August 07, 2012

Khan

I visited an 11 year old gelding named Khan.  From the pictures the lady sent me he looked to be pretty well put together.

When I got there the realization that those pictures were taken from when this lady first "rescued" Khan was apparent.  The first horse I saw was an appaloosa.  He was very skinny, you could see the vertebrae along his rump.  The pen area was filled with manure almost a foot deep.  Khan was a little bit better but still you could see the outline of his ribs and his spine a lot more than I think you should.  His whithers were very prominent from lack of muscle.

I groomed him and tried to pick his hooves but he didn't want anything to do with that.  His feet had not been trimmed in who knows how long.  I longed him a little bit and he moved nicely but he ended up clipping his front pastern with his rear.  He had a nice stride and really stepped under himself but with his long toes he couldn't help but clip himself. 

We stopped there since he was bleeding a little.  I felt terrible and a bit angry that for one, this lady did not take care of his feet and for two I wondered if he normally stepped like that she should have known and had bell boots or some sort of protection on him.  The long toes certainly did not help.  I did not want to ride him since it had been a year she said since she last rode him and because he was so skinny and now had a little injury from clipping himself.




Steve and I left frustrated.  I did eventually call the local Humane Society and found out that this was a case they still had open and were set on going out this Wednesday anyways.  Apparently it sounds like the situation for the Appaloosa has not improved and who knows about Khan but in my opinion he needed more weight and energy.  He didn't seem too good.  Such a shame.

You can see the spine line on his rump.  I've never seen it so
defined on a horse but the appaloosa you could make out
the vertebrae.  So sad.


1 comment:

Reddunappy said...

Very sad. Unfortunately all to common of an occurrence.
I hope they get better lives soon.