Some Horses Need Rescuing Too

There are a number of animal rescue groups in Costa Rica: SASY (Stop Animal Suffering Yes, SASY is located up in Ciudad Colon and holds very large fundraising events to benefit a number of smaller shelters and rescue centers McKee Jaco in the Central Pacific area; and of course our own southern zone group , D.A.W.G. (Domestic Animal Welfare Group) run by the tireless Shawnelle Parker and her dedicated band of local saints.

These organizations provide a sorely needed service to the abandoned, misused and starving dogs and cats of Costa Rica. Rancho Tranquilo proudly supports all of these animal welfare groups by donating free tours and horseback riding vacations for their fundraising auctions.

But what about the horses? Unlike dogs and cats, horses are rarely abandoned or dumped, because they are an expensive investment for a Tico family. But it does happen, especially if the horse has severe medical issues and the family can’t afford to treat it. Horses have an amazing ability to heal themselves. Many times all it takes is nutritious food, vitamins, and some loving care to bring them back to health.

The most common problem is malnourishment, caused by insufficient pasture (horse’s can’t eat cow grass and will starve in a perfectly yummy-looking lush green field), no grain in the diet (providing much needed protein and fat), and dental issues. Horses need their teeth filed (called “floating”) regularly or they can’t chew correctly and are therefore unable absorb the food they are eating.

I have a personal philosophy about living in Costa Rica, kind of like the Star Trek Prime Directive: live among the people, be a part of their culture and try not to instill your own values into the mix. This works well for me, to a point. When it comes to horses, I’m so passionate that it is difficult for me to say nothing. But I have learned that I can show them by example.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had Ticos say to me “Oh Linda, you’re horses are so fat!” to which I reply, “No, these horses are normal, this is how they are supposed to look.”

Many years ago, the father of a Tica friend brought his new mare to me. She was a big girl, but quite skinny and she had what looked like an old infection on her neck. He asked for my advice on the infection, so I gave her a shot of antibiotics and gave him some cream to use on the skin. When her skin cleared up after a couple of weeks, he came to me and said “OK, that worked, muchas gracias.”

Now…what do I do to make this horse look as good as yours?” To my surprise, he actually followed my advice and fed his horse grain twice a day in addition to her regular side-of-the-road foraging for food. When it came time for him to sell her, he gave me first dibs and Princessa is now our biggest, strongest, and gentlest trail horse, capable of handling the overweight American tourists. (Ahem!)

Here at the ranch, I’m proud to say we’ve been able to rescue a number of horses. Some of them are still with us, others were placed in good homes. Here are their stories.

Palomo

My first rescue horse was Palomo, who I won in a raffle. One of the villagers came and asked if I wanted to buy raffle tickets to raise money for the cemetery. The raffle prize was a horse, so of course I agreed, buying 10 raffle tickets for a total of 10,000 colones.

And I won the horse. He wasn’t much of a horse, poor guy. He was about 18 years old, very very skinny, covered in ticks, with a matted mane and tail, and a defeatist attitude. He had just given up. Hanging his head and sighing, just like Winnie-the-Pooh’s Eeyore at his best.

Since he was too small to use as a tour horse, I gave him to my worker to ride back and forth to work. We cleaned him up and spent hours picking ticks off of every surface of his body. He got wormed, got his teeth floated, got new shoes, and started adjusting to his new life. It took about four months for him to get to regular weight.

By the end, he actually looked happier and held his head up, ears perked forward, whinnying a greeting when it was feeding time. He didn’t stay here long, because he never was able to integrate into the regular herd. My horses absolutely hated him for some reason, and would aggressively chase him around the pasture, kicking and biting him. So instead, we just let him graze around the yard, away from the other horses. He never went anywhere, he must have known that he had a good place to hang out. Eventually we found him a home with a little girl down in the Osa.

Cassie and Rojo (Romance at the Ranch)

When I first moved to my village there was a gringo with a stable full of really top-quality horses. He obviously had put some money into acquiring the finest animals in the area. Unfortunately, he wasn’t really an experienced horse person and he made some bad decisions. One of these was to breed his mares too often. Horses have an 11-month gestation period, and he was getting Cassie pregnant every year, which meant she was always pregnant AND nursing, severely depleting her body weight and adversely affecting her health.

After she was pregnant for the third year in a row, I was at his barn helping him with another issue when I found poor Cassie in her stall, so thin that her eyeballs were popping out of her face. I lost it, and “reamed him a new one” for stressing her out so badly. His reply? “Well, she just lost the last baby, do you want her?” I didn’t waste any time putting a halter on her and walking her home. Over the course of the year, she filled out beautifully and became one of our most gentle and sweet beginner horses.

During the next three years, the original owner of Cassie sold off most of his horses including all the babies. However, there was still one horse, Rojo, who had been pretty much locked in his stall for the entire time. I went over to the barn to check on him occasionally, and advised his owner to let him out for exercise, trim his hooves, etc. But the poor boy remained in his stall, standing in manure, wasting away and ignored. I begged the owner to sell him to me, but he always had some excuse as to why he wanted to keep him.

