Sienna, age 32, may have a few years on her but with the cooler temps she can still kick up her heels! 

YOU GO GIRL!!!

BABY'S STORY

5-13-O8  Baby arrives at Red Gate Farm Rescue as an owner surrender. 

Baby is a 1O year old grade mare, kid broke and trained to pull a wagon.  Sadly, Baby's owner Johnnie S Barnes, a dear friend of Debra's, was diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer and given a short time to live so she had to let her entire herd go.  Baby was surrendered to rescue because she had a recurrent ear problem that requires repeat treatment as it flares up. 

Typical treatment for Baby's condition is to remove the draining tract.  Baby had surgery to correct the problem shortly after arrival at the farm on 5-23-08.

Unfortunately, surgery did not correct the problem and an unknown "mass" remains at the base of Baby's ear.  She required subsequent treatment and the ear had to be cauterized.  We will continue to treat accordingly as necessary.

Baby is a wonderful addition to the Red Gate Farm Family and is used to give pony rides at Birthday parties.  It is a great opportunity to teach children about responsible care of animals and is often their, and indeed their parents, first time on a horse.

LOTSASPOTS' STORY 

Lotsaspots, a 5 year old Appy-Paint gelding's rescue, rehabilitation and recovery proved to be a long and challenging one for Debra.  

Spots rode flawlessly in the local 2OO6 Christmas Day Parade but sustained a severe injury to the coronary band when he took a fall in the horse trailer en route home. 

His former owner tried unsuccessfully to treat his injuries for several weeks but was facing major surgery, subsequent loss of work/income and knew he would be unable to care for the horse properly so he agreed to turn him over to rescue and Debra was called. 

Debra's lacked the experience of dealing with such an injury and readily admits she has never been comfortable dealing with the back end of a horse so this rescue would prove to be very interesting. 

DVM Ben J Character, Mobile Veterinary Services was called and arrangements were made to examine Spots and assess his injuries.  Dr Ben then consulted with several other respected veterinarians as to how to proceed with his treatment.

Spots owner had been soaking his hoof in a "boot' several times a day and demonstrated how it was done - quite a challenge and lengthy process which Debra did not look forward to.

On arrival to Red Gate Farm, Debra asked Spots owner if he had ever tried soaking his hoof in a bucket of warm salts water and decided to give that a try instead of using the boot method.

She tapped Spots injured hoof with a piece of straw and asked him to "pick it up."  Amazingly, he did so.  Debra then scooted the bucket into position and tapped his hoof again and told him to "put it down!"  Oh happy day, it couldn't get much easier than that and Spots was on the long road to recovery much to Debra's relief!