NB: The following images are not for the faint-hearted.

We really like our work going around looking at horses for people, trying to help find them their dream horse. Most of the time that we go to places, we have some sort of idea of what we are going to find, but sometimes life takes an unexpected turn and reveals something far from the rosy fairytale that we normally live. When we saw the spark of life in this little horse’s eye we just knew we had to help her. That same afternoon we had her taken away from the place where we found her and got her accommodated at Mariette’s house together with her horses.

She didn’t come from the yard where we found her, as they have very healthy horses but they had found her tied up at their gate one morning when they arrived for work, and didn’t want to be seen with a horse in such a bad state. We don’t know how she got there but we couldn’t leave her.

We named her Twiggy for obvious reasons, and you will be able to see her progress on this page. We don’t know yet if she can be saved, but she sure is eating well and has no other apparent health problems apart from being very emaciated. She was trotting around with no lameness and is very awake in her spirit. She is probably between 17 and 22 years old. If she doesn’t have long to live, at least we want to give her a taste of the good life before she goes. We wormed her carefully and have started her on some vitamins and given her some alfalfa mixed with straw as well as oats and sugar beet. We think it is important not to overfeed a horse in this state as her system might collapse with a lot of food at one go. She has her hay net so she can feed slowly and continuously.

These pictures are from yesterday afternoon 2010-02-28 a day after she came. Look at her eyes and you’ll see what we mean about the spark of life.

2010-03-05 – Almost a week after we got her. We have cleaned her up a bit and taken care of her feet. Look how much less she puts her front legs in under her. She is so much more comfortable with the right angled feet. She is still thin of course but has a great apatite. Her bowels are working as they should now. It took about three days before the stools that came out didn’t look like black soil (or rotting manure) and pine needles – which probably was what kept her alive for a long time.

This is how she looks now 2 weeks after we got her. We think she has filled out around the tummy area and a bit on the flank.

Twiggy two months after we got her! She is starting to build muscles on her bum and chest again.

When most people think about Spain – the fist that comes to mind might be … sea, sun and sangria and then a beautiful senorita with a flamenco dress! And Spain is all that – and so much more! It is the horses and the proud horse men, the olive groves and the rolling hills, the scent of Jasmin in the summer night and a stroll through a forgotten village! But there are more things that are forgotten… Many dogs are left to wander. The stray dogs create a lot of unwanted puppies that are left to their own devices and some people keep horses in “un-equine” conditions that makes them end up like our friend Twiggy. It is a question of education and a higher level empathy for the animals that is needed in this part of the world.

But many people both Spanish and foreign take in wandering dogs and cats, and in many farms you get greeted by a whole pack of dogs that the owners have taken care of. Mariette’s family has 9 dogs and Sofie has 2, all rescues. But when it comes to a horse it is not so easy to take in a “stray” as they eat a lot and are expensive to keep. Mind you, 9 dogs aren’t precisely cheap to keep either. Anyhow what I want to have said with this is that if you feel that you want to contribute towards the welfare of unwanted animals – especially Twiggy and other horses that we might find, you may do so by buying one of the exiting E-books that we are promoting on this page. If you follow the link from our website to one of these books, and buy it, we get given a percentage of the price and that goes to the keep of our rescue animals.

These are the books that we so far have found:

The first book is a Master horse trainer book where you learn the secrets from an old military trainer that lived in the late 1800 and even succeeded in training zebras which is unheard of in modern times. Click Here for the master horse trainer book if you are curious on how he did it. (we haven’t read this book ourselves but it sure seems intriguing)

The second book is about how to make your horse look like a million dollars! How to grow a long mane and how to make his coat shine! You’ll never guess the trick of how she does it but it sure works. Sofie has tried it on her horse after him scratching half his mane of from being out in the summer, and in just a week she noticed a huge difference in the growth of mane. Follow this link to make your horse look like a Fairytale Horse