It is with a heavy heart that we share with you the passing of Hope, our dear little 30 year-old Arabian mare who we rescued along with her best friend, Grace, over six years ago from a neglect situation. Grace sadly passed last year in October, and we were uncertain at the time how Hope would do without her closest friend by her side, but she was both sweet and sassy to the end.
Hope was diagnosed with DSLD several years ago, which essentially is a lengthening of the tendons in the legs. While DSLD can be managed in its early stages through proper hoof care, eventually the condition causes thickening of the tendons, along which brings pain and discomfort.
We had been managing Hope’s pain for the past few years with Equioxx, and she was doing very well. If we turned her out in the arena or round pen she would run around on her own, and the condition didn’t seem to bother her. A few months ago we saw that one of her legs was slightly inflamed, but she didn’t appear to be in any discomfort. We spoke to the vet, and her recommendation was to just ensure that her pain was managed and her exercise was limited so she didn’t hurt herself.
This past month, however, Hope started to drop weight and stopped eating her hay pellets. We started her on a complete feed grain and changed her pain meds to a stronger dose. She immediately gained her weight back but sadly, we knew at that point, having experienced the DSLD condition many times before with our other horses, that we were coming close to the end.
The past few weeks Hope was on pain meds in the morning and evening, and she seemed to be feeling good, but we knew that we could not sustain that dose of meds for very long. Soon after, we realized that the kindest thing to do was to let her cross the Rainbow Bridge. Hope had all of her special friends around her – the volunteers that have worked with Hope over the years. She went in peace and that is a small but welcome comfort for us all, as we hope it is for you.
Hope’s Rescue
Hope was rescued along with Grace in February 2018. Hope’s previous name had been Satin, but for some reason when people read it they kept calling her, “Satan,” and that clearly wouldn’t do. Grace’s name had been Goki, which we didn’t care for at all, so we decided to change both of their names, thus the girls becoming “Hope” and “Grace.”
Both mares had been neglected and needed consistent feed and care. They thankfully had each other, and that created a deep bond that unfortunately prevented them from being able to be separated or to create bonds with other horses. Because of their history of neglect, both horses were wary of people, and were difficult to catch, but once they came to Hanaeleh they realized that people were not only kind, but sometimes they had cookies or carrots! Eventually they stopped running away and started to come up to people. Hope essentially followed Grace’s lead when it came to people- if Grace was OK with the person, Hope would be OK with the person- so we would first catch Grace, then we would be able to catch Hope.
We will sometimes separate horses when they arrive with such a strong bond because they can actually be dangerous if they are not separated, but we were able to work with Hope and Grace so they could at least be worked with and groomed separately (although still within sight of the other) safely. Thankfully both Hope and Grace were very sweet girls and while they may have been a bit distant at first, they were never mean or wanted to hurt people.
Adopted for a Time
While Grace was trained to ride, we discovered that Hope had been started by a few people but her training had never been completed. At 24 years old, we decided that she would only be adopted out with Grace as a companion horse. About six months after they came to Hanaeleh, we were approached by a therapist who wanted them for her therapy program in Malibu, and it seemed perfect as all of the work with the horses was on the ground, so neither would be expected to be ridden.
Sadly, only a few months after taking Hope and Grace to Malibu, the Woolsey fire burned down their entire facility and Hope and Grace were evacuated. We kept in contact with the new owner, but for some reason a few months after the fire she decided to turn our girls over to another rescue. We immediately intervened when we discovered what she had done, and we made sure that the following day both Hope and Grace came back to Hanaeleh. We decided that it would be best at that point not to adopt them out again.
Hope after Grace
We were uncertain how Hope would feel and act after Grace passed- she was so very dependent on Grace we feared that she would become despondent. We were very pleasantly surprised to see Hope become very independent this past year. We tried to put her in with other horses to see if she would like another friend, but she really didn’t seem interested in forming another bond with another horse at all- she did NOT want to share a paddock or arena time with anyone else, and was very vocal in her dislike of essentially every other horse we tried to pair her up with. It was as if she had decided she no longer wanted a roommate, but wanted to live the single life for a while.
Hope was a bit of a malcontent even when she was alone in a stall, she didn’t get along with any of the neighboring horses, and we found ourselves moving horses all around the ranch to see who might live next to whom without fighting. Finally we moved Hope up next to Gabriel for a short time in the upper paddock, and she started to act silly and run around for no apparent reason. Gabriel just pinned his ears at her and looked at her as if to say, “Stop it- you’re embarrassing yourself!” and Hope immediately calmed down and stopped running around. It was a relative miracle!
We eventually tried moving Hope back down near the rest of the herd, but she seemed to like the larger paddock up top, and so she lived up there for the remainder of her life. She liked to watch the wildlife along the hillside, and seemed more content there than she had next to any of the other horses in a stall.
Hope was very much a favorite horse of several volunteers because she was very sweet and kind. She loved being groomed, and would even sometimes fall asleep during a grooming session! Even during her final days at Hanaeleh, however, she would still revert to her sassy self and refuse to be caught for a minute- it seemed that she knew exactly when we were losing our patience, because at that point she would just stop or would come right up as if to say, “Oh, you were looking for me?”
We will very much miss our girl Hope. No matter how silly or exacerbating her behavior, she was never mean or aggressive- she really was a very sweet horse. We were very lucky to have known such a kind soul.
Somewhere . . . in time’s own space,
there must be some sweet, pastured place
Where creeks sing on – and tall trees grow,
some paradise where horses go,
For by the love that guides my pen,
I know great horses live again.
– Stanley Harrison