I heard of this story today – the same, tragic story (or so I thought) that we hear every day – of several horses who were destined for the slaughter truck.

A reader had asked me if there was anything I could do…

So, I read the story – the entire story – and found it so heartwarming, I had to pass it onward.

PS:  The horses are safe – read on…

THE PREMISE

The premise of the story was that an older guy (in his 90’s) had these 9 draft cross horses on his acreage.  But, he no longer could care for them so they were going to auction.

The local auction house was frequented by meat buyers and few else, so these large, fat, untrained horses would have little chance of adoption over being sold for processing…

Luckily, an undisclosed, kind person got on the tom-toms and blasted far and wide about these doomed horses.

Somehow, some way… a nearby woman with property but no horse experience (she had donkeys and pot-belly pigs as pets) heard of this dire situation and decided to help the crusade to save these horses.

Well… the more phone calls she made, the more educated she became.  She realized that these horses would sell to the meat buyers FAST.  She knew they had never been handled and adoption would be difficult without any information.  She knew that without time, these horses had little hope.

Yet, she also learned that these horses were young and highly adoptable, with more time, more human cooperation and more information – adoption was a big possibility.

So, with a total leap of faith, this woman and her husband bought all 9 of the horses AS THEY WERE BEING LOADED for $5000.  She used her own money.

They brought these 9 huge draft horses home to her farm where a horse had never lived previously.

Wow!  Bravo!  She educated herself and did it the right way.

 

THE UPDATE

So, on the Urban Myth part of this story that has been circulating the internet… someone posted the ‘true’ story here.  In that true story was a link to the website that was set up for the care and adoption of these horses.

Now…

 

 

 

 

Here is where I tip my hat…

In a very short time, these non-horsey people were able to market these drafts very astutely.

 

 

THEY DID A GREAT JOB!

In a matter of hours (OK, maybe a week) this woman and her husband had all the horses vetted, profiled with vet links, photographed (well) and to top that… a very simple and pleasant web page created that was visually very tasty.

And, if you can believe this, in a very short time – with the help of Rescue smartypeople – 7 of the 9 horses have found new homes.

Already.

AMAZING.

Here is the HORSE RESCUE NIAGARA site for you to look over for yourself.  It tells the tale from her perspective and also shows all the horses and their current status.

 LUCY AND HOPE NEED HOMES but 7 out of 9 isn’t bad!…

From what I saw, only beautiful Lucy and Hope were still available.  And considering that the internet story is presently circulating that these horses are still on the feedlot, clearly these folks are moving fast!

7 horses adopted out of 9 and the last 2 are highly adoptable!

YAYAYAYAYAYAYYAYAY!

I love these kinds of stories.

Unwitting angels…

HORSE AND MAN is a blog in growth… if you like this, please pass it around!