Our Equine Memorial Page
Plant City Equine Rescue takes in the weak, the neglected, the abused, as well as many healthy horses just in need of a good home. Sometimes our Rescues are so emaciated, that even after multiple Vet visits and round the clock care, we are just unable to save the life of our new friend. Fortunately for us, this is rare. Our family, volunteers and friends love our horses. Just as anyone who grieves with the loss of a loved one, we also grieve when we lose a horse. Sometimes we wonder if we could have done more. Sometimes we are just sad. Yet, we always realize that experiencing this grief is the result of having being blessed enough to love.
This page is our way of sharing and celebrating the life we have loved and lost. We would like to share with you some fond memories of these horses, when they were still alive. It reminds us that though we can't save every horse, every horse listed here passed with having been loved.
"Annie"
Annie was the sweetest old lady in town. When she walked, her bones creaked. When she walked, she did so proud & pretty. Any child could walk into her paddock & crawl under her or anything. She was gracious & gentle ALL the time. When Cortney would leave for work & drive along her paddock, Annie would talk to her the whole way. When Cortney would return each night, Annie would be SO excited to see her. She wouldn't settle down until Cortney went to visit with her. She was spoiled rotten. I believe it was Annie's way of thanking Cortney every day for rescuing her & being so kind to her. There was not ONE time when Annie was talking to me that it didn't warm my heart. There was just something special about that Mare. Two years after welcoming Annie into our family, she started having seizures. After overcoming the hardships she endured previously, unfortunately, the seizures got the best of Annie. She had to be put to sleep. Annie was a trooper. Forever and a day, she will be in our hearts and prayers! We love you Annie!
"Hunter"Hunter will be sorely missed. He was the biggest lap dog I'd ever met. Unfortunately, he foundered real bad and we couldn't begin to get him out of it. His choices were to continue on the major doses of Bute, Banamine and Ace for comfort, which would be slowly destroying his insides while hoping to come out of it or being humanely put down. We could have considered the first option for a longer period of time (we tried for 3 weeks) but we could not seem to control his pain for more than an hour at a time. He got so bad you could see the pain in his eyes, while the front of his body remained wringing wet with sweat from the pain. To continue with treatments would have been selfish on our part. He will be sadly missed.
"Chocolate"
A few weeks ago, Chocolate refused to drink and collapsed from dehydration. We refused to "let her go" and started shooting gatorade down her throat. She quickly recovered, but slowly went down hill ever since. Our vet said she was in her mid to late 30's and that was being a generous age. She went to the round pen from the pasture every day, with Allie by her side, to eat her breakfast and dinner. Every day for the last 2 weeks, she became more and more "pleasantly" confused as to where she was supposed to go. We'd point her head in the right direction and she would continue to walk in the direction we pointed her. We really hated to let her go. With her hearing almost gone and her vision in second eye almost gone as well, her quality of life was leaving her too. We will miss you Chocolate and Allie's missing you too!
"Foxey"
Foxey gave into the pain and gave up. We couldn't get her to eat, get her meds in or drink. We found ourselves pumping gatorade into her to keep her hydrated, as she laid on the ground. we tried founder pads and everything we could think of. Yet, we couldn't get her any relief from the severe pain. We decided to humanely end her pain. this was hard on us as my girls sat for hours on end, with Foxey's head in their lap. These are days that make me want to strangle people who let these horses get in this condition. Tomorrow, we'll try to shake it off and help another ... focus on the ones we are able to help.
Sorry it's taken us so long to update everyone about Mare, but this one really tugged at our heart strings. Which made it that much harder to talk about it. We had really hoped for a better outcome for this sweet soul. Anyways, I went out one morning to feed and noticed Mare not getting up to greet me as usual. I pulled off her slippers and although I had never seen it before, I knew what I was looking at. Her coffin bone had dropped through her hoof. I thought her hoof was going to come off in my hand, in her slipper. The infection around the cornet was OBVIOUS and the odor was unbearable. You could see the pain in her eyes when she finally did get up. Then there were more problems. I had to come up with a plan to get her out of the backyard and up into a trailer. For two days, she lived on bute and ate/drank while laying down. She'd get up once/twice a day to go to the bathroom. By the third day, she couldn't even get up for that. We were running out of time and options. Somehow, I backed my big trailer around my house. Doing so while dodging trees, power lines and all sorts of things and finally managed to back up to the walk through gate. We buted her up pretty good and coaxed her up with food. Once on her feet, she had to walk 10 LONG feet to the trailer and jump in. From the time this poor girl got on her feet until the time she was in the trailer, my daughter (Cortney) and I held our breath. It was one of my worst experiences thus far. From there, I pulled the trailer around to my front yard by my light pole so I could monitor her throughout the night. It was very cold, so I made a hay bed on the mat and covered her up. Once morning came, I headed for the long one hour ride to Polk County, where we put our horses down at. I had hoped that she would lay during the trip, but no such luck. Once we got there, we backed up to a beautiful oak tree out in the cow pasture. We opened the trailer door and she gladly got out, but was shaking in pain. I felt so bad and gave her more bute. At this point, what could it hurt? Right? I can't deal with death, so I left her with plenty of hay, feed and water .. laying under that oak tree on that warm spring day .. waiting for the vet. Within three hours, her suffering was over. Thank you for all your prayers and kind words. I'm so sorry, to those of you who came by and met Mare. It's easier to read about it than it is to see them in this condition. Let's hope others surrender their horses before they are to the point of no return.
