December 16th

Not worthless. We posted a pretty desperate fundraiser last night. Without knowing if we would raise the funds, we sent our rescued Annie into an expensive colic surgery. Annie was a horse who may have been worthless to some, perhaps to the person who abandoned her, but she became worth a lot to us.

We want to thank all of you who donated so very much for giving her a piece of your heart, and with that, proving that she is worth a lot to a lot of other people too. Compassion is alive.
Dr. Howard is an amazing surgeon and if anyone could fix her it would be him. However, the sad thing is, he found a mass in her colon that was intertwined (likely cancerous) and it was so large it could not be removed. 😪

This explains so much of what Annie was dealing with and why we could not fix her. We let her go, knowing that was best for her.

We feel a deep connection with all of you out there who gave her a peace of your heart and who share in the burden of compassion. We are so glad that we had the opportunity to try 100% for her, because now we know. It was something that you would only find out through surgery and we probably would have kept trying to fix her and she would have always been in pain.

The outcome is not what we hoped. The surgery was around $6000 and her previous treatments $1000. So this fundraiser accomplished it and any overage will be used for much needed hay for the wilds. We will post the vet bills soon when we get them. This amount did not buy us a healthy Annie.. but the surgery bought us all peace of mind, and she is now at peace. That’s worth a lot.
Some may call all of us crazy, for spending this on an abandoned old horse just so she could have a happy retirement. But think of it this way, no one actually paid $7000, but everyone paid something and everyone gave her a peace of their heart. We shared in the burden of compassion together, and now we all get to have peace of mind, that we gave her our all. While the burden of compassion is heavy, it is a true virtue. In the end of her life Annie received so much love and comfort. Thank you so much for sharing in our mission of treating every horse humanely.
Rest in peace Annie. 💕

Background

She was the most emaciated domestic horse we’ve ever seen, when we rescued her after she was abandoned in the Tonto National Forest. She’s come such a long way, but she has had trouble with her colon from the very beginning. She’s just gotten over her mastitis and cellulitis and shes has gotten over many colic episodes. She has been on a very careful refeeding program with small feeds 6 times per day and has 24/7 care. She was just starting to so much better, gaining good weight, she even found a wonderful forever retirement home on 4 acres, together with John and Wayne, but she can’t go there until she’s healthy!

She’s very impacted and tubing with water and some epsom salts plus meds has not worked so far. Her vet bills are quite outrageous already, but how can we give up on her now? Our volunteers love her and it’s so hard to let her go!

You do wonder if she is worth it? She obviously wasn’t worth anything to the person who abandoned her. She’s older and she won’t be anyone’s riding horse. But she’s become worth a lot to us, and we want her to have her happy retirement after she’s felt worthless for maybe her whole life.

So this is for Annie. We don’t think she is worthless. Thank you in advance so much for your support.
SRWHMG.