For months we have been monitoring Red Beauty, and with dread, watched his condition go from bad to worse. Once a shiny red roan, after several bouts of colic late last year, he never fully recovered and is now in emaciated condition.
We’ve been getting a lot of calls on him as he made a habit of hanging out right by the side of the road at Phon D Sutton. Our volunteers have checked on him every time you’ve called us and guided him off of the road back to the river.
While we usually remain hopeful for recovery (since we see incredible healing take place in the wild), it was becoming clear that he was not going to survive this drought and that he was suffering. Red Beauty, reduced to only a shadow of his beautiful self, seemed to ask for help, and gave us the perfect opportunity to do so.
When we found him standing close to the road again, we jumped into action.
Mid morning Simone and just a few volunteers started the gentling process in the field, until approximately 40 SRWHMG volunteers gathered around 3.30 pm and we were ready to start the capture process.
By 3:45 pm we had set up some paneling very quietly at the horse crossing. Our volunteers, having done this many times before, calmly started forming a human round pen around him at 4.00 pm. First very large, so he did not notice, then smaller and smaller until he realized he had nowhere to go. He searched for an opening and Simone called, “hold the line!”
Even some of our new volunteers, who were not exactly sure what was going to happen next, did not budge or flinch. After that, he just stood there for a while thinking about his next move. We gave him that time and took this quick video around 5pm.
Next we guided him calmly into the half round pen we had made out of the panels earlier. Once we had him on that side we quickly picked up the rest of the panels and built the round pen around him within 30 seconds and had him captured just before dusk.
We felt elated that we had captured him without any form of sedation.
At that time some more genteling was done in the round pen, so that he was ready and willing to step right into the horse trailer. (The horse trailer is held ready and on standby at all times by our volunteers Mike and Shannon McFadden!)
Finishing the process, we guided Red Beauty into the trailer with paneling, closed the door and then let out a cheer! Red Beauty is safe!
He is currently acclimating and getting some nutrition and will have a full veterinary exam today to find out what his health problems are.
We now look to you, our supporters.
We would really like to ask for your love and prayers and donations for Red Beauty!
We hope that every person reading this post might be enticed to help with a donation towards his medical care. Www.srwhmg.org
Together, this herd can be managed humanely by the public and for the public!
We would like to thank the authorities and the Ag Department for their support, the bystanders on the road for their help and ofcourse every one of our dedicated SRWHMG volunteers!
*Please dont try this at home (lol) or without authorization from authorities. These are protected Salt River wild horses. Thank you.
Thank you so much. SRWHMG.