Sapphire is a 30+ year young Thoroughbred that Hanaeleh rescued over a decade ago. Her previous owner had hit her with a car while driving through the pasture (he said he thought she would move), and it took us over a year to rehabilitate her from that injury. She had chiropractors and massage therapists working on her every week as she had a rib out of place and a lot of muscle damage. Thankfully, we were able to successfully rehabilitate her from that injury.
Last November, however, Sapphire was bitten by a black widow spider and her leg swelled up quite a bit. The vet came out and wrapped the leg and put her on medication, but the swelling in the leg refused to go down, even after several months. The vet warned us that this could be an issue, especially as Sapphire has wind puffs from her years as a jumper, so she already had swelling issues in her hind legs. We had been managing that with light work, and we made sure she stayed in the paddock so she would walk around more. On New Year’s day, however, we found her down and unable to get up. It took several of us (and several hours) to finally get her up, but thankfully we were able to get her on her feet before she colicced. The vet prescribed some stronger medication, and our massage therapist, Lisa, came out regularly to massage her. After a few weeks she was noticeably more comfortable, although the swelling still remained. We slowly began working her in the arena again, and she was spunky and happy and would run and buck in the arena, even with the swelling in her hind legs. We were resigned that the swelling would never go down- but with her continued massages the swelling has finally gone down, and she looks great!
You can see Sapphire’s large scar right behind her right shoulder. She’s still quite sensitive around it.
Otherwise, Sapphire is still a princess, and demands that anyone who grooms her only uses the softest horse-hair brushes, and never brushes her against the hair. She does not want to be curry-combed, but rather enjoys it when the volunteers brush her slowly and sedately. She especially loves it when her favorite volunteer, Maddie, comes out when she is back from college, because she knows how to groom her just right. She also loves it when Lisa gives her a massage, and will tell her when she’s not doing it *quite* right, so Lisa can adjust accordingly (which she does, of course!).
Sapphire is often picky about her food, so we have to make it a little differently every few months as she gets bored with whatever we are giving her. She also gets a pill for her arthritis, but she is often difficult when taking it, and when we give her a handful of cookies with the itty-bitty pill, she will eat all of the cookies and spit out the pill! We’ve finally figured out that if we give her the pill and cookies AND give a handful of cookies to Tamahome as well, she is more likely to eat it. Is it because she is being competitive with Tamahome, or because she doesn’t think we’re giving her medicine for some reason? We don’t know; we’re just happy we’ve figured out how to give her the pill!
Sapphire gets turned out everyday and we groom her regularly, so she is doing very well. She is enjoying her retirement at Hanaeleh and we always treat her like the princess she is.
Sapphire would LOVE a sponsor. Did you know that you can sponsor her for as little as $10/month? Click here to learn more and sign up!
