Welcome Our Newest Rescues: Jesse and Rylee!

It’s been an exciting few weeks at Hanaeleh, as we have one of our horses return, and a new herdmate to welcome at the rescue!

Jesse

Jesse is a 20 year-old Quarter horse gelding. Jesse is what we call a boomerang horse- he keeps coming back! He has come back now three times- and never though any fault of his own. Jesse’s owner was having financial difficulties and also was concerned that Jesse was not doing well at his new stable. Jesse is why we always have a first right-of-refusal on all of our horses- people’s situations change, and horses can end up in a bad situation even when they have done nothing wrong. Jesse’s owner was very transparent and honest with us, and we are thankful for all of the care and love she has given Jesse for the past several years. His owner took excellent care of him, and he has settled back in… well, kind of- he and Andromeda got into it the other day and were fighting through the fence and broke a water pipe! Both horses are fine (although a little wet) and each blamed the other.

Jesse cribs- a lot- so we put a cribbing collar on him when he came, and we special-ordered a different collar for excessive cribbers. It has a thicker strap that goes across the neck, and has so far been successful in keeping him from cribbing without causing any issues or pressure sores. It’s been pretty wet and rainy since we picked him up, so we haven’t been able to do much exercise with him- which is just fine with him! He is perfectly happy hanging out in the paddock and eating.

Rylee

Rylee is an 18 year-old Peruvian Paso who has DSLD (degenerative suspensory ligament disease). DSLD can be hereditary, and certain breeds are more prone to it, but any horse can end up contracting this disease. Essentially, the suspensory tendons in the legs stretch, and this can be painful, especially when going up and down hills, and when being ridden. Shortly after Rylee was diagnosed with DSLD, her owner was involved in a car accident, and found herself unable to work, making it difficult to care for a horse. She did not want to sell Rylee, because she was afraid something bad would happen to her, and she had heard some very negative stories about some rescues, so she was just planning on putting Rylee down.

Thankfully, one of our supporters was able to explain to Rylee’s owner that Hanaeleh takes excellent care of our horses, and convinced her to turn Rylee over to us. That was great and all- but we just don’t really have any room at the rescue to take another horse, especially as Jesse was coming back! The owner of the stable offered to let Rylee stay in her paddock as long as we paid for the hay, and so we thought this might be a good option to keep Rylee alive but safe until we had room.

Rylee, however, had different plans. Right after Christmas she had a mild gas colic, and we had the vet out, and she rebounded just fine. In order to prevent a future colic, however, we wanted to give her a daily mash with electrolytes and flax oil, and while she was just one canyon over, adding an extra 30 minutes to the day started to become tedious. She also had no real shelter in the paddock besides some trees, however, so when it started to rain in earnest we knew we had to move her to Hanaeleh.

We were originally thinking that Rylee might do well in with Hope and Grace, but she and Grace kept screeching at each other when we walked Rylee up to their paddock, so we gave that up. We ended up putting Garnet back in with Hope and Grace, and put Rylee in Garnet’s stall. Grace has not bothered Rylee (or vice versa) with Garnet looking over her shoulder, so things have been relatively quiet there.

Rylee has so far been a very sweet mare. She is easy to handle and we put her on Equioxx (a pain medication that is safe for the horses to be on long-term), which has made a huge difference in her mood- she is MUCH more comfortable now and during the break in the weather has enjoyed running around in the round pen. We are very happy that we were able to find a way to help this sweet girl get a second chance at life!