Neiman, an old but great lead stallion was not doing good at all, he is the same horse we rescued out of the snare-trap.

We have been giving him special feedings since December but he continued to decline. On Friday January 22nd, state veterinarians with AZDA came to assess him and we decided together that something needed to be done. While it is a completely normal for an old horse to die of natural causes, it is not humane to just watch him in pain slowly starve to death.

However, it takes a lot to plan and put a field operation together; special permissions are needed, plus it takes a special sedation kit to get a wild horse to go completely down so he can receive medical attention. So in the mean time, we were keeping a close eye on Neiman and our volunteers fed him twice a day. Finally it all came together and the field operation could begin.

We guessed that his teeth were the problem, but there was really no way to know until examining up close. At that point during examination the decision can be made if he needs a humane ending or if he can be helped.

Dr Howard and 2 assistants and Makenzie our Salt River horse Liaison, walked a half a mile in with SRWHMG volunteers, with generators, an x-ray machine, teeth instruments etc, it was definitely quite the expedition.

Update: Neiman is doing really good today, he drank, ate and pooped!

Thank you to Makenzie with AZDA. Thank you Dr Howard and team with AZ Equine. Thank you SRWHMG volunteers who helped with the expedition and thank you to our field team volunteers who are going out of their way to get him feed every day.

For the public and by the public, SRWHMG.

Click here for the video.