Justice

Her name was Justice!
I am sure you all remember this post about the horse that has broken my heart for over a year. Watching her slim down and eventually become nothing but skin and bones. The picture honestly does not really show just how skinny and malnourished she was.
Well today I give you some history and an update:
We moved to TN in June 2007. I drive by these 2 horses on a daily basis. I would always smile thinking they must be happy and carefree. They were always beside each other, never far from the other...what better way to go through life than to have a friend always right there by your side. She wasn't always so skinny, she looked pretty healthy when we first moved here. Then one day I noticed she looked a little thinner. Then a month later even thinner. Eventually looking severely malnourished and just skin and bones. I'm sure Prince Charming got sick of hearing me complain about this horse. One who was obviously not being cared for. I couldn't figure out why someone would do that to an animal. A horse doesn't have a choice to leave and go somewhere where they are cared for. They don't have the option of getting a job to buy their own food. They are fully dependent on their owners to love and care for them properly. My neighbor called animal control last year because the horses didn't have blankets on them in the very cold weather. Animal control came out and made them put blankets on them, but they accepted the excuse that she was so skinny because of  her age. Which yes, did play a role in her weight loss, but I don't feel that they did enough to ensure that she kept weight on.

So I drove by every day, heart breaking, wishing I knew what to do for this horse. She needed a voice and I wanted to be that voice for her. I started asking people I worked with. I took the picture and put it on my FB, I posted a blog about it. Hoping and praying somebody could help me come to a solution. I even had one organization contact me from my blog post, she requested more information and I provided her with everything I could. I thought, FINALLY, we are going to be able to get this horse some help. Then....nothing!

March 30th I left work early and as I was approaching where the horses were I seen something odd. The horse was stuck under the fence! OMG! There were 2 gentleman standing there holding the fence over her. She had somehow gotten stuck under the fence. I immediately stopped and jumped out of my car to see what I could do to help. She was just laying on the ground. My heart in my stomach fearing she was dead. She looked at me and said "Well honey you are gonna sit here and comfort me!" Yes, I decided what she said when she looked at me. The owner wasn't home.

We tried for almost 2 hours to get her up. We pushed and we pulled, but she didn't even make an attempt to get up. She just laid there. We called Animal Control and was told they were closed on Wednesdays. We called the Sheriffs department and were told they would come out "when and if" they found the time because it was not a top priority. We called the Fire Dept to see if they could help us, because a horse can no lay on it's side for that long. NOBODY would help. I felt so damn helpless.

To make a really long day/story short....I sat with Justice for 5 hours on the side of the road. We were fortunate that a lady who owns a horse rescue just happened to drive by. They couldn't do anything without the owners permission because it was outside of her jurisdiction. She knew the horse was going to die. After 3 hours the owner finally got home from work and called his vet. His vet told him he didn't have time to come out. I was so mad!!!! This horse was on her side, on the side of the road and you don't have time? What kind of vet is that?

I'm making this long again sorry....long story short, her name is Justice, she had to be put down. Her head lay in my lap and I talked to her, and caressed her as she went. It broke my heart. I cried and cried. In those 5 hours Justice and I became fast friends. She was comfortable with me, and I liked comforting her. She was a beautiful girl, but she is in a better place now.

The owner surrendered the other horse "Maxine" to the rescue group where she is now learning ground manners and how to be handled by people. While she wasn't malnourished, her feet had never been taken care of and her hooves were terribly over grown and were mushrooming out. They are taking care of it but said it will be about a year before they can get them into "decent" shape. Those are not her hooves just and example of what they kind of look like. I'll be visiting Maxine and taking pictures of her progress.