A Scared Arrival

The morning Amy was woken to the sound of her phone ringing was a dull one. She hardly felt like getting up to answer it. Though she was grateful she had.
“Hello” she answered groggily.
She couldn’t fit a word in edge ways as she was explained a situation a few hundred miles away. Horses living in muck and filth, clustered in pens far too small. No human contact, bad conditions and even worse care.
She was asked if she would be willing to take one, rehabilitate it. Work with it; give it a fighting chance at survival.
“Of course I will, I’ll be there as soon as I can” she said hanging up the phone.
Hastily she threw on clothes, and went to find Hank.
Walking through the barn door she almost collided with the older man.
“There’s a sight for sore eyes” she said.
“You been looking for me?” he asked.
“Yeah, I got a phone call about 20 minutes ago. There are some Ardennbergs in a bad spot and I was asked if I could take one.”
“Like we need more horses.”
“How can I say no to that? From what I understand they are in bad conditions and in poor health. It breaks my heart to see anyone treat a horse like that” she paused “so yeah one more horse. And it’s going to be a basket case. It’s never had to deal with humans or trailers, should be a treat to get it home.”
“Do you need help?”
“I do, but I need you to call Kat, and get her here ASAP while I go hook up the trailer. The horses still need to be fed and I need the front paddock empty when we arrive. I have no idea what this horse could have going on, and I don’t want it anywhere close to the rest of the herd.”
“No problem. I put a call into the vet as well.”
“Thank you so much” she said before running off to grab the truck keys and inform Allison of the new addition, and to tell clients she would be occupied today.
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When they arrived at the so called ‘farm’ they were shocked. It was worse than they had ever imagined. The stench of disease and filth hung like smog in the air. The ground was knee deep with sludge. Not 100ft from the road we a handful of rickety round pens, all deep in mud and feces. Each pen though suitable for maybe 3 horses was packed with 8-9 horses. They were cramped, and low spirited. She saw a few familiar faces from other farms in the area. She was impressed to see such a response.
Amy and Hank walked through the row of scared horses, trying to find one she liked the look of, a horse with sound confirmation, she hoped to be able to get a dressage horse out of her efforts, but at this point, with the state of things here, she would take any of them just to get them out of this hell hole. She found a fit looking horse, in the 5th pen down the line, a bay roan mare, she looked to be no more than 4 and was knee deep in filth.
She found the organizer and offered to take the mare, hip number 6.
“That was the easy part” Hank said, “Now just to cut her and load her in the trailer.”
“Yeah” said Amy, “What do you think I brought you for.”
A solid hour later, as more and more horses began to disappear from the other pens, the horse was loaded and ready to start home. 6 as Amy had started to call her, not wanting to get to attached yet. The mare had no clean bill of health and Amy had no clue if she would make it more than a week once they got her home.
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They rolled in the front gate, and the trailer was quaking as the terrified mare inside shifted around in panic.
“The easiest way to do this is to back into the paddock and just open the door” Hank said “Let her get herself out”
Amy agreed and Hank got out of the truck to open the gate. The truck backed in slowly and stopped, Hank threw the door open and 6 bolted out as fast as she could muster. Amy pulled the trailer out and Hank closed the gate, and walked to the driver’s side window.
“This is a good thing you are doing” Hank told her.
“I know. Now just comes the tough bit. Waiting.”

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Name: Undecided
Barn Name: 6
ID Number: (none yet)
Age: 4 years old
Gender: Mare
Breed: Pure Royal Ardennberg
Height: 16.3 HH
Color: Bay Roan Tobiano
Genotype: Ee/Aa/nR/nT
Body Type: Andalusian Influance