Cinderella

I first learned about the plight of PMU mares while working on a law school assignment. I was assigned a portion of an article to edit, an article about industries that produce foals as by-products. I am a life-long horse lover, so this article was pure torture for me since I had not known these industries existed before reading the article. And to make it worse, my section of the article contained contact information for several rescues involved in saving and placing the horses. Among the rescues mentioned in the article was The Animali Farm. I browsed the website and looked over the available horses, at that time a number of stunning dapple grey Percheron mares. I’ve always loved dapple greys, and I have a soft spot for draft crosses since I learned to ride on one, but I never would have been able to adopt one since I did not have the time or money in the middle of law school. Nevertheless, I bookmarked the website for later.

Long-distance shipping of huge wild horses isn’t as easy as it sounds. Natty’s travel from Canada to Oregon was carefully coordinated, and she was dropped off at a stock yard 90 miles from her ultimate destination. Since the horses arrived late at night, I arranged to have her picked up and brought the rest of the way home the next day, March 15th. All told, she had a 3-day journey from the ranch where she was born and raised to her new home. I drove out to the stock yard early, excited to meet this new member of my animal family. I was armed with carrots and apples but did not have high expectations. I knew these mares tended to be skittish and not very people-friendly. I located her easily enough – she was a whole lot bigger than any other horse in the place! I stopped outside her pen, and she walked right over. She was careful not to get close enough that I could touch her, but she looked me over carefully while I talked to her, and she snuffled my hand when I held out the treats she was not brave enough to eat. I walked from one end of the pen to the other, and she followed me. I noticed that she was trying to reach some green grass outside the pen, so I picked it and held it for her. She tried to eat that, although it was obvious to me that she had never been hand-fed before. She did not know how to pick up the grass from my hand. She must have accepted me as a friend at that point, though, because afterward I was able to gently stroke her cheek with my fingertips. She loaded easily into the trailer for the final leg of her long journey home, and she unloaded as calmly as any horse ever has. I was able to walk up to her in the pasture with her hay that afternoon, and the very next day, she came right to me when I walked out into the pasture. She has been a friendly girl ever since!

The first weeks I had Natty, I worked on gaining her trust and teaching her the basics of the human/horse relationship. She had never been haltered without a chute, didn’t know how to lead, and wanted to face me at all times so she could watch what I was up to. She had fairly obvious confinement issues – she really did not do well in a stall or even in the barn or arena, even though I had never kept her in for more than a half hour or so. She got pretty nervous and fidgety if she were tied. She learned fast and developed a great deal of trust early on though, which turned out to be very fortunate.

Once Natty’s baby was out of the woods and old enough that she could pay attention to me again, her training continued. She learns fast and is always willing. She is now under saddle, and we even plod bareback around the fields. She is also incredibly tolerant and never skittish – she’ll stay right with me even when I put reindeer antlers and elf hats on her, even though she isn’t wearing so much as a halter; she’ll stand perfectly still for clippers; she’ll load in any trailer without hesitation; she’ll cross water or bridges or anything else. She whinnies whenever she sees me and is always ready for a hug and some scratches. My favorite place to be in this world is standing right between Natty and her colt with an arm over each of them. Looking back, I think Natty (and Chance along with her) was meant to come to me, and that’s why she was never adopted during all those months she was listed on the rescue website. This horse is everything I could ask and more. And Chance looks like he’ll be as good as his mama but without the fear she brought with her from the PMU ranch.



I first learned about the plight of PMU mares while working on a law school assignment. I was assigned a portion of an article to edit, an article about industries that produce foals as by-products. I am a life-long horse lover, so this article was pure torture for me since I had not known these industries existed before reading the article. And to make it worse, my section of the article contained contact information for several rescues involved in saving and placing the horses. Among the rescues mentioned in the article was The Animali Farm. I browsed the website and looked over the available horses, at that time a number of stunning dapple grey Percheron mares. I’ve always loved dapple greys, and I have a soft spot for draft crosses since I learned to ride on one, but I never would have been able to adopt one since I did not have the time or money in the middle of law school. Nevertheless, I bookmarked the website for later.

Right before I started my last year of law school, my mom and I went to a dude ranch for a week. I hadn’t had my own horse or ridden regularly in years, but that week reminded me of everything I love about horses and made me realize just how much I missed being around them. As soon as I got home, I went straight to The Animali Farm website to look over their available horses. They had just posted a huge herd of lovely mares with a very short deadline – mostly Belgians and Percherons, most only halter broke. Among the pure draft mares were four Belgian/Morgan cross mares – my two favorite horse breeds of all time combined in one lovely mare. They were beautiful girls with amazing gentle, curious expressions on their faces. Their descriptions did not even claim they were halter-broke, but I thought immediately that they were special. My immediate favorite was RC Natty, a 7-year-old mare bred to a Quarter Horse stallion. No other information was provided about this mare. I was still in law school and still didn’t have the time or money, and the deadline to adopt this mare before she went to auction was very soon, so I knew I could not have her. Still, I continued to check back on the website, waiting to see her find a forever home. One by one, her sisters were adopted, but still she was listed. The adoption deadline was extended, but still she was listed. At one point, she moved to the “upcoming loads” page, meaning she had been adopted; I was both relieved and a little sad to see her go to someone else. But the adoption must have fallen through, because after awhile there she was on the available horse page again. Finally, there were only 4 mares from that whole ranch left for adoption, and she was among them. I could not understand how the very best of them all would still be left at the end. The deadline to adopt a pregnant mare was only a week away, and she was still available. At this point, I was partway through my last semester in law school. I e-mailed The Animali Farm about Natty. They did not have any potential adopters, and since the ranch where she lived was being sold, this was the end of her chance at life. I started looking around for a place to board a wild, pregnant, huge rescue horse. Believe it or not, many people will not board a horse like this, and even the ones who would consider it do not have adequate facilities. Finally, I found a place where she would be able to live in a pasture with some other broodmares, and I snapped it up and finalized her adoption!

