LUCKY, our Bucket Fund Filly for November, had her front legs cast yesterday so that her braces could be constructed!
YAY!
In case you haven’t read the story, linked here, Lucky was born with severe bi-lateral club feet. Her owners put her into a stall and left her for three years. When all the horses were seized from this farm, Lucky had no one who would adopt her because of her feet.
This is beautiful Lucky who was trapped in a stall for 3 years with her club feet.
These are her feet. She stands on them perfectly. She can also rear, buck, run and kick out. She acts just like any other young horse…. Hmmmmm…. Since she was so comfortable on her feet, they decided to splint her instead of surgery.
Luckily, SEAL Cares and Animal Rescue came along to take her… SEAL figured they were rescuing her to give her a peaceful end to her misery.
HOWEVER, after just a few hours, they changed their minds… this little filly could do just about everything any other horse could do – on her deformed feet!
So, the Rescue opted for life and contacted specialists who suggested surgery.
But then…
…we saw the video.
The video (linked here) showed her bucking and kicking and rearing… playing like a regular teenage horse.
Clearly she was doing OK on her feet.
So, we rethought the whole surgery thing…
STAR IS PAYING IT FORWARD!
I contacted Star’s owners (previous Bucket Funder with horribly overgrown hooves) and asked them all to huddle with Star’s prosthetic maker, all the vets and specialists. Once the prosthetic maker, Ronnie Graves, and the doctors reviewed her xrays and the video of her jumping around her paddock, they decided that she could benefit from splints instead of surgery.
This is Star… a previous Bucket Fund recipient who was left in a stall for 3 years, her hooves totally overgrown into her ankles, her body deformed and covered in fly larvae because she couldn’t scratch herself – a horrible story – but look at her after just two months in her braces crafted by Ronnie Graves!
Wahooo!
Soooooooo, Ronnie Graves came up to Lucky’s new paddock at SEALS on Sunday and cast Lucky’s front legs.
As you can see by the photos, Lucky had no problem standing on one or both of her feet, having someone cast her legs or people messing with her feet.
Clearly, this girl has no idea her feet should hurt!
This is Ronnie Graves’ banner… He makes prothetics for animals. Ronnie is an amputee himself!
WHY BOTHER WITH SPLINTS?
The only reason to use splints is to straighten her body. The more years her body compensates for her shorter front legs, the more sore and compromised her back and hind end will become.
By fitting splints, her front legs can become the proper length which creates proper motoring which creates proper muscling.
THE CASTING PROCESS!
Lori from SEAL send a ton of photos for me to show you of the casting process. I’m listing a few here for you. Note how calm Lucky is throughout the process! She is a very curious and well-mannered 3 year-old.
Also note that this was very easy. She had no issue standing on either foot – for quite a while!
Left leg
2
3
What a good girl! My horses would have left by now…
First cast off… (Ronnie is an amputee, as well…)
I wasn’t there so I don’t know what they are doing – but I think they are resealing it.
Next leg…
6
Looks smooth…
He makes it look easy.
All done!
Her feet.
Hard work but soon these will help create the splints!
Good girl gets her dinner!
We haven’t quite reached our new goal (braces are more costly than surgery). If you would like to help Lucky, please push the button!
Thank you!
Copyright
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
If all horse breeders and owners, mass production farms could do what you people do…instead of what they do, this earth would be a better place for all of God’s creatures. I pray the year 2015 will come with many blessings for all of you.
It is compassionate people who enable others to believe there is a God. What beautiful work! <3
What an unbelievably sweet and trusting horse. She knows everyone is helping her! Can’t wait to see the final results!
So many of these young animals with so many problems being resolved. Nice to see. I, too have a story for you of a young mini, named Bunny, that’s become the ‘delite’ of Blue Ridge Rescue, in Blue Grass, Iowa. http://www.blueridgerescue.org/mascot.html This is her story. Since I am no writer, I hope this , too, will inspire people to help these animals. They bring a whole to light to ‘hope, help and love.