20/03/2017
Sadie's Story, pt 1:
Danamay is overjoyed to welcome Sadie to our little farm family. Sadie was rescued from OLEX in St Jacobs on March 14, 2017.
A friend of ours was at OLEX rescuing a 5yr old and had reached out to us to help water, feed, and load her new horse. While she waited for us to arrive, she noticed an old chestnut mare a few pens over who had cast herself against the bars of her holding pen. The mare eventually got herself up and was standing still with head low by the time we arrived. The chestnut mare stood out like a sore thumb among the panic and chaos of livestock at OLEX. Malnourished and sullen, she stood with fetlocks bleeding, already a lost cause by her own reckoning. We couldn't take our eyes off of her, and when the time came to load our friend's horse into the trailer, the old chestnut mare, now named Sadie, was loaded up too, sold for rock bottom "meat price." She walked onto the trailer stiffly, but without a moment's hesitation. It was almost as if she knew that this trailer would take her away from the end of her life and towards the rest of her life.
Whoever owned Sadie in the past taught her very good manners. She lifts her feet willingly and doesn't spook at anything.
Sadie is a registered thoroughbred with an illegible tattoo, and the vet believes Sadie to be around 20. All of her gashes were treated appropriately, and she was blanketed with borrowed blankets until we can get her new ones, and she is currently in quarantine with the 5 year old.
Sadie was difficult to feed the night we brought her home. She ate watery Speedi-Beet but refused the feed bucket once we added CoolStance and Genesis, and instead of drinking water from a bucket she ate snow off the ground. We believe she was acting on the instincts that have been keeping her alive all winter, possibly longer.
As of March 19, she loves her twice a day feeding of Speedi-Beet, CoolStance, and Genesis; we have since added Power Horse, chamomile, and aloe vera juice.
In the days since we brought her home, she has shown great improvement both in her well-being and in her movement. She even keeps the 5yr old in line.
Welcome home, Sadie! We can't wait to see how you'll continue to recover.