Long-distance shipping of huge wild horses isn’t as easy as it sounds. Natty’s travel from Canada to Oregon was carefully coordinated, and she was dropped off at a stock yard 90 miles from her ultimate destination. Since the horses arrived late at night, I arranged to have her picked up and brought the rest of the way home the next day, March 15th. All told, she had a 3-day journey from the ranch where she was born and raised to her new home. I drove out to the stock yard early, excited to meet this new member of my animal family. I was armed with carrots and apples but did not have high expectations. I knew these mares tended to be skittish and not very people-friendly. I located her easily enough – she was a whole lot bigger than any other horse in the place! I stopped outside her pen, and she walked right over. She was careful not to get close enough that I could touch her, but she looked me over carefully while I talked to her, and she snuffled my hand when I held out the treats she was not brave enough to eat. I walked from one end of the pen to the other, and she followed me. I noticed that she was trying to reach some green grass outside the pen, so I picked it and held it for her. She tried to eat that, although it was obvious to me that she had never been hand-fed before. She did not know how to pick up the grass from my hand. She must have accepted me as a friend at that point, though, because afterward I was able to gently stroke her cheek with my fingertips. She loaded easily into the trailer for the final leg of her long journey home, and she unloaded as calmly as any horse ever has. I was able to walk up to her in the pasture with her hay that afternoon, and the very next day, she came right to me when I walked out into the pasture. She has been a friendly girl ever since!

The first weeks I had Natty, I worked on gaining her trust and teaching her the basics of the human/horse relationship. She had never been haltered without a chute, didn’t know how to lead, and wanted to face me at all times so she could watch what I was up to. She had fairly obvious confinement issues – she really did not do well in a stall or even in the barn or arena, even though I had never kept her in for more than a half hour or so. She got pretty nervous and fidgety if she were tied. She learned fast and developed a great deal of trust early on though, which turned out to be very fortunate.

Six weeks after Natty arrived, she foaled in the middle of the afternoon without showing any of the usual warning signs. Someone on a trail ride spotted Natty and her foal in the pasture and sent the stable owners out to check on her. They were able to approach and halter her, and she wasn’t even aggressive – a miracle! Natty’s foal was very, very sick – so sick that we actually called the vet’s home phone when she did not answer her pager. None of us thought he would survive, but I just could not believe this poor mare finally had a good home and was still going to lose another foal. I kept putting off the decision to euthanize the foal – I just could not do it without giving him a chance to fight. They loaded him up in a Gator and drove him up to the barn while I dragged Natty along behind. That first evening, we treated the foal with everything we could, and he lasted through the night. The next morning, the vet was encouraged that the foal was still alive at all, but he still did not have any suckle response and had pulled out his feeding tube, so I made the decision to euthanize him. Luckily, the vet did not listen! We got him to his feet – a four-person job because he was about 125 pounds and weak as a kitten – and he started mouthing the waistband of my jeans! We carried him over to Natty, and he nursed on his own! The little fellow bought himself a few more hours to fight. At this point, the call for volunteers went out: I needed a lot of help to care for the foal, especially to lift him and hold him up while he nursed every hour round-the-clock. Turns out people will really rally around a baby in need, and the volunteers turned up in droves. The foal continued to get stronger, and by the next day, the vet thought he might live. It was a long fight (he didn’t stand on his own until he was five days old), but it was worth every agonizing minute. Natty started to nicker and let down her milk whenever three people came into the stall at once because she knew we were going to bring her baby to nurse. She accepted being confined in the stall without much fuss (stall rest for almost a month) and made friends with some of the volunteers. She and her baby quickly became stable favorites, with visitors dropping by frequently to check on them both. Now, Natty’s colt, named Fighting Chance, is a great big healthy, happy boy. He is the best colt in the world, with the best temperament and such personality!

Once Natty’s baby was out of the woods and old enough that she could pay attention to me again, her training continued. She learns fast and is always willing. She is now under saddle, and we even plod bareback around the fields. She is also incredibly tolerant and never skittish – she’ll stay right with me even when I put reindeer antlers and elf hats on her, even though she isn’t wearing so much as a halter; she’ll stand perfectly still for clippers; she’ll load in any trailer without hesitation; she’ll cross water or bridges or anything else. She whinnies whenever she sees me and is always ready for a hug and some scratches. My favorite place to be in this world is standing right between Natty and her colt with an arm over each of them. Looking back, I think Natty (and Chance along with her) was meant to come to me, and that’s why she was never adopted during all those months she was listed on the rescue website. This horse is everything I could ask and more. And Chance looks like he’ll be as good as his mama but without the fear she brought with her from the PMU ranch.