[6 Month Update] Today, we bought a horse. The rescue of Versailles. Weight gain, recovery, confinement, new field, happiness!
Original post - We moved to a small village in France. There was a horse in the field across the street. Wife eventually found out it has been basically abandoned for years. Contacting all involved with no solution, and the LFPC rep stating the horse would not last another winter in the current conditions, we bought a horse and she has been recovering and gaining strength ever since.
Update - the first 6 months
It has been an interesting six months. We've learned a lot about taking care of horses, and a lot about our particular horse. Going into this we knew nothing about either.
After reading the embedded chip to get her SIRE number, we were able to trace her long lineage. She is listed on the Pedigree Online Thoroughbred Database. Her registered birth name is The Dark Side. But she answers to Versailles which is what she's been called since coming to France when she was seven. Now she is 20.
The first few months were spent taking care of years of neglect. Teeth, weight and hoofs were the most physical items in need of attention. The Vet recommended a special feed just for older horses with teeth issues: Pure Feed Veteran Pellets. A few months of that and her weight was getting back up. Her teeth were showing signs of long-term neglect. But the dentist assured us it will not affect her quality of life. Her hoofs were in awful shape, but mostly repairable. My wife loves to research and found products just to help there. We learned how to clean her hoofs and dig out the bad fungus, and treat what was growing. We now inspect and/or clean her hoofs every few days, as needed and they are in much better condition. We just tap on her leg and she lifts her feet for us to inspect and clean as needed. Good girl.
The stable she was originally in had a few "issues". I could write a complete post on all the "that's not right" realizations we came to as time passed. In the end, the two months we were forced to stay away, and how she was treated, was too much. The week before confinement ended we found another place, much closer to our house. They have many green fields are very much NOT into the "keep a horse in a box for 23.25 hours a day" and "one horse per field" restrictions that the original place had.
Reconnection
The minute confinement ended we were there with a horse trailer ready to take her to her new home. She was a little unsettled when first arriving as she was very attached to the horses at the other place. (All those other horses are gone now. We were not the only one that had enough of the "issues". We knew the others were leaving but she didn't.) After a hour or so she settled down and started digging her new place. White sand to roll in, she's in!
A few days later she was released into the field she will stay in for the summer. The video of her getting released is one of my favorites. Watch it here if you are interested.
We wasn't sure she would know who we were as we'd only been with her a few months before the confinement. Then for two months we just disappeared. We did get to 'tell' her we couldn't come the last time we saw her before confinement started. So when we got her back, we didn't know how long it would take to reconnect.
The second day in the new field we took her the special food and stayed with her in the back of the field, looking around. She was eating as horses do and after about an hour we said goodbye and went to the gate. She kept eating the abundant grass. After we got a little ways away, we heard her following us to the gate. I distracted her so my wife could get through but she stood in front of the gate when it was my turn to leave. My wife told me to just stay with her until she was ready for us to leave. I spent the next 15 minutes brushing and massaging her with my hands. I ended up laying my head on, and wrapping my arms around, her neck. (I'm 6' 4") After some time the other horses quietly came around and Versailles let me leave. My wife said her face during that time was of someone very content. Since then the connection between us has been very good.
This Summer
This summer we plan to just let her get used to us, take her for walks in the nearby woods, let her eat to gain more fat, and live a happy life. Big change from what was before. She's still a bit traumatized from what she had gone through and gets quite anxious if taken to a place where she is alone and not with either of us. I don't know if that will ever leave her. But she is a really sweet girl around my wife and I. A little strong-willed at times but we are learning how to deal with that. Like just about every horse owner, we dream of getting a place where she, and a few friends, can be with us all the time.
Here are a few photos: Versailles in Feb 2020
Submitted June 18, 2020 at 06:29AM by reddit108
via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/Horses/comments/hbdoph/6_month_update_today_we_bought_a_horse_the_rescue/?utm_source=ifttt
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