Lacey arrived at Mea Ola’s Place in January 2015. I had received a message from a local woman who was about to list her as a free horse on Craig’s List. Her husband had been put on permanent disability, and they could no longer afford  to care for a horse. They had advertised her for sale for a couple of weeks with no interest, and now they were desperate. They had contacted another local Rescue that was supposed to pick her up, but that Rescue had never showed up. This proved to be a lucky thing for Lacey. The other Rescue was one that just a few months later had to have all of its "rescued" horses seized and rescued. This was Fallen Horses, which was found to have over thirty starving horses. Lacey could have been one of those!   (HiCaliber Horse Rescue graciously took all thirty of those starving horses in.)

 

(If you have a horse you can no longer keep, please investigate before you turn it over to a Rescue Group or Shelter.  If possible visit the place either online or, better yet, in person.  Assure yourself that the horse will be well-taken care of, and that a prospective adopter will be checked to be certain he or she is a valid adopter with excellent references who will provide a good home which the Organization might visit, and that if your horse is not adopted, it will be kept at the Rescue or Shelter, and above all will not be auctioned or sold to kill buyers.  You do not want your dearly loved horse to be sent with no food or water in a hot and stuffy truck full of loosely packed, terrified stranger horses on a long road trip to a Canadian or Mexican slaughter house, to end up on some European dinner plate.)

 

(A free horse on Craig’s List or other similar list is a sitting duck for slaughter. Why?  Because someone can pick it up cost-free and take it to the auction and make a 100% profit, even if the horse sells for only a few hundred dollars to a kill buyer. Owners are broken hearted when they learn the fate of their horse after someone has deceived them into thinking they will provide a good home, and the horse heads to auction and ends up on a slaughter bound truck.  It happens all of the time.)  

 

(Editor's addendum:  Be careful giving any animal away for free as some people tend to treat a free animal with less respect. Also, there have been cases where puppies picked up for free are raised to be used for killing practice by trainers of dogs used in illegal dog-fighting, and rumors abound that kittens are sometimes fed to those fighting dogs to "make the dogs mean."  Better not to take chances.  Best to spay and neuter your dogs and cats.) 

 

When I talked with Lacey's owner, she told me that Lacey was sound and a great trail horse. She had been her husband’s trail horse. These types of horses are generally fairly easy to place, so I agreed to take her in.

 

We got Lacey home and soon had her out, evaluating her on the trail. The third ride out, she had swelling in her right rear leg. It turned out to be a partially torn suspensory tendon. It appeared that she had actually injured it a few months before she came to us, and was not quite done healing. So, for most of this year, Lacey has been on stall rest and hand walks while this tendon heals.

 

She was great on the two rides we had, but we have not been able to put her up for adoption until we have more time to evaluate her so we can match her with the perfect person. We also want 100% healing of that tendon. It looks like we are almost there, as she is now being turned out and coming in sound. We will start riding her again in early spring.

 

Lacey is about 15.3 hands high and approximately 1150 pounds.  She is a stocky and well-built mare. Our vets aged her at fourteen years old this year (2015). Lacey is very affectionate and obedient. She is going to make a great horse for someone, and we hope to have her on the adoptable list by early summer 2016.