Tag Archives: adopt

Jan 28 2012

Shona and Joleena Find a Forever Home

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.

Jan 24 2012

Oscar Has Been Adopted!

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 :)

Jan 10 2012

Update on Grace

Beautiful Grace is doing much better after a lengthy abscess draining process. She was lame throughout, but not too seriously, and now she’s healing she is up for more activity, enjoying walks out and about with her foster dad, Adam, and some Parelli play. She’s still in really good condition and in really good spirits. So we just need to wait for the damaged hoof to grow down and she’ll be good as new :) We are looking forward to her feeling better so we can ask a little more of her in terms of work. The extended (and unusual) dry spell is certainly helping keep her hooves in safe condition.

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.

Dec 5 2011

The Horse Rescue Turnover Tension

Here’s the tension we face: the ‘turnover tension’.

Shona and Joleena, our longest residents to date, still waiting for their perfect forever home.

Donation history tells us that people are most likely to donate money when they see pictures of starving horses in dogger yards, horses with horrific injuries, horses at stud lined up for slaughter, and especially when there’s a ticking clock to save the animal’s life. Once that horse is in care and considered ‘safe’, people are far less likely to donate. People are also more likely to donate when they see ‘new blood’ coming in the door, rather than towards the ongoing care and rehabilitation of the current horses in care.

It’s natural for people to have an emotional reaction to a horse in need and want to do anything they can to help that horse. But here’s the tension for us:

  1. We have a policy of NOT shocking you in order to get support and donations happening. We are respectful of the fact that children trawl internet and Facebook sites and we find these things hard enough to deal with ourselves.
  2. We have a ‘quality not quantity’ ethos to our organisation. That is, with breeding rates continuing as they are, we know we can never beat the number of horses slaughtered each year, so we want to make sure that each horse that is lucky enough to come to us gets the best quality care and rehabilitation we can manage. We will also bide our time to wait for the perfect home for a horse, rather than handing her over to the first person who asks for her. We are prepared to hold onto a horse for as long as it takes to find her the right home.

So this means that it can be a little more difficult for us to motivate supporters when we avoid shock tactics in general and when we may have a slower turnover of horses than people expect. There is always a subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) pressure on us to turnover horses. It can take a good deal of strength to maintain our standards at times but that is what we’re here to do: protect the horses and be their strongest advocates.

If you like what we do and would like to help us to continue our great work, please consider the $2.50 pledge. For just $2.50 a week ($10 a month), you can help us maintain the consistent cashflow we need to care for our horses and make sure they have the best chance of finding a loving forever home. $2.50 is less than a cup of coffee, block of chocolate or bus fare a week. It’s small change to you, but it means the world for us. Please visit our donations page to set up a regular transfer or debit. Thank you :) :)

Oct 18 2011

Jimmy Adopted!

The beautiful, beautiful Jimmy man has been adopted!

Jimmy has been with us for 15 months, after he was surrendered last year. His people were told he needed an eye removed and teeth removed. They couldn’t afford to do the surgery so asked us if we’d take him. When we took him, that turned out not to be true at all! (The lesson here is to ALWAYS get a second opinion for a big diagnosis if there is any doubt in your mind.)

Jimmy has been an absolute dream horse to handle. At 22 years of age, he has a wealth of experience to bring to his new family. We’ve lost count of the number of people who were interested in adopting Jimmy but, for some reason, it fell through each time. But this is why… because he was waiting for the most perfect home to go to and he has found it now with Deb and Marc in Apple Tree Creek, near Childers. Jimmy’s foster mum, Amber, recently said that Deb and Marc were so wonderful she wished they would adopt her too! ;)

As our charity is built around the belief of ‘quality not quantity’ we would ALWAYS rather keep a horse for years to ensure they go to the perfect home rather than risk them going to the wrong home.

Jimmy, it has been our absolute honour to have had you in our stable. We will miss you dearly.

We’d like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to Jimmy’s first class foster mum, Amber, who helped to restore Jimmy to his former glory, attending to his every need and pampering him exactly as he deserved to be. Jimmy was with Amber for over a year, so the parting was obviously not an easy thing to do. But without Amber, Jimmy wouldn’t be where he is today. Thank you Amber. You’re a true Angel :)

We wish Jimmy and his new family a lifetime of happiness together. We have no dobut whatsoever that you’ll bring each other much joy. Another Angel takes flight :)

Sep 27 2011

Adopt or Foster a Horse: Special Home Needed

Joleena

We are looking for a very special home to either foster or adopt two of our rescue horses, Shona and Joleena. You need to be located in SE Qld, and have experience with horses. A home with someone who has learned Parelli methods is most desirable, but not necessary.

Shona and Joleena are two 13-year-old Standardbred mares who were rescued from a slaughterhouse holding yard along with their two-month-old foals (since re-homed). These girls are not started under saddle. They have just spent several months fostering in a location where they could receive Parelli natural horsemanship development work. Their instructors, Lillan and Kerryn from Intuitive Connection, are very happy to help you with a thorough handover of where they’re at. Both girls are suitable for a home as companion/pet horses to people of most levels of experience. If you would like to continue their training, you will need advanced horsemanship skills (Parelli Level 3+).

