Anastasia

I think when it comes down to it most of us seek to feel safe, loved and valued. And I believe animals are looking for the same thing too, especially in old age.

When my grandmother died, I felt such profound loss, not just of her and our relationship, but of her knowledge. All the things I ever thought I might ask, every story I never heard, every bit of wisdom not shared was gone.

Lately, I’ve been appreciating being ‘in the moment’ with my older animals — my cat, Jasmine, of 16 years, and my horse, Anastasia, of unknown years but undoubtedly a great many. Anastasia, in particular, seems to be coming towards the end of her grand life—a life I’ve known for only a year and a half.

I rescued Anastasia from death in August 2010. (I did it personally, as Charlie’s Angels has a policy of not dealing directly with doggers or horse dealers, horse sales aside.) She was set to be slaughtered for, what I can only assume, were reasons pertaining to her age. When my friend, Jane, picked Anastasia up from the slaughterhouse holding yard, body parts from her fellow equine friends lay scattered on the ground. Anastasia was next in line. It’s a fate I see and hear about all too frequently.

Why do people abandon their aged animals right when the animal needs them to stand up for them the most?

People have their reasons, such as that the horse is ‘no use’ any more, or because of finances. It’s true that Anastasia costs more to care for than my young horses. I support her arthritis with supplements and her immune system with herbs. And as she is less mobile than the others, she tends to hang around the house so I can feed her from the shed, rather than forage with the others.

But what I get back from Anastasia is unquantifiable. For those who believe that a horse needs to have ‘a use’, I would argue that aged horses have a tremendous amount to offer. They’re generally more patient and less reactive (therefore less likely to injure a child). They’re generally less active and therefore less likely to break down fences or be a nuisance. They have a lifetime of experience that makes them wonderful for nervous adults and children alike.

Perhaps more importantly, they also offer us the chance to appreciate life in all its stages, teaching us to see beauty and value at any age. What a wonderful gift to teach our children! What wonderful lessons to share about commitment and honour and relationships.

And wouldn’t it be nice to think that when we’re old and needing extra support that others might see the same value in us as well?

In a culture obsessed by youth and vigour, our aged populations all too often get the short end of the stick. Animals reflect back to us so much about ourselves and if we have a throw-away attitude about our aged animals then chances are we might have the same attitude about our aged people too. (And you know what they say… what goes around, comes around.)

In my work for Charlie’s Angels, I often receive emails or phone calls about an aged horse that is no longer any ‘use’, that the person wishes to give away or send to slaughter. The person asks me, exasperated, ‘but what else can I do with it?’ I take a deep breath before gently suggesting that perhaps they might consider loving and caring for it for the rest of its life. (I’ve yet to have the person change their mind, and so I then do my best to help re-home the horse.)

Anastasia may be heading towards crossing over, but I couldn’t feel more honoured to be sharing this phase of life with her. She approaches each day with patience, acceptance and wisdom. She knows how to look after herself; she knows how to manage her physical limitations (without complaint); and she is a reservoir of unimaginable life experience. All that wisdom that is there, just waiting for us to take the time to listen to.

Our home is truly more rich and blessed to have had Anastasia in it.

My wish for the senior animals of the world is that they are honoured, loved and cherished in their later life, just as we all hope we will be one day too.

Joanne Schoenwald (President/Founder, Charlie’s Angels Horse Rescue)

Help us Tow our Beautiful Float

Want something fast, free and simple you can do to help us win $5000 and put us a long way towards getting a four-wheel-drive?

Vote for us in this month’s Sunsuper Dreams competition. The dream with the most votes wins. Simple!

Please visit our webpage on the Sunsuper Dreams site and vote today. And please share with your friends.

You might also like to visit our special little video on YouTube that we’ve made for the cause

Thank you for helping us make our dream a reality

This book is fantastic. It’s full of very practical information and how to rescue horses from ditches, mud, fast flowing water, fires, fallen horse floats and more. We cannot recommend it highly enough.

“Two decades ago, only a tiny 4 to 10% of large animal rescues carried out in the UK were deemed to be successful–that is, they did not maim, severely injure or kill the animals involved. However, when advisers who were trained in technical large animal rescue techniques joined rescue teams, the percentage of successful rescues was raised to 96%” (from Equine Emergency Rescue).

They are sobering statistics!

If your horse is unfortunate enough to be caught in an emergency situation such as described in this book, the emergency responders may not have any training or knowledge in how to assist your horse safely without injuring, maiming or killing him. At least if you have some knowledge (and can preferably show them step-by-step instructions) your horse might just have a chance.

To buy your own copy of Equine Emergency Rescue, visit the website.

Charlie’s Angels is also keen to attend training in this form of rescue, so we’ll be looking out for opportunities to attend or to bring this vital training to SE Qld.

Shona, day 1, two-month-old Ruben at foot

Well, this is big news.

