Washington: update on Stevens County case.
re: Washington: malnourished horses.
Another article on the case.
Once again, horses are finding new homes before the defendants have their day in court. What happened to innocent until proven guilty?
I’m still skeptical, maybe by nature or maybe from experience… one horse was for sure malnourished, but the other two seemed simply underweight and not in danger.
Less than two weeks after being rescued from Stevens County, three malnourished horses are on the road to recovery. After rescuers found three horses starving and underweight, they’re starting new lives with new names. Two weeks ago, Rocky and Cinderella were severely malnourished after being rescued from Stevens County. Now both horses have new outlooks and new names. Rocky now answers to “Chance” and Cinderella’s new nickname is “C.C.”
C.C. has a long way to go. She’s about two years old, but is only half the size she should be. “She’s going to be pretty fragile, and not really out of the woods for about four months,” said Kim Olson. Those who’ve grown to love her say a happy ending is planned. “I’d really like her to pull a cart, and take her to kids camps and little junior parades because of her deformities and her Cinderella story,” said Dan.
Chance is a lot better off but still underweight. “I have horses myself, and you can’t see their ribs,” said Joleen Williams. “Looking at my mare the other day, I couldn’t even feel some of the bones you see on him.” Williams adopted Chance after hearing about the malnourished horses. “He isn’t halter broke, hopefully get some weight on him during the winter, send him to a trainer, so I can start riding him,” she said.
Abused horses on road to rehab [link]
Um, if you can’t feel your horses’ ribs, the horse is OBESE.
That’s really not a good thing.
It is no healthier than being somewhat underweight, and in some cases, it is far worse.
(See the Obese Horse of the Day blog.)
“Rocky/Chance” is underweight. Does underweight mean, needs to be rescued? Not always. If being obese is worse than being somewhat underweight, should animal control also be seizing “fat” horses? If no, why not?
The trend of losing your horse because you can see ribs, regardless of other issues, is very disturbing. Facing felony charges and having horse-ignorant judges and juries determine your fate is alarming.
Look at “Cinderella/C.C.” just two weeks after the original video and screencaps. See how much better she looks after just two weeks? Truth is, a horse can go downhill just as quickly, and we don’t know why she was skinny when seized or even if the owner she was taken from is the party responsible for her scarred nose.
In addition, a two year old of a certain breed, or even a bloodline within a breed, is genetically coded to mature larger or smaller than a horse the same age with different lineage. You can’t put a pair of horses the same age next to each other and expect them to be the same size. If you’re going to try to make a point, at least make it a valid one.
I want to know more about this case. Why has there been no coverage of the previous owner and the situation that led to this “rescue”?
I have a 2 year old thouroughbred who has an excellent weight, but you do see the ribs. This is common with lean thouroughbreds!! Racehorses often also have visible ribs.
She does not show any other bones at all (round ass, normal withers)
Believe me, I have 3 horses, and quite some horse experience, and I know when a horse skinny, healthy or just plain FAT!
I see a lot of fat horses unfortunately. People think that horses are meant to eat green lush grass all day in the summer… guess what –> not!
Horses in the wild eat dry grasses and if they encounter lush grass somewhere (near water or something) they don’t stay all week to munch on that, it is to dangerous for them to stick on one place too long (predators) they will stay maybe 15 minutes and move on.
Also, horses do NOT eat grain in the wild! And yes, they exercise a lot! (they walk and play almost all day and night) And still they do not eat grain…
I think this growing obesity trend is doubtful and worrying at the least!
About skinny horses, I think it is better to have a horse that is a bit to skinny than a bit to fat. Also, a horse can become skinny because of other circomstances than neglect! Though neglect is terrible and they should help animals if this is the case, I do worry if I read your blog..!
My oldest horse (18 years old) started to become skinny at one point. Why tried several things, putting him on greener grass, when that wasn’t enough feeding grain extra… We then got a dentist to work on his teeth and we kept giving him extra food to let him gain weight, because after the dentist had worked on his teeth we thought he would gain weight. But he stayed skinny.
We did a blood test and apparently he had worms EVEN though he was on a rotational de-worming schedule. (he probably got the worms because he had moved to another boarding, often horses build resistance to worms in an area, but other area means other kind of worms)
What I’m trying to say: because we did not find the cause immediately, it took a while before he started to gain weight. Also, it is not healthy to let a horse gain weight to fast so we had to work slow…
As an outsider you don’t know what the circumstances of a horse are. So what if some person, who thinks obesity is healthy, saw my horse and called animal welfare??
I don’t want to think about the consequences! Especially with my young horse, the lean thouroughbred!! Would they have confiscated my horses???