Kathryn and I drove to Spokane on Saturday to pick up a blind mare who was saved from slaughter by a Washington state group we work with, Columbia Basin Equine Rescue. They're in the Tri-cities area, and they rescue horses by buying them from the feedlots where they are destined for slaughter. This group looks for horses that are still sound, healthy and otherwise capable of having a good quality of life. After they purchase them, they work to adopt them out.
They contact us when they come across a blind horse in the feedlot. When they saw this blind Appaloosa mare stumbling around the stockyards two weeks ago, they emailed to ask if we could take her. We said yes, so they paid the fee to purchase her (food value only) and pulled her out. They managed to get the mare to a nice lady named Sheri G. in Deer Park, north of Spokane, who kindly offered to foster her until we could get there. That saved several hours of driving time for us.
The rescue group had named the mare Shasta, but we already have a blind horse named Shasta. Hmm. When we got to Sheri's place, she was outside with the mare on a lead rope. Sheri handed the lead rope to Kathryn, and the mare promptly walked right on top of me. Then she turned and nearly walked over Kathryn. She was wound up for some reason, so I took the lead rope and began longeing her in Sheri's yard, making her go round and round at a quick pace to work off the "zest." The mare still was quite feisty and spirited (translation: she was a handful), prompting Kathryn to give her a new name on the spot: Guadalupe.
Maybe we had passed too many Mexican restaurants on U.S. 395 as we drove north from Spokane to Deer Park, but this mare brought "hot" and "spicy" to mind ... hence the Mexican name. (We also thought it made sense because we could call her "loopy" when she got wound up like this.)
To her credit, Guadalupe loaded into the trailer just fine, and we had an uneventful trip back to the ranch, getting home around 10:30 p.m. I unloaded Guadalupe easily and we walked her into Beauty's Barn and then into her stall for the night. I took this photo of Kathryn with Guadalupe this evening. Guadalupe is a very sweet girl, and was much better behaved today. We think she's probably been a broodmare her whole life, so she hasn't been handled much. This would explain why she isn't good about "personal space" issues .. but she'll learn soon enough!
(Click on photo for larger image.)
Welcome, Guadalupe! You have ARRIVED! The RDR, if you haven't figured out already, is heaven on earth. We're so glad your luck has turned around. Sounds like it's high time. Wish we could be there to give you welcome hugs, but since we aren't, we trust some of the other will do that for us.
ginger & Tobias
Posted by: ginger & Tobias (the greythound) | July 10, 2006 at 04:54 PM
What a precious face! Just love the Mexican "hot and spicy" name! So glad she has a new lease on life. Welcome "Loopy!"
Posted by: Nina | July 10, 2006 at 11:44 AM
Welcome to the ranch, Guadalupe. You're a fine looking girl and you'll have everything you need at the ranch.
Posted by: Roz | July 10, 2006 at 08:27 AM