Suzy

tn_Suzy2

At the Nebraska Horse Expo in 2008, a concerned person alerted us about Suzy. They said she lived in horrible conditions, was in bad shape, and needed help. Once we went and checked on her we knew his description didn’t begin to define the tragedy we saw. Within a couple of days we were able to talk the owner into surrendering the neglected mare. She would now be safe and call the L5YR home. When we pointed her towards the trailer, she almost ran in. Suzy didn’t known where she was going, but she knew she wanted to escape that place.

Besides being underweight and worm infested, this poor girl had not only foundered, but had not had her hooves clipped in many years.

No, she’s not wearing a halter in the photo, but one she had been wearing had been on her so tight for so long that there was no hair left underneath the straps. Her front legs were so full of cuts and scrapes from the old field fencing and barbed wire laying around on the ground in her old corral, that she didn’t have any hair from her knee down. There are several other severe health issues she was working through, but within days of arriving at the ranch, the vacant look she had in her eyes, like she had given up on life, was gone. She is the most gentle and sweet horse the founders of L5YR had ever come across and little by little she was healing and gaining weight, and gaining trust and peace.

Most horses wouldn’t have survived the conditions she had been living in for many years, but even at 26 years old she was still hanging on waiting for some one to care. Suzy was a fighter and had made great leaps on the road to full recovery. She spent the last, and probably the best, 8 months of her life here at the ranch getting all the love and care she so desperately needed. Unfortunately all those years of neglect coupled to her aging old body finally caught up to Suzy. Now our initial promise upon very first seeing her, giving her a forever home, has come full circle. We miss her gentle and peaceful spirit daily, but thank God that He brought her into our lives to show us His forgiveness and healing power.