Tag Archives: foster

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.

Dec 19 2011

Update on Bojangles: Luck’s Been on Our Side

Bojangles, four months

Someone recently left a lovely comment on this photo when it was uploaded to our Facebook site. She was congratulating us on how great he looks and said, “Nice job, you know your stuff!”

Compliments are always nice, but it made me stop and think about that and about just how much we really did ‘know our stuff’.

Bo is our first orphan foal and none of us had ever raised an orphan foal or known anyone who had. To say we were the blind leading the blind was pretty accurate! What we did have on our side was a tremendous amount of luck (beginning that first night of his miraculous rescue), a huge amount of passion, a good deal of intuition, some much-needed financial support to help us meet the demands of his $380 per fortnight formula costs, a willingness to research, learn and question, and an exceptionally hard-working and dedicated foster carer and her understanding family who were able to rearrange their lives to accommodate the needs of this precious, fragile life.

We were lucky he made it through the first night in our care (he needed emergency hydration and tube feeding from the vet). We were lucky when his foster mare, Millie, turned up around eight weeks later and was so willing to foster him. We were lucky when we decided we needed to find Bo another foal to help him continue his socialisation skills.

We’ve had to use a good deal of intuition, particularly in the early days when there was a lot of pressure from differing opinions about how to proceed and several people offered us mares to trial as foster mares but none of them ‘felt right’. (An unsuccessful fostering can be disastrous, with the foal being seriously injured or killed.) We’ve had to think outside the box, and when we changed his formula to a cheaper brand and his behaviour went right off the rails, we had to face some pretty heavy pressure from people who claimed the only way to manage it was to physically hit him, kick him and tell him who’s boss. Instead, we thought backwards and could link much of the behaviour to the change in formula and realised he had a lactose intolerance, switching him back to the more expensive brand that was a low lactose formula.

Bo’s journey hasn’t been perfect or easy. He’s faced some big challenges, something pretty typical of orphan, bottle-raised foals. Not least of which is his limited understanding of horse behaviour, his refusal to eat food (he has only just recently taken his first nibbles of grass), his constant scouring, his unwillingness to connect with other horses, and his difficult behaviour around people. But we keep making strides forward. With each new month of his being in our care, we find a new approach (one that is kind, compassionate and horse-appropriate) to help him develop that little bit more.

And we’re a long way from finished yet. But what an incredible journey it has been so far! We’ve been very lucky to have had the opportunity to save this little man’s life and give him the best start we can possibly achieve.

Did we know our stuff? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe we did but we just didn’t realise it. Maybe luck has carried us over the bumps and filled in the holes. Whatever it’s been, it has been a great lesson in trust, faith and right intention.

Nov 20 2011

What does it take to be a foster carer?

This weekend just gone, we spent a lovely afternoon honouring and pampering our

Murray with foster mum, Jo M

foster carers to recognise the incredible work they do in healing and transforming rescue horses’ lives. We are so very blessed to have an outstanding team of foster carers with us right now. Our foster carers are carefully hand-picked to be part of our team and many have become foster carers only after we’ve built a relationship with them through the organisation in the past. (Call us crazy, but we don’t want to hand over a precious life of a horse in need to someone we’ve only just met.)

Our foster carers:

Bella at the Gympie saleyards, with foster mum, Jo S

  • get up during the night to tend to sick horses
  • feed orphan foals around the clock, just like a newborn baby, putting their lives on hold to do so
  • build new fences, upgrade their facilities, and modify their environment to accommodate our horses and their unique needs (and all the while doing it with a smile on their face because they know that it is an opportunity, not an inconvenience)
  • drive ten-hour round trips with their foster horse to get them where they need to be
  • nurse their foster horses in their dying days and bury them with love, ceremony and reverence on their properties
  • enthusiastically embrace change and seek new knowledge and understanding, embracing the joy of discovery and adventure that every new horse brings them
  • trade time with their families and their own horses to help the foster horse in crisis
  • become ambassadors and leaders in the horse community and fly the flag for Charlie’s Angels wherever they go.

And of course they do the everyday things to:

Bentley with foster dad, Adam

  • pick up manure
  • feed in the rain, scorching sun or blasting winds
  • organise their schedules to accommodate visits from vets, farriers, photographers and remedial therapists
  • buy feed and supplies and clean out their sheds to make space for more feed bins, rugs and gear
  • communicate with the management committee in an exceptional manner, ask questions, collaborate to create a rehabilitation plan, take photos and provide updates and generally spend a lot more time on the phone and via email than the did before.

