New Adoption and Hershey Returns to Hanaeleh

Although Hanaeleh is a relatively small rescue, and cannot take in every horse who is in need, we do our best to network horses, both internally and externally, in order to help find them new homes. When we were sent a plea from a woman who was looking for a home for Gabriel, a Friesian-Quarter horse cross, however, we knew we would easily be able to find him a home!

And we did quickly find this guy a wonderful new horsie mom up in L.A. Elizabeth was scheduled to pick up Hershey from his temporary foster home, so we offered to take Gabriel up to his new home since we were headed up there. Of course, he was so sweet and hopped right into the trailer and was a wonderful boy all of the way up. When we dropped him off, he was super-mellow and there was no drama at all- he enjoyed the carrots we gave him (and wanted some more!) but otherwise when we arrived he just walked right into his stall, rolled, and seemed to say, “OK, this is my home now. Cool.” I think this is one of the easiest adoptions we’ve ever had!

Elizabeth also had to pick up Hershey, so we went from no-drama to high-drama pretty quickly. Hershey has been staying at a foster home with Noelle for the past six weeks. He and Noelle were turned out at Natalie’s house everyday together, and had become best friends (for the record, whomever Hershey is turned out with at the time his new best friend). Hershey did not want to leave his current best friend Noelle, and Noelle did not want to be separated from her best friend Hershey, so there was a lot of neighing and calling and upset horses when we put him into the trailer. Thankfully he walked right in, but he was visibly upset and kicked the trailer a few times to let us know he was unhappy.

Traffic was relatively light and the weather was temperate, so we had an easy ride back. When we arrived back at Hanaeleh, Hershey was pretty mellow and walked calmly out of the trailer. He seemed happy to be back at Hanaeleh, and everyone said hi to him as he walked up. Our original plan was to put him into the stall next to Tama and Sapphire’s paddock, but that day Sapphire thought the pole that held up the shelter would be an excellent scratching post (she actually HAS a scratching post that we made for her, but she would rather scratch her bum on the sheep pen and shelter poles), so she ended up breaking one post and bending another, which meant that the stall was not safe. We put Hershey into the round pen overnight so he would have a safe place, and gave him some dinner. He seemed more interested in flirting with Ruby than with eating, however!

The next day we spent much of the morning fixing the stall so it would be safe for Hershey. He spent most of that flirting with Ruby, getting her all riled up. She responded by kicking out at Hope and Grace and cutting her hock open, so we then had to wrap her hock and put on a hock boot over the bandage. She isn’t favoring the leg, but we are keeping it wrapped and she will stay in the stall for the week until it is healed. It was just one more thing to have to deal with on a busy Saturday morning!

Finally, we had Ruby all wrapped up, Hershey’s stall all fixed, and we were able to put Hershey into the stall next to Gypsy. Tama came over and said hi, and told Hershey that the waterer in the stall was really his, but that Hershey could borrow it while he was there. Gypsy, being her usual self, continued to ignore Hershey as he made doe-eyes at her and tried to get her attention by bobbing his head up and down for 20 minutes straight. Thankfully, however, since all of the horses know each other, there wasn’t any drama or horsie squealing at all.

Hershey seems happy to be back at Hanaeleh, and Noelle’s foster mom has reported that Noelle pouted for several hours after Hershey left, but she seems to be back to normal again.

It’s lovely having our Hershey boy back again, and we are very thankful to his short-term foster mom Natalie for working with him for the past six weeks! It was also lovely being able to place Gabriel into a wonderful home. It just goes to prove that any horse can be in danger- even a Friesian. Rescue horses come in all shapes and sizes, and most often these horses do absolutely nothing wrong to be put into a precarious situation. They often have people who love them, but because of a lack of time, money or training, the horses end up needing places like Hanaeleh to help find them safe, loving homes. We are very proud to be able to place yet another horse into a forever home!