Ruby and Jewel were at the Maitland Sale yards on November 8th 2012. Jewell reached out to all of us by resting her head through the rails on our hands. As with most horses in the doggers pens she was miserable and distressed.
Her condition was light, feet bad and the look in her eye was withdrawn. She had given up. Ruby was in the yard next to her and we suspected they may have been mother and daughter. Both mares sold to slaughter for $120. After some discussion later that evening, we made a call to the dogger and arranged to buy both girls the next day.
When we turned up to collect them from the doggers paddock they were standing head to tail at the furtherest point of the paddock away from all the other horses. There was no way on earth we couldve taken one without the other. Knowing nothing about these girls we walked straight up to them in the paddock, caught them, led them out and loaded straight onto the float.
The rehab for these girls took a few months. They have already had one failed adoption and have come back to us to recover. It is so sad to see this happen to some horses time and time again. And, yes, we do have a process and a checking mechanism to pick up on these things. If we didnt we may never have caught the situation when we did. Sadly, it may only be a few weeks between a healthy and unhealthy horse if the owner is simply not feeding appropriately.
Ruby and Jewell are now going under saddle and have really enjoyed working out on the trail. It would be fantastic if we could rehome them together.
Baby