As far as skills and practicalities go, our foster carers must:

  • have exceptional communication skills
  • be proactive in seeking help, asking questions and sorting out difficulties
  • pay careful attention to paperwork and receipts so that our books remain scrupulously clean
  • be willing to learn new skills and continuously upgrade their knowledge of equine psychology and physiology
  • have the space and commitment to foster a horse, for possibly a lengthy stay (a year or more)
  • be interested in, and actively supportive of, Charlie’s Angels Horse Rescue as an organisation (not just want to foster a horse)
  • have the financial ability to pay for feed costs etc. up front and have them reimbursed at a later date
  • be open to visits from the Charlie’s Angels team, other volunteers and photographers
  • be generally cooperative, friendly and professional
  • have, preferably, their own land with grazing abilities to help keep feed costs down.

From time to time, we welcome a new foster carer into our team and we’re always

Jimmy with foster mum, Amber

happy to hear from people who would like to become a carer. If you would like to express your interest, you can email us at charlies-angels@live.com.au. Through the process of getting to know you, you may just find yourself in the position to receive a beautiful horse in need and the chance to change that horse’s life forever. Our best foster carers know that they potentially get more out of the fostering experience than the horse does :)

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 29 2011

Update on Tara’s Surgery

Post surgery

Tara’s surgery was rescheduled and she has now been for surgery and is home again, being pampered to an inch of her life by her wonderful foster carers, Kathryn and Adam. She was a bit miserable the first day after the surgery but is in much better spirits now and eating a lot, so that’s great news.

Unfortunately, the pathology results on the eye that was removed weren’t so good. She had a rare form of tumour growing inside the eye. The vets are optimistic that they removed it all, but it’s obviously something that we (and anyone who wishes to adopt her) will need to consider for the future.

Tara will stay with us in foster care until she is fully recovered and has put on some weight and we feel confident that she’s ready to go out into the world again. Tara is fostering on the Sunshine Coast.

Tara, pre surgery

We want to say a big, big thank you to Kathryn and Adam who have had to juggle some tricky and tight logistical challenges to get Tara into surgery and the best care. You’re doing a wonderful job and are true Angels!

Aug 13 2011

Our Miracle Foal Rescue

Spring sprung early with a bang for us this week.

On Friday 12th August, we were contacted by a veterinary clinic who reported that an abandoned foal was wandering the Beerburrum State Forest (last seen on Red Lane), and passed on the number of a contact in the Forestry department, who had the details. Apparently, the Forestry department had been doing work in the forest when a wild mare and foal were frightened by machinery. The mare took off, leaving the foal behind and had not returned to get him/her.

Bojangles

They believed the foal was only a couple of days old and still wobbly on its legs. This was a very concerning and urgent situation. In their first week of life, foals drink more than 300 times a day, so to be without fluids for so many hours is very bad. With the foal weakening by the hour, it would be more likely to lie down (they lie down and sleep a lot anyway) and very hard to see in the long grass, adding to the complications.

We received the news around 3pm, and spent the next several hours in frantic efforts to rescue the foal and take it into foster care and get it some much-needed fluid. Jo S and Eileen began the coordination. Many, many phone calls and emails later, we had a volunteer (Jane) on board who “just happened” to be heading up that way in the next hour. She hired a float and drove up there, where she met another volunteer (Clara) who’d “just happned” to be free and offered to go and help spot the foal and get him/her onto the float if they could. But although Clara had been searching for a couple of hours, the elusive foal was nowhere to be seen.

Night fell, and there was still no sign of the foal. Our spirits began to fall. To find a tiny foal in the dark in the middle of a forest, who may or may not be wandering, sleeping, reunited with its mum, in danger of dingoes or passed out from lack of glucose was a  needle-in-a-haystack scenario! But Jane and Clara persisted. They agreed to have one last look before going home and returning the next day. They split up for their last check. Jane rounded a corner, and there the foal was, standing by the road, totally alone. He whinnied to her as soon as he saw her and she wrapped him up in her arms and carried him to safety on the horse float.

At this point, Clara had to leave to meet other commitments and Jane had two children and a newborn baby in the car. She had to negotiate some complicated management with the children before continuing her journey to get the foal into foster care, but she managed to do it with such calmness and grace. Meanwhile, foster carer, Jo M, was at home, frantically building a temporary stable off the bedroom door and finding an emergency supply of foal milk, bottles and teats, and preparing for the fact that she was about to become a new mum with a baby that required feeding every two hours. (Hello to sleep deprivation!) Fellow foster carer, Gillian, joined Jo M to help prepare and care for the baby. Tam, from Online Horse Supplies, who also lives in Samford, came through with a generous discount for a big supply of formula as well as donating a huge supply of Protexin (probiotics) for the little man.

