During the ensuing days of Buddy & Sunny's arrival at RVR Horse Rescue, you could see the confusion and the hurt in their eyes. When Buddy arrived he walked across the scale weighing in at a mere 920 LBS. Sunny walked his way across the scale to 848 LBS. To put what this means in perspective, Buddy is a 5 year old Thoroughbred that stands 16.1 hands. Typically a thoroughbred can weigh anywhere from 1,200-1,400 LBS (with some variables involved). Sunny is a 6 year old American Appendix that stepped across the scale at 848 LBS. With a slight shorter height than Buddy but a broader build Sunny's ideal weight is pretty close to the same of that of Buddy. So in this case they are estimated 400LBS under weight upon arrival. Things started out well for the first couple of days before we were on a short family vacation in Orlando and I received a text message that one of our babies was sick.
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| Sunny Experiencing Colic (picture sent to me in text message) |
Sitting in Orlando and seeing this picture made it feel like as if it were one of our loving children that were sick. After speaking with Shawn we knew that Sunny was in great hands with the volunteers of RVR Horse Rescue and we needed to enjoy our time as a family. What you don't see is that every horse that comes into RVR gets the same tender loving care as seen in this picture. Few days after Sunny's colic incident we started to notice that there were some very dangerous habits that Buddy and Sunny had established during their times of not receiving the proper care. Sunny would crib (filing his teeth on the fence) which led to a choking incident and Buddy would eat his poop before it would even hit the ground (not literally but in some cases it did not sit on the ground long before he ate it). There were many days that it was hard to understand how they were able to survive in this state. This was the beginning of a long road to recovery for Buddy & Sunny.
Buddy and Sunny's habits of eating his poop and eating off the ground (prior to RVR) had caught up with him resulting in significant amounts of sand building up in his stomach. This resulted in Buddy starting to colic daily for most of a month or so. Looking into their eyes often appeared as though there is something they are trying to tell you and they just don't understand what they did to be put in this situation. I spent many days going to work to rush home and go to see them when they were in this stage. You see, when you come to the parking area at RVR Horse Rescue, a horse that stand 16.1 hands can see to the parking area and you know there is a big horse in the round pen. I would arrive at RVR and I would be able to tell what kind of day Buddy was having. If it were a good day then you would see his head sticking up just enough to where you can see him when you pull in. On a bad day, my 6 year old son stood taller than him. Working closely with Shawn and Dr. Richard Gold, we went step for step with Buddy & Sunny through all of this. I think this is where I really felt this feeling of dependency from these two horses that I had to be there for them. I would personally make sure that if Dr. Gold was going to be at the property, I wanted to talk to him so that I knew what was needed. This paid off because he said that there was a supplement called U7 that is supposed to be good helping with Colic. I instantly asked where I can get that and he said it would be available at any store where horse supplements were sold. That night I went to the store and purchased U7 and that helped turn their path in the positive direction. At that point, colic became less and less of an occurrence where we shifted our focus to get the sand out of their system. With endless amounts of hay, being fed consistently for a period of time and treatment from Dr. Gold, things started to get better. After about 4 weeks or so, we began to see a significant difference in the personalities of Buddy & Sunny and indications of their ability to consume food and hay. At this point we started to see results of weight gain and less of the bad habits that initially created fear for their lives. We started feeding hay on a regular basis and the tables have made the turn in their favor. At this point, I started to see in their eyes the fight often seen at RVR but new to me and my family. We knew that there was no way in our power that these boys would not have anything they need if we had the capability.
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