New chappie on the block

Our 7th rescue for 2008 has just been signed over this weekend. He is an unregistered Anglo Arab stallion standing at approx 15.1hh and he is around 7/8 years old.

This guy had a tough go, his owner allowed him to run with mares 24/7 and he was breeding with his own sisters indescriminately. He suffered a cut to a hind leg (most likely on poor fencing by the look of it) which was never treated, his teeth are a mess which is the main reason for his scrawny appearance. This chap has a parrot mouth which of course needs even more regular dental care than a horse without this fault.

He's lightly handled and needs castration and work of course but I feel he'll make a nice riding horse with the hard yakka put in. He's well socialised at least and has a nice temperment even though he bit the Vet that went to see him! He needs somebody to handle him properly for a few months and he'll be a model of obedience.

No name yet, still trying to decide what to call him. Why oh why are there so many people around that will allow this to happen with their horses and then when the manure hits the fan they just cut and run, leaving the equines behind?

There is no excuse for this! Ever!

Under no circumstances whatsoever is there any excuse for a horse or pony to look like this. These two are Arty and Blossom, rescued this week from a large property where they'd been left to die along with many other animals.

Their rescuer emailed me today, allowing me to use these photos to highlight why Second Chance exists. This is happening, right now, in our own backyards. On tucked away places away from the public eye, animals are winding up like this. How can anyone possibly live with themselves allowing any animal to get to this state? These has to be the thinnest ponies I have ever seen so far and still breathing.

Please, if your animal is starting to look bad, call a Vet or call us! Stop it before it gets to what I call the 'death row' look. If your animals are starting to drop off weight, do something before it becomes a life or death struggle for somebody else to help them.

SC Quiz Night a resounding success!

Wow what fun! Even the organisers and helpers had a great time so that is saying something.
Again a HUUUUUUGE thanks to Gail Kegie for her hard work bringing this all together as Project Manager and making it such a fantastic night. You did a marvelous job, mate :)
Thanks to Sheona (Deschuur) for the platters, thanks to our lovely judges, our super MC John Robertson who really made the night and everyone who helped.

Congratulations to the winning team, the Red Demons. You guys did a great job on some really hard questions, well done!

Here are some photos from the evening...

170 participants


Our panel of judges


The winners of the evening, The Red Demons who looked positively delighted with their prizes as they divvied them up.


Our wonderful MC John Robertson, who was the star of the night and despite knowing diddly squat about horse racing did a wonderful 'race call of the prizes' for us!


Hmmm can't half guess where this lot are from!


The Wild Bunch, formerly known as the Pooper Scoopers who were last year's defending champions


Second place went to The Pony Pals team who did a fantastic job and lost by just ONE point!


The winners of the 'Best Dressed' team, team Lackanooki


It was nice to see that some participants came well presented...


Everyone having a crack at the dancing at our half-time break with the Swing Zing dance troupe.

And HUGE congrats to Kylie Jones who won the 5 night family holiday!

Overall we raised just over $3,300 for our cause. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Rescue update; Nova

Nova is the oddly coloured mini pony that's photo features on this blog (see right) and also on the SC main page at the moment. She came to us from Gingin with her companions after her owner passed away.

Nova had severely overgrown and deformed hooves as a result of founder coupled with no farrier attention for around 6 years or so. She and the others lived on sand, so there was no hard ground to wear away the hooves naturally either.

Here is some photos of when she first came to our care.




At first we thought she would have to be euthanased but after consultation with several Equine Veterinarians, Xrays, farrier and physio treatment coupled with a careful diet and some TLC she is still with us and as happy as anything.

She still stands with her toes pointing down because her tendons have contracted due to having to stand like that for so long on overgrown hooves.

However our trusty Vets (she sees them regularly) assure us she's in no undue pain, she's getting around OK and ever so slowly the tendons are beginning to let down again. It is likely she'll never be 100% normal however she will very likely be paddock sound enough to make a great pet as she's the sweetest little girl with a heart of gold.

It isn't that hard to keep a horse healthy

Oh sure, it is hellishly expensive, and takes a fair bit of adequate knowledge, but keeping a horse healthy ain't that hard. If you're not spending a lot and you're finding it 'hard' to keep the weight on your horse, please find help fast before things get unmanageable.

