For Louie, it’s his tilted head and outstretched neck.

For Apollo, it’s his undeniable limp.

For Ellie, it’s the slight, constant shifting of her weight.

For Abe, it’s the loss of his happy-go-lucky attitude.

Every resident at Roanchar Ranch Draft Horse Rescue suffers from chronic pain that is only eased by their daily medication.

The critical treatments cost $42.11 daily and ensure that Ellie, Apollo, Louie, and Abe are pain-free.

Please help Louie, Ellie, Apollo, and Abe to continue to thrive.

Yes, I will help Ellie, Apollo, Louie, and Abe be pain-free

Thanks to a generous group of donors, your gift will be doubled up to $4750.

Fifteen months ago the atrocities against hundreds of animals at a farm sanctuary in New Jersey came to light. For many, it was too late. For Ellie and Apollo, they were some of the lucky ones.

This week, the woman responsible for the deaths of hundreds of animals and the abuse and neglect of hundreds more was to appear in court and finally receive a verdict.

Instead, the prosecutor requested a delay so that additional charges could be filed against the woman in addition to the 17 that she is currently facing. The additional charges that the state is seeking would be indictable and would be at a county level, instead of the municipal level that the case was previously assigned to.

An indictable offense is “a crime that a prosecutor can charge by bringing evidence of the alleged crime to a grand jury. It is a crime for which a grand jury determines that there is enough evidence to charge a defendant with a felony.”

The hope is that a higher court means a harsher sentence. We will have to wait until November 2nd to find out.

If you would like to sign the petition to demand justice for Ellie and Apollo, please go to https://www.change.org/p/demand-justice-for-dozens-of-animals-starved-to-death-at-a-former-sanctuary.

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The days are getting longer and warmer. The birds are singing. The grass is beginning to grow. Finally, spring has sprung.

You are not the only one itching to enjoy the change of seasons. Horses do too.

What is a fresh horse?

If you have been around horses long enough, you know that even the calmest horse gets “fresh” in the spring. All of their senses are magnified and anything that is different elicits an over-the-top reaction.

The change in personality can be due to their diet. In the Spring, horses eat more than they do in the summer. Spring grass is full of sugars, which in turn gives horses more energy. That energy is released by horses bucking, galloping, and overall being on edge.

How to deal with a fresh horse

There are some things that you can do to help your horse get through spring fever:

• Limit the amount of access to spring grass
• Work with your horse on the ground prior to riding to get some of the energy out
• Provide a large area for them to stretch their legs

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Many times when a new horse arrives at the rescue, he or she does not have a name. We try to match the horse’s name with their personality or the circumstances that they needed to overcome.

Abraham

As the first horse rescue by the organization in 2013, we wanted a name with meaning.

We decided on Abraham because it means the Father of many nations. Abe is seen as being the seed that birthed Roanchar Ranch Draft Horse Rescue.

Elijah

When we first saw Eli, he was cowering in a stall at an auction with several horses that were pushing him around. He had the most soulful eyes and an air of humility about him.

The name Elijah means The Lord Is My God. According to history, Eljah was a religious figure of great personal dynamism and conservative zeal and the leader of resistance to the rise of Baal worship in Israel in the ninth century BCE.

Magdalene

Maggie came to the facility with the name Gwen, but it needed to be changed to protect her identity. She came from a severe abuse case where the people who abused her were trying to track her down.

Magdalene was chosen because it means Watchful and Maggie was certainly that way when she first arrived and in new situations.

Tobias

Toby came to the facility with the name Goliath, which he did not acknowledge. He was only given that name because he towered over everyone and everything.

The name Tobias is of Hebrew origin and means God is good. It is the Greek form of the name Tobiah, who was a hero in the apocryphal Book of Tobit. Since Toby was larger than life we thought it was fitting that he was named after a hero.

Gabriella

Gabby came to the rescue with the name Bay Mare. Definitely not a name appropriate for someone with her soft demeanor and loving personality.

Gabriella fitted her well because the name means Heroine of God.

Ellie

When Ellie came to the rescue as part of a severe neglect case at a farm sanctuary in New Jersey, no one knew her name. She was one of 30 horses that needed a soft place to land.

Ellie in Greek means Shining Light and she is most certainly that. She brings joy to everyone that she meets.

Apollo

When Apollo arrived at the facility he was skin and bones. He, like Ellie, was part of a severe neglect case at a farm sanctuary in New Jersey. We knew that once he was nursed back to health that he would be a sight to be hold.

It was only fitting that he be named Apollo; the ancient Greek and Roman god of light, healing, music, poetry, prophecy, and manly beauty.