Shona and Joleena are our longest-term residents, having been with us for two years, as our first rescues after the initial dogger yard rescue of four horses that began this charity. We rescued them from a slaughterhouse holding yard, along with their two-month-old colts at their side. They had come from an intensive breeding program and came with evidence of serious and prolonged trauma and an exceptional fear for humans.

Joleena, training with Kerryn Armstrong (pic by Jacinta Armstrong)

While their colts grew up beautifully, and we weaned them, gelded them and found them wonderful homes at six months of age, Shona and Joleena went on to become our most challenging behavioural cases. Physically, they healed well and proved to be robust horses. Emotionally and psychologically, these girls carried some very big scars.

Along the way they spent time with Kerryn Armstrong and Lillan Roquet, qualified Parelli instructors from Intuitive Connection, and while they did progress, their futures seemed to fall into one of two directions: find an exceptional, advanced Parelli home to go to in order to continue their development, or find a permanent retirement home where they could live their days as naturally roaming horses but still with the routine management and care (feet, teeth, worming etc.) that all horses need.

Shona and Joleena, best friends

We’d been offered several homes over their time, where they could run free as wild horses on huge properties, but we wanted more for them than that. At times it was very difficult to turn down these offers, as we tried to balance their needs and preferences (and their preferences were clearly that they’d prefer not to engage with people), with their potential, their lifespan, our ability as a charity to provide what they needed, and what we as humans considered ‘best’ for them.

This week, we received a remarkable offer. Gaye Harvey, from Horse Heaven, has been a supporter of Charlie’s Angels since we began. Her exceptional, professional agistment and training property near Stanthorpe includes a 500 acre retirement paddock. But she also continues to manage the welfare of those retired horses, ensuring their feet are regularly done, their teeth are done and they are wormed and vaccinated. The horses are carefully monitored daily and any injuries or weight loss corrected immediately.

In short, this is exactly what these girls need. It was also of top concern for us that Shona and Joleena were able to go to a forever home together. As they are such good friends and have obviously been through so much, we didn’t want to separate them if it was at all possible.

For these girls to find this forever home, of this quality, is one of those miraculous events that happen for us every now and then that affirm that we’re doing the right thing. Our emphasis is always on quality not quantity. We are not interested in ‘turning over’ horses just to make ourselves look good. We are prepared to hold onto each and every horse that comes our way for their entire life if necessary, rather than risk them going to the wrong home. We are not afraid to turn down an offer of a home if it just doesn’t feel right, and we’re proud to say this has given us a tremendously successful horse-placement record over the past two years.

Joleena

We are so very, very grateful to Gaye and her husband, John, for offering these girls a place to finally call home, knowing they will be safe and cared for for the rest of their days. What amazing Angels you are! We’re so proud to have you in our Angel team.

Oscar, Oct 2011

Rescue pony, Oscar, has been adopted into his forever home!

Oscar came to us in September 2011 as a two-year-old stallion with extreme stallion behaviour. His people couldn’t keep him because they lacked the facilities to keep him safely and happily and couldn’t find him a new home because of his stallion behaviour. Obviously, the first thing we did was geld him.

Oscar, mud monster, pic by Michael Battensby

But because Oscar had been left to develop these behaviours, they didn’t go away immediately. At times our journey with Oscar has been a bit bumpy! He killed one of our chickens, took on full-size Brahmin bulls over the fence, tore down fencing to get to mares, and fought serious battles with the geldings he saw as a threat to his ability to manage the mares on the property.

This pint-sized pony was a power rocket!

In his favour, however, was his great connection and response to people and his exceptional intelligence. This was a pony looking for purpose. The challenge here was to find him that perfect home where he would be mentally engaged and challenged and also in a herd situation where he didn’t feel he needed to defend mares and fight geldings. He was never going to be a ‘paddock pony’. Without something constructive to do, he would only make up his own (inappropriate) games to play. And we didn’t feel he was right for riding by children, which narrowed his adoption options.

At training

We sent him to Australian Natural Horsemanship with Ken Faulkner and Kathy Stewart, as much to give him something to do as anything else. In the Parelli system, we’d call his horseanality an LBE (Left Brained Extrovert) and therefore needing essential mental challenge and a strong human partner.

Fortunes smiled on Oscar when he met Doreen, a student of both Parelli and of Ken Faulkner’s, who was at his training camp for a weekend workshop. She fell in love with him and could instantly recognise him as an LBE and her years of experience meant she knew exactly what he needed. Oscar has been welcomed into a wonderful family of natural horsemanship practitioners, who have only other geldings as paddock mates, and who have a dedicated play arena, with balls, barrels etc. for continued horse development and mental challenge. In a nutshell, exactly what Oscar needs.

We wish to thank Doreen and Dennis for offering our littlest man (with the biggest personality) the perfect forever home. We wish you all a long, happy and fulfilling journey together.

