Lots of News

July 7th, 2010 1:53pm

Well, we have to get it out straigh-away and let you know that Rascal has gained over 80 pounds in the last month! That's news in and of itself and we're delighted.

A couple other interesting developments have come about in the last week or so. Rascal has had a sore on his hip since before he came to CHR. The vet thought it might be from a splinter of bone broken off the hip, so today he brought out an x-ray machine. Rascal was mildly sedated and then x-rayed with the vet's portable machine right in our barn. The great news is that the bone is not splintered! He instead has a deep contusion that is just healing slowly. The contusion was probably from him knocking into a wall or gate where he last lived and with no padding on his hips to soften the blow it was worse than to be expected. So, we got it nice and cleaned up again and covered it with ointment. We'll continue to keep it clean and treated until it heals.

We got a phone call last week from a woman who used to own Rascal a number of years ago. This woman was NOT the owner who abandoned Rascal. She was quite heartbroken to hear about the condition Rascal had been found in and was calling to check in and see how he's doing. It turns out that Rascal is in fact an Appendix as we'd guessed and that he was a roping horse in his younger years. Rascal was actually the woman's daughter's horse and was extremely kind and gentle with the little girl. He had done quite a bit of showing with youngsters and seemed to have a special way with them. The woman also shared how supportive and helpful Rascal had been to the entire family when her husband went on a tour to Iraq.

We also found out how Rascal got his name... it was for stealing wallets out of men's back pockets!

The new developments in Rascal's story remind us what the lives of many horses are like before they come here. Horses are commonly sold to a number of owners over the course of their long lives. Some owners love them dearly and only part with them when absolutely unavoidable, while others lose interest in them after a time and let them languish. We are here to help share the story from the horse's perspective so that hopefully over time the public's view will shift and these animals will always be treated like the treasurers they are.

Posted in: Rascal

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