Case study; Asha.
12yo TB mare, came to SC's care on the 14th of Feb. She had a 4 and a half month-old foal at foot. Despite her owner telling us that they'd 'done all they could and fed her heaps every day' this is how she looked.




Now she's had her foal weaned, her teeth seen to by a qualified dentist, she has been wormed properly, she has also been fed correctly. Yes, mares do tend to drop off weight when suckling a foal however if they are recieving adequate care, they DO NOT drop off this much. If your broodmare has dropped off this much weight with adequate care and no other serious medical issue being tended to by a vet, you're doing it WRONG. This photograph below was taken today just 5 weeks later.





If she can look this good in 5 weeks after just receiving basic, correct care, imagine how good she'll look in another 5 weeks as we step up her feeding and carry on with her handling and training & exercise?

Her personality is also changing. She is no longer agitated and nervous. She comes trotting to the gate, calling when she sees her carer appear. She is content to stand with a person to be groomed or scratched whereas she used to fidget and stress. She no longer has the fear of having her legs brushed and she is well mannered to handle.

This is not ethical horse care

Folks this is not how a horse is supposed to look! This girl is Duchess, the most recent rescue for SC. She was bought from the pound for $1 because her owner couldn't be bothered coming to get her. So now she is not his problem and he gets away with allowing his animal to look like this. He still owns tonnes more that are, we are told, always getting out. At one point he had 14 horses impounded at once! Can I say "FENCING"? It is most important to maintain good and safe fencing!

This girl has a list of issues as long as my arm. Are you ready?
- Superficial cuts/bites
- Body score of 1.5 (healthy is around 3 or 4)
- Skewed spine
- Knee that bows out when she walks
- Full of worms
- Teeth are in shocking condition
- Hooves are just about falling apart under her, she is walking on her soles
- Deep cuts on two legs
- Deep cut on her side which got her artery (been sewn up)

And this is mostly external stuff! Who knows what's going on inside, we're going to arrange to her her pelvis and knee Xrayed as apparently she was hit by a car some time ago and her back is right out. The knee is another story, who knows what is going on with that.

Would you just look at her?





Duchess will be undergoing some serious rehab and will never be ridable. Apart from the obvious like feeding, worming, dental work etc, she'll also need a lot physio too. At this stage our Vet is confident she isn't in undue pain and once given TLC her qulity of life will be good as a pasture pet but we just don't know what those Xrays may show.

Even so she is an absolute delight to handle and will allow us to do anything at all with her. She has perfect manners and has been such a good girl.

Her two companions who were also bought from the Pound are in much better shape and indeed look superb on the outside. We are yet to investigate their inner workings to see what they need. Dental and worming is definate but the youngest, a 3yo, needs some work first as she is so scared of everyone.


Cut on her leg


Skewed spine

Full-on February

As usual it has been all systems go.

The newsletters have been giving us a bit of grief. First up a new computer program has not worked as it should although this may well be due to the operator who isn't overly familiar with it, and then for some reason our printers haven't recieved it so with any luck we'll have them printed and posted by Tuesday!

We've checked out a few more reports of skinny horses and helped along the owners where possible. Now we hope that they take the advice and sort their horses out rather than just leaving them to get worse. I always give the owners benefit of the doubt to begin with and sometimes I am delighted with how it turns out and sometimes I am horrified at some people's lack of responsibility for their animals.

We had a foster carer workshop this morning, Louise Atkinson who is a Parelli Level 4 person donated her morning to go through some tips and tricks and exercises to assist foster carers with common problems that crop up with rescues. It was very useful and enlightening, and I know I am safe to say all those who attended came back with something they could use in the future to help their horses.

We have been notified about some needy neglected horses needing help however with a couple, somebody else has already taken them on (and good on you whoever you are, we wish you the best of luck with them) and the last one, the owner is reluctant to relinquish the horse. We're not sure why as it is clear he either cannot or will not provide her with proper care but there is some reason.

I am beginning to think I should've gone to Uni to study phsychology... there's so many things I just can't understand about people that I wish I had some sort of insight into! I think I get along with troubled horses much better than troubled people.

The Quiz night is fast approaching and we're hoping it will live up to expectations. Gail Kegie one of our project managers has done such a stellar job organising the whole thing and we've got some truly super prizes up for grabs. I can't wait! It's gearing up to be another fantastic night.

Have you booked a table yet? No? Well I do hope you're coming because we're aiming to have something for everyone on the night.