Another Angel takes flight

One of the worms that Holly and Fraser have been passing in their manure.

Lovely Holly and Fraser, who came from the Gympie horse sales, have been riddled with worms. They were passing live worms in their manure when they arrived, have since been wormed multiple times, and are still passing out the dead and dying worms.

It’s truly horrifying. This picture is of one of the worms they have been passing. Their foster mum, Jo M, diligently pulled it out and lay it against an ice cream stick to show you how big it is. But it’s not the biggest that’s come out, not by far.

To have worm burdens at this level is a serious threat to a horse’s health. Heavy worm burdens in horses can lead to recurring colic, malnutrition, poor condition, generalised ill-thrift, diarrhoea and scouring, and even death.

Fortunately, we’ve been able to help Holly and Fraser with their condition.

His scarring over his eye is nearly all better and the droopiness (nerve damage) down one side of his face (as a result of the operation) is also slowly improving. In the meantime, he’s being pampered as usual and loving being out in the grassy paddocks.

Grace is fostering at Palmview on the Sunshine Coast and is still looking to be adopted into a forever home.

Email us at charlies-angels@live.com.au if you are interested in learning more about Grace.

Stage 1

This stage is about keeping the horse alive and healthy, and is made up of:

1. Emergency intervention, such as removing a horse from a dangerous situation, critical feeding regimes for severely emaciated horses, or providing urgent veterinary care. For example, when our orphan foal, Bojangles, arrived, he was seriously dehydrated and exhausted and needed tube feeding to get him back up on his feet. When our first rescue, Charlie, came into care, he had a fractured fetlock and needed urgent surgery, without which there was no point moving him onto new levels of rehab. When another of our first rescues, Lincoln, came into care, he had been starved so long he needed specialised feeding to get his digestion working again and put a halt to the downward spiral of ill health.
2. 

   Max's blind eye needed to be removed as soon as possible.

   Meeting important needs that have likely been neglected. For example, surgeries that are very important, such as removing an eye that is degrading (e.g. Shetland pony, Max, or Tara, who had eye cancer); or gelding a stallion whose behaviour makes him difficult to manage. It also includes dentistry, farrier work, vaccinations, antibiotics for infections and wound management, treatment of Qld itch, and feeding to (likely) put on weight.

Stage 1 also includes a lot of admin work for our team, with paperwork, transport, vet and specialist’s visits, microchipping, photographing, assessments, rearranging paddock routines and so on taking up a lot of time and organisation.

Stage 2

In Stage 2, we’ve past the critical phases and begin consolidating the work begun in Stage 1. This stage is largely about improving what we achieved in Stage 1 (i.e. keeping the horse alive and healthy, and halting downward spirals of ill health) and setting him/her up to bring their best feet forward into the world. A lot of information gathering happens in this stage as we’re still working closely with the horse but the immediate pressure and intense time commitments are relieved.

• Hoof issues, for example, may take a long time to correct. For example, Tansy
  

  Tansy's hoof rehabilitation took around 8 months

  arrived with significant seedy toe (white line disease) that required eight months of hoof rehabilitation.

• Feeding regimes may need to be altered at this stage as the horse has begun to put on weight (or lose it, in the case of an obese horse). We’re also likely to introduce supplements (herbs, minerals and vitamins) as the horse’s individual needs become apparent.
• In this stage, we’re likely to see behaviour changes as the horse starts to feel better and this is a great time to get a sense of how the horse thinks, reacts and behaves. We might start to ask a bit more of the horse in this time, experiment with different ways of communication with the horse, begin to uncover his/her ‘quirks’ and make some decisions about their future.
• We also may begin to introduce some therapies that we feel the horse may benefit from (e.g. massage, chiropractic work, natural therapies etc.). [A point on natural therapies: sometimes, a natural therapy such as Rescue Remedy or Reiki can be used right from the start, at the same time as veterinary care, especially if extreme stress is playing a part in the horse's current state of health, or shock is a factor.]
• Herd dynamics might also be explored in this phase (i.e. how the horse reacts in different herd groupings).
• Foals may be weaned and gelded.

Stage 3

If a horse is still with us in Stage 3, the immediate pressures of meeting their physical and safety needs have passed and we’re beginning to look to their future. In this stage, we might:

• Send a horse for rehabilitation training and development.
• Continue to work on some unresolved issues while still working towards finding them an appropriate forever home with the perfect person who can either continue their progress or manage and accept them just as they are.
• Start to get enquiries and visits from people interested in adopting them.
• Have them fully integrated into our own personal horse herds and manage them in accordance with the way we manage our own horses.
• Continue to love and care for them while we patiently wait for the perfect home to present itself.

How long a horse takes to move through these stage depends on multiple factors, including the specific types of issues they arrived with, their age, their background in terms of handling/training, how severe their issues were, and their own unique requirements.