"Daniel"
We are sorry for the delay in bringing this news but it has been very traumatic for all involved. time has passed and the pain is lessening, somewhat. As most may remember, Daniel was born at the rescue 12 hours after his mother was surrendered to the rescue a week before Thanksgiving. The same night he was born, one of my cousin's twin 17 yr old boys (named Daniel) was killed in a car accident. We named Daniel in memory of Daniel Smith, who was also a fighter! He had many problems and it was "touch and go" the entire first three months of his life. We spent many days ('round the clock) in the stall with both he and his mama, helping him fight for his life. What a fighter he was! He beat all the odds, survived and was on his way to becoming one proud, gentle, kind large horse.
Well, because of the rescue demands, we decided to ask one of our best foster homes to take Daniel for a while to continue to imprint him. As they had more time to do this than we did. We took he and his mama (Trouble) there for a month. After that month, we brought Trouble back to the rescue and weaned Daniel. Both Daniel and Trouble handled the transition perfectly. Daniel quickly snuggled up to another mare named Coso. A few nights later, Daniel tried to get through the wood stall walls to get to Coso (in the middle of the night) and somehow managed to break his neck. We were all in major shock those first couple days and once the reality set it, we called Dr. Britt. He said it is very common for stud colts to look for ways to kill themselves and it happens quite often. This didn't make us feel any better. Although, I don't think any words could have. Our lesson in this is to hopefully spread the word to others, with a feisty colt, to inspect your stalls, fencing and everything else. Don't put off fixing anything in their area. If something bizarre can happen, it will with a stud colt. The two pictures above of Daniel were taken the day before he passed away.
"Cheerio"
Cheerio was bought "online" and shipped to Florida. A couple months after he arrived, it became obvious that he was unable to ride. The people who bought him gave him to a family that had a couple small children, thinking he could handle light riding on a lead line. He did well at first but his condition continued to get worse. The signs he was showing were quite similar to EPM. We had Dr. Britt start EPM treatment, but it didn't seem to help at all. Dr. Britt decided to try Vitamin E and Selinium. Doc was pretty convinced that he either had a slipped disc or broken back. These IV treatments worked and he only needed an IV once a week for about a month. We were all hopeful as this is one sweet gelding. About 6 weeks into it, he began to lose control in his left hind quarter again. This time resulting in him spinning until he hit the ground. We increased his IVs to every 3rd day. This worked for another couple weeks. At the end, he needed it daily and Doc felt the pain he was suffering was not fair to him. On May 28, 2007, Cheerio was humanely euthanized. This was one beautiful paint that will be sorely missed.
"Bams"
Information coming.
"Streak"
Information coming.
"Dee Dee"
Information coming.
Caballera Frosty
Information coming.
"Elvis"
Elvis was put down for several reasons. He had COPD and a "problem" that we thought was caused from teenagers "cowboying" him. He acted really "hot" when you went to mount him. We finally got his COPD under control with J-herb & Spirulina & Albuterol (and mother nature). this allowed us to analyze his rearing problem. Upon examination, Doc found that at some point Elvis had flipped over and broke his wither bone. Elvis has not been "the same horse" since we got him back from that foster home and now we know why. Rather than try to make him comfy with pain meds for the rest of his life, we decided to humanely euthanize him. This was a very sad day for us as we have become very close to Elvis in the year we've known him.
"Whisper"
Whisper was put down because of an infected & shattered jawbone that we couldn't get under control. The infection ate away at her jaw so badly that there was no hope. Her previous owners tried desperately to get her help but her issue was not diagnosed properly from the beginning, which led to her uncontrollable infection. Her previous owners have given us permission to use her skull as a teaching tool, hopefully preventing this from happening to another horse, through education.
"Amber"
Amber was put down as a result of her somehow shattering her hawk. We didn't put her down right away because it only bothered her at the trot. This week, it was easy to tell that even the walk was bothering her. She will be sorely missed. Amber's pics.
"Allie"
March 9, 2008
"Charlie"
Charlie had trouble putting on weight and sweating. He was bought by a family that had a couple small girls who loved him. In the end, his weight issues and his lack of sweating was a little too much for his old body to tolerate. Unfortunately, he was put to sleep. He was a real sweetie and will be sadly missed.