Shona

These mares are dominant members of horse herds and so this should be taken into consideration with the type of personality your own horse/s has. They are very ‘good doers’ and very self sufficient, so would suit a large property where they can be mostly grass fed and can range freely. You will also need a good farrier/barefoot trimmer who has savvy horsemanship skills as they’ve experienced a lot of trauma in the past in regards to their feet. Joleena has improved tremendously, but Shona still needs some assistance.

If you are the right people for Shona and Joleena, we’d love to hear from you. They are most suited to someone who is looking to serve horses and to offer that safe haven for these special girls, and who understand that they will get a lot out of sharing the journey with these girls. Please email us at charlies-angels@live.com.au or ph Jo on 0401 681 908.

Thank you :)

Aug 11 2011

August Horse of the Month: Tansy

 

Tansy, falling asleep having a massage :)

Tansy is Miss August, and is looking for a great new home.

Tansy was rescued from the Gympie dogger sales in February 2011 and narrowly escaped leaving with the dogger man. Her name means “eternal life”. Tansy is an 11-year-old Thoroughbred, ex racehorse, approximately 15.3 hh. She arrived with terribly seedy toe that had been left untreated, as well as a misshapen hoof due to incorrect trimming. We’ve done a lot of work with her feet, the most-affected hoof was x-rayed, and they have really turned around. They’re looking really good now and she gallops around her paddock with no sign of lameness. Throughout all of the work on her feet, she has been really compliant and easy to manage.

Tansy has also had neglected parrot mouth, but she eats just fine and is currently almost solely pasture fed with one hard feed a day and her body condition is good. (Though it should be noted that it is good quality pasture and there’s lots of it, which hasn’t fallen in winter the way a lot of pastures do.)

Tansy

We would like to start working with Tansy under saddle soon, now that her feet are better. Tansy would do really well in a home where she could form a strong one-on-one relationship with her person. She is looking for that special bond that she’s never had the chance to have as a racehorse. She does better in a paddock on her own (but can talk to others over the fence) or with just one other horse as she can be a very dominant in large groups of horses. We’d really like to see Tansy settled in a wonderful home where she can receive the love and support she’s missed out on in her life. This mare has some wonderful qualities and has a lot to offer the right person. She is currently fostering in Blackbutt, SE Qld.

If you’re interested in Tansy, please read our Adopt a Horse page of this website and email us at charlies-angels@live.com.au.

Jul 8 2011

July Horse of the Month: Steve

Steve, fostering in Palmview, Sunshine Coast

Our horse of the month this month is Steve.

Steve is a five-year-old brumby/waler, who has been started under saddle but is green. He is a gelding and is 14.3 hands high.
Steve’s life began very roughly, and he nearly starved to death as a young foal. He was rescued and then taken in at by some great people at 11 months of age, who looked after him well and started him under saddle themselves. Steve was last ridden approximately August 2010. He was surrendered due to financial stress.
Steve is a very good doer, and his feet, teeth and worming have always been looked after. He does need his sheath cleaned twice a year or he gets swelling in his belly. (The vet can do this for you once a year when he gets his teeth done, only leaving it to you once a year.) He generally gets on well with other horses. Steve’s looking for a wonderful forever home with kind and patient people who can further his development under saddle and ensure his safety for the rest of his life. He’s currently fostering in Palmview on the Sunshine Coast.
Email charlies-angels@live.com.au if you would like to know more about Steve.
Jun 7 2011

Horse of the Month: Molly

Molly

Molly is approximately ten years old and a Shetland pony mare.

Her story goes that she was left tied up on the side of the road for months, while the council checked on her regularly. Eventually, they approached a local man who bred Shetlands if he wanted her. She was with him for around a year, but she and her best friend Murray (also in our care) kept escaping to a neighbour’s place. The neighbour kept returning them to the man until he finally asked her if she would take them as he didn’t want them. She kept them for a few months before contacting us to see if we could help.

Molly is fantastic with children! She has regularly been handled and groomed by primary school and preschool children and hasn’t put a foot wrong. Other than being overweight (as she arrived into our care) she is in excellent health. She will follow Murray out through the fences if he leads the way so anyone who adopts her will need to have Shetland-appropriate fencing in place. She can also be very horse aggressive, but it’s usually in protection of Murray.

Molly and Murray are such good friends that, if possible, we’d like them to go together.

Molly is such a wonderful pony with so much to offer children and adults alike. She’s had such a rough time, being abandoned, that she deserves a truly loving and supportive family.

May 5 2011

May Horse of the Month: Jimmy

The beautiful Jimmy is our first horse of the month, up for adoption.

Jimmy came to us in 2010, underweight, and his people having been told by a vet that he needed an eye removed and teeth extracted. They were unable to afford that so asked to surrender him. As it turned out, Jimmy had conjunctivitis and needed a routine dental!

Jimmy is 22 years old, and a Thoroughbred gelding, probably an ex racehorse. Jimmy is in beautiful condition and has been ridden under saddle without fuss. Jimmy has the wisdom and experience that is unique to senior horses and makes them such a gift to families. Jimmy has some transient stiffness in one foreleg that has responded well to joint supplements and therapy. We feel he would be a great addition to a family or for someone who is looking for light riding only and a great friend.

Jimmy is currently fostering on the Gold Coast and loves his stable :) He even goes outside to wee! He does need to be able to be separated to eat his feed as he is a slow eater. He has a gentle, friendly temperament. If you are interested in meeting Jimmy and considering adopting him as an addition to your home, please email charlies-angels@live.com.au.