Yay!! and Yay!!!
The kill pen refunded the overage that I paid for Val. This has had me so stressed. I had contacted them three times with no results, so filed a dispute with Paypal. I was nervous about it because I have heard how shady this guy is, and I was afraid he would take his good sweet time paying me. I mean, it would have been so simple if he would have just refunded it right away, like he should have. I know he has the money....he drives a pick up that cost more than my house. (Well, my house didn't cost much....but you know what I mean.) I needed the money to pay for Val's vet coming up on Friday and getting a farrier out to see him. So, now I can breathe again. Whew!
And the second Yay!!! is I saw John at Steinhauser's today, and he told me the the Steinhauser Company liked my story and he sent it to Nutrena and they liked it too, and he is pretty sure he can get Nutrena to sponsor Val. Meanwhile he is going to put Val's story on their FB page and I am to update it every week.
This is the story I wrote:
I am 70 years old and I was looking for a gentle horse to buy. I
wanted an older ranch gelding. My first horse had been an old cow
horse that I got for my 11th birthday, and a better horse for a kid,
couldn't have been found. Now as a "senior citizen"....I was looking
for a similar horse. I also wanted it to be a kill pen horse. Many
good horses end up in kill pens, through no fault of their own. Their
owners take them to auction, and kill buyers buy them. Some of the
kill buyers offer them for a limited time on Facebook pages.
I found Val and he had a ship date of January 6th. He had been at the
kill pen for about two months, and they had cut his price in half but no
one had bought him, and his time was running out. He was a pretty
horse and they had a video of him being ridden, and he looked good and
seemed nice and calm. They said he was a former ranch horse. This is
what he looked like in November.
(Then I posted the picture of him before he lost all that weight.)
When I called the lot to buy him, I was told he had lost about 100
pounds. I expected that. Kill pens are very stressful places for
horses. They are fed extremely poor quality feed and hay. The
aggressive horses keep the more timid ones chased away from the feed and
hay.
I picked him up on Friday, January 6th. John at Alvin Steinhauser's
helped me pick out a blanket for him, and it was a good thing. It was
so cold, raining and sleeting, and ice everywhere when we got to
Louisiana to pick him up. He was shivering and shaking so badly. I
am sure the blanket felt good, so with a warm blanket and a hay bag full
of good quality coastal, we started home.
I am feeding him Nutrena Safe Choice Senior. It has done an excellent
job on my other senior horses, including a 30 year old mare. I started
out feeding him a quart of feed, four times a day, plus kept his hay
bag full at all times. I wet the Senior feed. It melts easily and by
wetting it, helped ensure he was getting enough water, because he was
eating hay free choice. He has also been drinking about 15 gallons of
water a day. I am feeding him 3 times a day now and have increased
the feed to 3 quarts at a time. It is easier for me, because feeding 4
times a day is difficult if I have to go anywhere, but I can manage 3
times.
I think he has lost a lot more than 100 pounds, but I expect him to gain
back his former weight and maybe more, before too long. He is wearing
shoes and they need to be pulled and his hooves trimmed and once that
is done, I will start exercising him a little every day. He has a vet
appointment in a couple of days to check him over.
I took the blanket off yesterday, because the weather warmed up, and made these pictures.
(Then I posted the three pictures of him now....skinny.)
I think he is going to make an excellent horse for me, and I am so glad I
was able to save him and bring him back to good health.
*********************************************************
I already have an idea for what I am going to write about him next week.
He is already looking better. Made this pic today.
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