The humane officer of Mahoning County had requested our assistance to remove three remaining horses from a neglect situation in North Jackson.

Our hauler loaded three horses that appeared to be geldings into her trailer and brought them to Happy Trails. Two were destined to be taken to a foster home, and a Palomino would occupy the one open stall that we had at the time. Unfortunately they had not been halter broke and if they had been handled at all, it had very minimal. At this time we were still thinking that all three boys were geldings, because there was no obvious reason to think otherwise.

The Palomino was unloaded first off the truck, and was herded into our outdoor arena until we could assess the situation. The remaining two horses stayed on the trailer to continue on to their new foster home. As the foster folks and driver walked down the barn aisle of Happy Trails to visit a new donkey arrival just for fun, it was only a matter of minutes before I heard someone say, "Hey, there goes a Palomino!"  A few second later someone else called out, "Hey, there goes the Palomino again!"

We all went running toward the front of the barn, and lo and behold, the Palomino was a jumper! He had cleared the fence of our outdoor arena with no problem, and was seriously contemplating leaping over the next fence that lead into our neighbor's yard. We spread out and rushed toward the fence to shoo him away and to re-focus his thoughts. It worked for a second!

That bought us just enough time to work together and guide him back down the aisle of the barn and into a stall. Very quickly the gate was slid shut and locked down. Whew!  Unbelievable!

Now what?  The other two horses left to make it to their foster home before the snowy roads got any worse. We then proceeded to make arrangements with Ken Aberegg, a truly wonderful horse trainer that we work with, to ship the untrained beast over to his place for several weeks to make him safe enough for a vet to examine him.

The other two horses that left for foster care ended up being much more cooperative, and a vet was able to examine them. It ends up that both of those "geldings" were actually young males that, due to malnutrition, had not dropped or fully developed yet. Great. We now have reason to believe that our Palomino jumper is in the same boat.

So as we continue on with this situation, the boys will continue to recover with proper nutrition and a healthy diet. After they gain the weight they need and when the vet determines that it is a safe procedure for them, we will need to have three studs gelded — an additional expense that we hadn't planned on. A typical geld surgery would normally cost abut $250. If these boys don't continue to develop and are either chryptorchid or double-chryptorchid, the surgery expenses are going to amount to a great deal more.

We are planning for them to develop and to raise the minimal amount needed for the geld surgery, which would be $750 for all three horses.

And they needed names! We decided to name the Palomino jumper "Gosheven", a Native American Indian name meaning "great leaper", for that is what he is! The foster home named the 2½ year old chestnut with really badly overgrown hooves "Austin", and they named the 1½ year old paint, Remi (short for Remington). (Photos of the two guys in foster care will be available soon!)

Poor  Austin has large cracks on his feet, is pretty stocked up and has a lump from a formerly broken jaw.  One can only imagine.

To help Happy Trails offset our medical and vet expenses with this group of horses, tax-deductible donations can be made through the website on PayPal or by sending your donation to: Happy Trails, 5623 New Milford Road, Ravenna, Ohi0 44266.

Your help and support are very much appreciated, as our vet and medical expenses seem to add up very quickly!