Chiquita

Shortly after Taina passed away I was contacted by a wonderful person who had rescued a Paso Fino from a kill pen. Unfortunately, the horse she rescue had been seriously injured and blinded while in the kill pen (we believe this was intentional abuse) and has a life-limiting disease, DSLD. So she was looking for a sanctuary for her to live out the rest of her life with love and good care. This was a hard decision for me, I wasn't ready to have someone so much like Taina, she was so precious to me and Chiquita was so similar. We had also just agreed to take Dream, a Clydesdale retiring from a large amusement resort carriage horse work. As time went on, my aching heart kept thinking of this little horse, blind and scared and so in need of a soft, stable place to enjoy life. Her rescuer loves her, but didn't have a facility designed for a terrified and completely blind horse. We didn't have the space for her, but with the help of our amazing supporters we were able to raise the funds to buy a shed for our ponies to move into, freeing an indoor/outdoor stall for this little girl. The wonderful shed company heard our plight and gave us a great price and made sure to put our shed delivery at the top of the list, so we could take her in ASAP.

She arrived safely, despite the terrifying transport, her kind transporters did their best to ensure she had the least stressful ride possible. She spent about a week in her stall before getting to explore her turnout on her own time. Every day she'd explore a little further into her field, the first day she found grass it was like she won the lottery! It's taken more than a few months before we could start touching her without her flinching and jumping away, though she did discover scratches feel wonderful when she's expecting or asking for them. With a good diet she continued to recover from her starvation that her rescuers had done well helping her through. While we know she has DSLD she is in relatively early stages. This disease is the damage of her connective tissue in her legs, primarily her suspensories. Right now she seems just hyper-mobile, but over time this damage will progress and become painful and life ending. We are maintaining her on appropriate supplements and herbal blends to do our best to slow the progression of this disease, hopefully we have many years ahead!

Every day is a new avdenture for her as she learns her environment, meets new horse and donkey friends, and is slowly welcoming new humans into her life, one at a time. We are excited to see her bright future!