What I Do

This is part of what I do on the "reality" side as a writer for the El Paso County and Fountain Valley News. Of course the story doesn't stop here. I'm investigating the 80 year old woman who lives alone in a falling apart spook house. She's taking care of her two remaining horses.

My mother (retired social worker) is concerned about her mental health and is forcing me to look at the humanity side of this situation, not just the horse.

We went to her property, couldn't get her to answer the door, but took pictures of the remaining horses. There is a stack of hay, water, shelter and 2 very thin horses, although not as bad as Majestic.

The gate opens into a small pasture with lots of very green grass, so obviously they have been kept off it until recently.

I'm afraid she'll founder the other two.

Where are this womans kids (she has 5)?

Why is she alone?

Is she slipping mentally or is she hiding the fact she finacially can't care for these horses?

Is she truly an evil bitch who was dumping her companion of 20 + years or did she really think she was going to go ride?

The Sheriff's Office is going to investigate and nosy old me is following this to the end.

I'm hoping we'll end up with the horses safely surrendered and the old lady (evil or no) getting some help.

Horse Abandoned Along Fountain Creek

By Janet Huntington

The little bay Arabian mare peeked around the corner of the barn. With a friendly nicker she left her hay to get a scratch behind the ears. Her backbone and ribs stand out is stark relief and her hip bones are a lesson in the skeletal structure of the horse.

“Majestic” is barely alive, but her eyes have a spark of interest and she keeps working on her feed. Wisp by wisp of hay she is slowly coming back.

Majestic has a body score of one on the Henneke Body Scoring System, the lowest rating possible on a scale used by veterinarians and emergency responders.

“By the time a horse gets this far down their organs have begun to fail, it takes months of starvation for a horse to get to this point,” DeMuesey said.

Majestic could have simply disappeared along the banks of Fountain Creek.

DeMuesey first heard of the horse’s plight when she received a phone call from a neighbor.

He said he had stopped to help an elderly woman who was trying to unload the horse from a trailer at I 25 and exit 116. The horse was down in the trailer and the woman was trying to drag her out with a rope tied to her leg.

The neighbor talked the woman into taking the horse and trailer to his ranch and used a tractor to pull the horse out. He then called DeMuesey.

“The first time I saw her she was laying on the ground. She was nothing more than a bag of bones, I was sure she was dead,” Dreamcatcher Equine Rescue manager Julie DeMuesey said.

“She had let us talk her onto her feet by the time the vet arrived and it turns out the only thing wrong with her is starvation and age. So we had to give her a chance.”

The elderly woman kept repeating her story. She said she was planning on taking the horse on a trail ride. She insisted Majestic was her favorite riding horse and she didn’t know why she had fallen.

“She kept brushing the mare off with a broom,” DeMuesey said, “she not only had no brushes with her, but there was no saddle or bridle.

“If the mare hadn’t fallen in the trailer I’m sure the plan was to dump her along the creek.”

By the time the sheriff’s department had arrived DeMuesey had convinced her to surrender the horse. The woman was allowed to return to her home in Colorado Springs.

Situations like the one Majestic was found in are happening more and more.

“Since the slaughter plants closed there isn’t any easy solution to getting rid of an unwanted horse,” DeMuesey said.

“It used to be an unwanted horse would be dropped off at a sale and the owner could pretend the horse would find a new home. But even the kill buyers aren’t going to take on a horse without weight on them. Not when they have to haul them to Mexico or Canada to the slaughter plants,” she stated.

Majestic is calm and friendly. She has obviously had a life of kindness before now. How she ended up on a desolate highway exit, starved and neglected is anyone’s guess.

DeMuesey is concerned about the woman who surrendered her also.

“People are too proud to ask for help,” she said, “instead of waiting until a horse is in this condition and then dumping them, a phone call to a horse rescue or the humane society will get immediate assistance.”

Horse owners in trouble or neighbors aware of starving horses in the Fountain area should first call the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region. If they still need assistance a call to the Fountain Fire Department at 382-7800 will generate an investigation.

“Area rescues will do what they can,” DeMuesey said, “we’re stuffed to the brim with horses, but we’ll do what we can to help.”

Like finding room for one more; an aged, starved little mare with sweet eyes and a soft nicker.
Dreamcatcher Equine Rescue can be reached at 719-266-2199 or9julie@dcerinc.com . The expenses to rehabilitate a horse like Majestic are high. Donations are always appreciated.