One day in 2009, a Tico I know rode him to my ranch. He had just bought Rojo for $200, and immediately beelined it to my place. “Do you want to buy this horse?” he said. “Of course I do, and here’s the deal: I will pay you X in dollars, I want the saddle that came with him, you have to leave him here tonight because my farrier comes tomorrow, I will write you a check, and you have to walk home.” (I drive a hard bargain.) He agreed immediately, I wrote him a check, and off he went.

Now I don’t normally put a new horse in with the herd right away, because the other horses will beat the crap out of him until they all figure out where he will fit in the horse-herd-pecking-order. In this case, since I had a couple of horses from his original barn, I figured it would be safe to integrate Rojo earlier than normal.

I put Rojo in the pasture with the other horses, and everyone crowded around to investigate the new guy, show him who is boss, and generally check him out. I watched carefully to make sure no one was going to get hurt in the process.

And then an amazing thing happened. As Rojo pawed the ground and made it very clear he wasn’t going to take any nonsense from the other boys, he spied Cassie. He just stopped in his tracks, ignored the other horses, and ambled over to her to touch noses. “Girlfriend! ” he seemed to say, “THIS where you ended up! SO good to see you again!”

Rojo and Cassie have been joined at the hip ever since. If I take him out riding, she waits at the gate for him, wickering softly, watching for him to return. If I take her out alone, he gives me a look as if to say “You better take good care of my girl, I’ll be waiting right here to make sure.” And he does. In the herd, they are inseparable. BFFs forever. Sigh. Even though they are both getting on in years, I have promised them that I would never separate them. Someday I’ll need to find a new home for them, where they can enjoy their final years together, out to pasture for their retirement. For now, they are enjoying their time at Rancho Tranquilo taking tourists out riding.

Storm and Tornado

The most heartbreaking rescue we did happened during Tropical Storm Tomas, which dumped 100 inches of rain in 5 days, damaging roads, blowing out bridges, and generally causing major havoc throughout the country. Just after the storm ended, I got a frantic phone call from Carol and Trish, aka The Pickle Ladies, over in Platanillo.

“Linda, you’ve got to help us. We’ve got these two poor, half-dead horses that showed up in our yard. We don’t know what to do with them but they need help. Can you come and get them?” Normally, I would drop everything and bring over my transport truck to pick them up. But the storm had destroyed the bridge in our valley, and there was no way I could get anywhere.

Carol and Trish contacted Shawnell (from D.A.W.G.) and Diane Ewing (from Hacienda Baru), and all four of them went to work: they found a guy up in Quepos who would take them in his pasture temporarily, and contacted the police and various other sources to report the horses as lost or abandoned. A lot of effort was put into trying to find the owners, to no avail. Diane even had a radio host in San Jose bring their story to the masses, but no owners were ever located. These were not your average Tico horses, they were Iberoamericanas, a fine Spanish breed with a high-stepping gait, desirable for the tope parades in Costa Rica. We figured they were likely stolen, and then dumped before the police checkpoint.

After about a month, I was able to get my truck up to Quepos to pick them up and bring them back to the ranch. They were in sorry shape, very thin, full of ticks with dull matted coats. The Tico who was “caring” for them had turned them out into a weedy field with little pasture, had shaved their manes and tails in an attempt to control the ticks, and had requested a fair amount of money for their upkeep, none of which looked like it was going into their bellies.

The older horse, who we named Tornado, had a huge scar on his leg with “proud flesh” or scar tissue almost completely encasing his hoof. The little guy, who we named Storm, was still a stallion and at only 2 ? years old, was in better shape than his 18-year old buddy.

Once they got to the ranch, we gave them their own pasture with a shelter, where they could be protected from the other horses until they got enough strength to be able to defend themselves. It took quite awhile to bring these guys back to health. I’m not sure how long they were wandering in the mountains, but it definitely took a toll on them.

The most difficult part of this rescue was finding these guys a new home. Tornado was quite old, pushing 20, and a very very hot horse to ride. I wasn’t even comfortable riding him, he just was too unpredictable and “bravo” — the way Ticos like their horses, all nervous and jumpy. So I ended up giving him to my worker Enrique, who is an excellent horseman. He is so proud to have such a nice horse. He takes really good care of him and rides him in all the local cabalgatas.

Storm, being younger, was a bit easier to place but first he needed to be gelded (castrated) and trained to ride. One day a new neighbor, Amy Fagan, contacted me, ecstatic to have a horse facility close to her new Costa Rican home. She and her husband came over that afternoon to meet the horses (and me, though I’m sure I was secondary LOL).

We walked through the barn, stopping at each stall to talk about the different horses. Storm, who doesn’t have a stall, decided that Amy was his new best friend, and he walked along beside her, nudging her with his nose and blowing on her neck, basically saying “Hey what about me? Look at ME!” Well, it was love at first sight. Amy will be Storm’s new mom just as soon as they get down here permanently, in about a year. In the meantime, he’ll continue his training here at the ranch, getting ready for his new Big Boy life.

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Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.