sold one of our stallions (we have Morgans, so VERY easy keepers) and when we went to see him they had horribly neglected him, he looked like Nacho when you first rescued her. We brought him home, and it was a very long and painstaking task to get him back to proper condition/weight. I have before and after pics of Adam somewhere, I will see if I can find them

He went on to continuing his show career under me, and made quite a name for himself, would have never known all the neglect he had been through. Just shows that in every hobby, even reputable people can turn out to be idiots. The farm we sold him to, had been considered one of the best. Needless to stay we steered very clear of them after that.

She's beautiful, and lucky to have you.

She looks MUCH better now. Bless your heart for showing such compassion to another living thing.

Thanks guys.

The crazy thing is that before she was neglected, she was actually an easy keeper! I have known her for 6 or 7 years - I trained her - but I have actually only owned her since May 30, '09. For the two years that she was out of my sight - kept almost 2 hours from my home - her owner must not have done anything with her. Poor thing had horrible, jagged feet, too.

Her previous owner gave in and allowed me to take her, but now goes around telling people that I "stole" her and says all kinds of horrible things about me.

OH WELL, at least I have the horse.

Beautiful job.
She looks very happy, and very full.

equuskat said:

Her previous owner gave in and allowed me to take her, but now goes around telling people that I "stole" her and says all kinds of horrible things about me.

Click to expand...

I had a similar thing happen to me.

I was approached about 9 years ago to break and train a beautiful Arab for a woman that wanted to sell him. He was 8yrs old, she had bought him as a yearling and he had been a pasture ornament ever since. He barely haltered and let you handle his feet.

I spent almost 2 yrs working with him and had him going beautifully, she was asking WAY too much so no one was interested (which I told her numerous times but what do I know ) She informed me one day that her niece who just started taking riding lessons was coming down for the summer, so if I didn't mind taking a break, she was going to let her use him for the summer.

I wasn't impressed, this kid knew next to nothing and Teddy was still very green, but I didn't argue, I had enough other project horses to keep me busy. I heard nothing for 2 mths.

In september, she called me, he was a mess would I please, please come back and take over again. I said I would even though I knew what a flake she was, I just couldn't ignore him, we had a bond.

The next day (before I had even had time to go back out and see him) I had a call from a woman who was interested in buying him for their daughter. Apparently the owner had been saying horrible things about me, that everything had been great but over the summer I managed to "ruin him."

I informed the potential buyer that I hadn't been anywhere near him since June, and she said she asked for my # because of all the inconsistencies in the owners story. She asked if I would be willing to be there when they went to see him.

I rode him for about 2 weeks, before they came to see him and it didn't take much for him and I to click again. The day they came out, he went beautifully and the potential buyer gave his owner a piece of her mind for me. They bought him then and there, but asked that I continue to work with him and with their daughter (she was a relatively new rider, but a natural, so I knew she could handle him with some work.)

I spent another 3 mths working with the 2 of them, and they have gone on to do very well in the A circuit. Just goes to show though just how many whack jobs are out there in the horse industry. Sorry for the long post.

I have no idea how hard this is to do, but to the complete and total outsider, that looks like an amazing job.

Horses are pretty... but in my very limited experience, painful to ride. I've never really had much of an opportunity to try. Still, excellent job. I'm sure she'll thank you for it in the future!