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Intake Day

Apollo arrived at the facility close to 500 pounds underweight. His physical body showed all the signs of being starved; his hips jutted out, every rib was clearly visible, and his spine protruded out of his back. He was a walking skeleton.

The Road Back

An estimated 20% of emaciated horses die during the refeeding process. The undertaking takes time and patience. The urge to offer as much food as the animal could possibly eat is replaced with the best practice of providing multiple small meals throughout the day. This allows the body to become accustomed again to being nourished. If not done slowly, the shock to the system takes a toll on the liver, kidneys, and heart. Leaving the animal in organ failure.

The meal itself is a balancing act. It can’t contain too much sugar and it can’t contain too much fat. There needs to be an adequate amount of roughage to prime the digestive system.

Complete Transformation

For a moderately emaciated horse to fully return to their ideal weight, it takes 60-90 days. For severely emaciated it takes 6-10 months. The key is for the horse to have 24/7 access to a good pasture or quality after the initial 2-week refeeding adjustment period.

Adequate turnout is also very important so that the horse can rebuild the muscle that was lost from malnourishment.

Any refeeding program should be overseen by a veterinarian so that refeeding syndrome, a metabolic condition affecting horses that are reintroduced to high-nutrient feeds too quickly, can be avoided.

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Introducing a new horse to a herd is more art than it is science. There are so many factors that go can affect an introduction, including the personalities of the horses, the time of day, the weather, and just plain luck.

Preparing for the Introduction

We had waited on introducing Harry to the remainder of the herd out of an abundance of caution. In the past, he had been aggressive to other herd mates and we wanted to see how everyone would get along across a shared fence line before we put everyone together.

The biggest question that we had was how would Charlie and Harry interact. Charlie is the alpha of the herd and runs a pretty tight ship. He likes a calm herd and does not tolerate any signs of a herd member challenging his authority well.

Even from across the line, it did not take Harry long to figure out that Charlie runs the show and that he needed to keep his distance. The one herd member that Harry did enjoy spending time with was Louie. The two, one on each side of the shared line, would spend hours just standing next to each other. Every once in a while they would touch noses, but most of the time they just enjoyed each other’s company.

The Lead-Up

When it finally came time to allow Harry in with the rest of the herd, we had to do some rearranging. The thought was that it would be better for the introductions to take place on our largest pasture. Also. we thought that having Charlie and the rest of the herd on the pasture first, would make sense.

In order for that to happen, we needed to move Charlie, Roanie, Chase, and Louie from the front of the first pasture, past Harry in the back half of the front pasture, to the second pasture. Walking everyone by Harry would be a good test to gauge everyone’s mood.

The parade started with Charlie, who could have cared less about Harry. Harry, on the other hand, was all worked up and trotting up and down the fence line. Next came Louie, who wanted to get as close to Harry as he could. Both Chase and Roanie just wanted to get to the back pasture with Charlie and Louie and really didn’t even notice Harry at all.

Finally Together

After waiting a few hours for Harry to calm down and stop running around and for the herd to establish that the pasture was their domain, we took the shared line down so there was more room in the first pasture and opened the gate.

Charlie was the first to wander into the first pasture where Harry still was. In true Charlie fashion, he paid absolutely no attention to Harry and went right for the barn. Louie, on the other hand, was all about finally meeting Harry face-to-face. They walked right up to each other, touched noses, and started smelling each other all over.

From that moment on, Harry and Louie have been together. During the late afternoon, as soon as Louie starts to make his way out to any of the pastures, Harry is right behind him. Later at night, you can find Louie laying in the barn and Harry standing over him. Both peacefully sleeping.

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From the moment that Louie arrived, his hooves have been painful.  He has very thin souls and hardly any heal.  What that means is that Louie has very little cushioning when he walks.  We have tried using boots to make him more comfortable, but Louie kicks them off.

This Spring, Louie started noticeably limping.  First, on his left front and then, on his right front.  He could barely walk and was so painful that he was laying down, which is totally out of character for him. We knew that he needed help.

Fortunately, Louie had an appointment with Dr. Lauren from Henderson Equine clinic already scheduled for his Spring vaccines.  Dr. Lauren was able to diagnose Louie with abscesses in both feet,  She was concerned with the location of abscess on his left hoof because it was directly under the frog and looked unusual.

Dr. Lauren took x-rays to see the severity of the abscess.  She found that Louie not only had one abscess in his left hoof, but two.  Dr. Lauren devised a treatment plan of soaking and wrapping his hooves. We went to work.

In true Louie fashion, he has taken his treatments like a champ. He patiently stands while his hooves are soaked and allows us to wrap them without much fuss.

Immediately we started seeing results. He started walking much better and was back to going on adventures. We will continue to keep an eye on him to make sure that he is comfortable and happy.

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