Those Feedlot Colts
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In the early years of the Premarin business, the foals were
often considered a by-product , so they were sent to slaughter
without a second thought. But later, some farmers learned there
was a good secondary market for these foals if they were purebred,
or unusually marked. Many beautiful and amazing cross-bred horses
have come from these farms, like Appaloosa/Belgian, and of course
the spotted draft, Paint/Percheron cross, or even the cherished
Thoroughbred/Shire cross. In the spring of 2007, we became aware of a group of Morgan/Belgian cross colts destined for slaughter on a feedlot in Canada. The Animali Farm had listed them on their site in hopes of finding homes for them. The colts were not beautiful or unusual. Various shades of muddy brown and black, they were a forlorn looking group. They were big, too. Nearly 2 years old and never been handled. AND, they were expensive. Because of their size, it cost more to ship them from Canada. For their cost, one could have bought a registered colt here in the sates. Saving these colts looked pretty hopeless at first. Here they are, as they appeared on the Animali site, at the feedlot. Click on their pictures and if their new families have sent pictures, you can see what beautiful horses these ugly-ducklings have become. It is wonderful to see them grow up into lovely, LOVED horses! |
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Click on the photos to see them in their new homes
 Monster~ Before |
 Aleka ~ Before |
 Pari ~ Before |
 Bobby |
 Bert |
 Betty |
 Evan |
 Andy |
 Fayina |
 Maritza |
 Oliver |
 Pancho |
 Rena |
 Roth |
 Serena |
 Shelby |
 Tanjiro |
 Billy |
 Moon |
| Right about this same time, a popular artist named Kitty Cantrell sculpted a beautiful little horse, she named "Mini Haggis" for the model horse community. She sent it to the Bucklers, of Resins by Randy, to be re-produced in resin. Kitty donated her royalties from this horse, so Resins by Randy donated their production costs and we were able to sell nearly 200 of these little horses to help lower the adoption fees on the colts. The model horse community, horse lovers extraordinaire, donated paint jobs for these little mini Haggis's and many other model horses sold on e-bay to donate to the colts. They were phenomenal! As the fees began to drop, other people from the community began to donate to the colts as well. And as the prices for the colts fell within reach, people started adopting them! It was wonderful and amazing and every one at The International Blessed Broodmare Project cheered as the colts began heading to loving homes. Our blessing is to see these once thrown away colts growing up to be the fine horses they were intended to be. Little "Mini Haggis" played a great role in their rescue! Here's some examples of that little horse, only 3" tall. |
 Painted by Terra Pennington |
 Painted by Jean Barrett |
 Painted by Gina Hall |
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During the time we were finding homes for the colts, two of
the PMU herd stallions also got lucky and found homes as well.
This is especially wonderful since most of these herd stallions
are not only older draft-type horses, they are also generally
unbroken. They are only used for pasture breeding and are seldom
handled. It takes a brave and special person to provide a home
for a horse like this. These stallions are usually used by many
PMU farms because of their ability to pass on their gentle nature
and good conformation or color. Many are even registered. But
in the end, they go to slaughter since dealing with an older,
untrained stallion can be 'challenging'. But these two stallions
made it into loving homes and are adjusting very well. Buster,
an old style Belgian, was adopted by the Ward family in Wisconsin
and Psymbol (Formerly named "Jerry") was adopted by
Lori Schultz in Texas. |
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 Psymbol, with Lori Schultz |
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