It was many hours before the foal found his way into his comfy stable. Too weak to eat, they called the vet, who came out to administer fluids and glucose, tube-feeding the foal until he began to regain his strength and we all began an anxious wait, wondering if he would make it through the night. Jane and her newborn baby stayed the night in an impromptu sleepover, Gillian stayed until midnight, and Jo M got around twenty minutes sleep while tending to the wee foal to help him make it.

And make it he did. By the morning, “Bojangles” was eating like a trooper and had even managed a skip and a buck around his little stable. Thank you also to volunteer, Georgie, who brought around dog blankets for Bojangles to keep his tiny body warm.

This foal’s story is nothing short of miraculous. To have had volunteers who “just happened” to be able to drop everything when they did just to go and help, and to have the float hire ready and available, and to have been able to find him at all, and to have all the supplies ready for him to come home to, all in a matter of six hours from the time we got the call to the time he got home, is truly a logistical marvel.

We have such a huge amount of gratitude for our amazing volunteers who truly went above and beyond the call of duty, putting everything on hold, managing children and babies, brave a dark forest, and totally rearranging their lives to save this foal’s life. Bojangles is indeed lucky to be alive. But we are so very, very lucky to have him and have such loyal supporters who can mobilise at a moment’s notice to achieve such a rescue mission. We cannot thank these people enough for what they have done. You are all genuine Angels.

If you would like to donate to help support the intensive care of Bojangles, please visit our donations page. Every dollar really counts and is really appreciated.

We acknowledge that the best case scenario for Bojangles is to be fostered by a mare with milk. We’ve alerted all the vets in the local area that we are looking for a foster mum and Bojangles’s luck might continue yet.

Jul 30 2011

Intuitive Connection Building Relationships

For several months now, Lillan Roquet and Kerryn Armstrong from Intuitive Connection have been working with two of our foster horses, Shona and Joleena. With a very troubled past, Shona and Joleena have shown us exactly what the life of a broodmare can entail, and it’s often not good. (We frequently see the end result of poor breeding programs.)

Kerryn and Lillan have been playing with the girls through the Seven Games of the Parelli system of horsemanship and we want to take this opportunity to say how incredibly grateful we are. We’ve had a few trainers come to work with the girls but no one has had the effect that Lillan and Kerryn have had. These are two very lucky rescue horses!

Shona playing with Lillan Roquet (pic by Jacinta Armstrong)

Joleena playing with Kerryn Armstrong (pic by Jacinta Armstrong)

May 29 2011

What do you feed your horse?

Foster horse, Shona, having breakfast

Feeding horses. It’s a huge and fascinating area of study. And unfortunately, a lot of us could do it better. A high proportion of calls that we get from people wanting to surrender horses can be attributed to incorrect nutrition or management.

If you’re anything like me, you might not have ever given a lot of thought to what you’re feeding your horse until something changes or goes wrong. In my case, it was the introduction of a pregnant mare into my life that made me think, hey, wait a minute, what do I feed this horse? For others, the wake up call will come when their horse develops laminitis and founder. Or ‘big head’ disease. Or colic. Or stringhalt. Or toxic poisoning from weeds. For others, they might find their horse is underweight. Or overweight.

All good health begins with food.

We’re about to begin writing a series of blog posts on feeding horses that will cover these and many more topics, from big concepts to fine details. They will appear here on the home page and will be collected into a group into the Feeding Horses page on this site.

President, Jo Schoenwald, has a Certificate in Equine Nutrition from the National College of Traditional Medicine and our Senior Foster Carer, Jo Miller, is currently completing the same course, having been generously sponsored by NCTM to do so. We don’t have all the answers, but we think we’ve got a few things right, and we’re passionate about learning more all the time, so we’re keen to share what we’ve got. In doing so, we hope to be a resource for horse people everywhere and maybe help to prevent some of the problems that we frequently see and are frequently asked to help.

Joanne Schoenwald (President)

May 25 2011

Update on rescue horse, Jimmy

Grand favourite, Jimmy, has been with us for almost a year now. Here’s a snapshot of then and now:

Jimmy, early days in care

Jimmy, April 2011

Jimmy’s foster mum, Amber, has done a brilliant job looking after him on the Gold Coast. Jimmy is a sweet, gentle boy and everyone’s favourite!

Jimmy saw the dentist the other day and we have a bit of work to do on his teeth before he can be adopted but is otherwise ready to go to a fantastic home.