Magdalene came to us one week after the sudden passing of Eli.  While our hearts still ached, we knew that our mission to offer a safe haven for draft horses needed to supersede the pain that we were feeling.  Maggie’s situation was much different than any of the horses that we had rescued to date.  She walked off of the trailer in magnificent condition  Her golden mane glistened in the afternoon sun,  but when the light hit her hind quarters it was obvious why she was at the rescue.

While it had been three months since her beating, the marks were fading but still visible under her chestnut coat.  She didn’t want anyone near her rear end and was not comfortable with people being at her side either.  We slowly walked her to her pasture so that she could take everything in.  It did not take her long to notice the other residents of the ranch, who she called to with a strong, musical neigh.

We had been told that Maggie liked to be a loner, but it became very obvious that she wanted to be with the other horses.  She spent the entire two weeks of her quarantine pacing up and down the fence line closest to the other horses, calling when they were no longer in her line of sight.  She would not settle down until they called back to her and even then she did not stop pacing.

After the two weeks, we began the process of integrating her into the herd.  At first we let them share a fence line and fed everyone close to make sure that there was no aggression over her food.  It was obvious that everyone was getting along when they started eating from each others piles under the fence.  While happy that she was closer to the herd, she was still not calm about being alone.  She soon made a path from pacing the shared fence line.  It was decided that she would join the herd sooner rather than later.  The introduction went very smoothly.  She entered the pasture and quickly joined up.  The rest of the day was spent exploring her new space with her herd right behind her.

Fast forward to today and you can’t see the physical marks of her abuse, but the mental ones are still present.  Maggie is not open to new people, but has become very comfortable with those that care for her.  She calls every time that they enter the pasture and comes to them for a rub under her mane.  She enjoys being groomed and is an absolute angel for the farrier and vet.  We have not pushed her with her training, instead opting to build her trust with groundwork.  It is obvious that from the little that we have asked her that she does know a lot.  In the coming months we will ask her to do more, but for right now she is happy roaming the pastures with her buddy.

Eli had been having a rough weekend with not eating, but had rebounded on Sunday with devouring all of his breakfast and dinner.  He spent the evening walking the pastures and laying down intermittently like he had so many other nights.  The thought of losing him had not even entered our minds.  When we went to feed him his breakfast, it was apparent that something was wrong.  He greeted us with a loud nay, which was unusual because you could barely hear him call even if you were standing right next to him.  He turned his nose up at his food and started walking away.  As we followed, we watched him misstep, we were now positive that he was in trouble.  As it turned out, we were right.

The details of Eli’s passing are too personal to share, but what we do want to express are the feelings that have come with his loss.  The overwhelming emotion that we have felt since Monday is that we failed.  We not only failed our supporters, but more importantly we failed Eli.  For one year we battled to make him feel comfortable.  Between his severe arthritis, that months before had made us question if we were doing right by him, to the melanoma that grew to the size of a grapefruit, it was a daily struggle, but we had been winning.  He was able to roam the pastures that he so loved without being in pain.  The head bobbing and limping were gone and he was able to move majestically as he was meant to.

Eli had paid his dues of being a plow horse and we should have been able to give him more than just a few short months of happiness.  We had a mission and that was to find him a forever home, where he could spend the next several years happy.  As it turned out, we were to be the ones that would offer him the comfort and love that he so deserved.  It was an honor laying with him as he got his ice treatments, listening to him coo as he ate his meals and watching him fall asleep as we gave him baths.

People have told us that we made a difference in Eli’s life and deep down we know that.  For right now though, we can’t stop thinking about how much more we should have been able to do.  Moving forward our mission will not change, to rescue, rehabilitate, retrain and re-home the horses that we rescue.  For those horses like Eli, the rescue will be their forever home where they can live out their lives, for however long that will be, loved.

Advocate and writer Alex Brown recently finished a new video series titled, “Horses: Sports, Culture, and Slaughter in America.” This three-part series discusses the diversity of cultures, horses and issues that comprise the horse slaughter controversy. He walks through the a history of the slaughter industry.

Everyone knows about the major players in animal welfare; law enforcement, veterinarians and of course the rescue organization, but what about the unsung heroes?  Those people that you cross paths with either by chance or fate that are just as important in the rescuing effort.

For us, we have been very fortunate to meet many people along our rescuing journey that have opened their heart to our mission and have embraced our work.  They have been people like James A. Ruggiero of James A. Ruggiero design, who generously donated his time to create the plans for our Raise the Roof expansion project, to the contractor that is willing to raise the roof so that we are able to save more draft horses.

It is important as an organization to realize that we are not able to carry out our mission alone.  It takes people in the community and those that we have not even met yet to help us.  As we embark on our Raise the Roof campaign, it will take everyone to come together to make the expansion a reality.  We know that the campaign is an ambitious undertaking, but we are confident that we can come together to make it happen.