Faith Equine Rescue

Transforming the lives of horses and people.

header photo

Blogroll

Homestead, FL (October 8, 2014)  Ten horses and one very lucky steer were rescued from an illegal slaughter operation in the infamous “8.5&#8...

Horse Tales & Hoof Prints Blog

Rescue update

It has been a while since posting.  We actually let the website go for a while as we do most everything on Facebook.  I felt though I still needed to have something on the internet so we have resumed the site.  

August 12, 2023 we lost one of our biggest supporters.  Dr. Karen Teston, believed in our mission she fostered several horses and dogs over the years for us and was part of the heart of this rescue.  Our hearts are broken.  We have brought her girls as she called them Babe and Destiny back to the rescue to continue to live out their days.  They have adjusted well to the move and are doing amazing.  I know she is looking down on the girls happy to see them doing so well.

Jan. 19th we took in 4 puppies that initially we thought would be just a good de-worming and spaying/neutering then they would be ready for their new homes.  Needless to say that wasn't the case.  It ended up be a severe dehydration/starvation case.  4 month old puppies.  We lost the weakest one after 3 days of fighting he just couldn't do it.  He tried so hard as did we.  The other 3 are doing absolutely amazing and have found their forever homes.

We have taken in another piglet.  He was found running down a street when the finder stopped he ran right up to her.  Come to find out one of her neighbors had found him when he was itty bitty and was going to raise him as a pet.  As he got bigger they decided they didn't want him any longer so they just turned him loose.  This is a wild piglet but he was raised in captivity as a pet so he was in danger.  We decided to bring him back to the rescue and he is doing amazing.  Very friendly and  a little pushy when it comes to dinner time.  

We still currently house 7 permanent pig residents.  7 permanent horses and Clyde the steer we rescued several years ago that came to us blind and crippled that is now perfectly healthy just stunted in growth.  

We will update our page as we have new updates and activities going on.  Since loosing Lane things have slowed down but we are still rescuing when we can.  We always help when needed. 

Rescue update

Been a crazy  year for sure.  Not a lot of new horses but we have been over run with dogs and cats.  We have taken on many special needs dogs that have remained with us.  Our latest was Whinnie he is a tree walker hound mix most likely someone's hunting dog at one time.  He was aged by our vet to be 6-7 years old has a heart murmur and when he came in had a severe ear infection which required sedation to treat. He was always severely underweight.   And of course you guessed it he is not neutered and to top it off only has one testicle.  So yep he is special. Due to the heart murmur  he is not a candidate for surgery.  He came into the rescue with no interest in  human interaction he whined non stop and barked in  his kennel except at night.  Our dogs are crate trained so when I am not home they are not running loose (we are up to 9 dogs inside).   He has over the last several months become a attention hog, loves human interaction, only whines when he wants out (still barks when in his kennel at times but much improved).  He is the sweetest boy ever.

We still have all our forever  residents. 

Shadow the Arabian gelding that came back to the rescue with a shattered sesmoid.  He is doing amazing.  He is pasture sound still runs and bucks.  

Buford out saddle bred/mustang gelding he has been with us for years.  He is becoming better and better with strangers still has a lot of trust issues.

The mini girls are pending adoption

Itzy the donkey became a momma 11/26/2022 to a beautiful colt.  He was a true blessing as her previous foals were premature and died.  Her husband Honky had to be laid to rest due to severe COPD his breathing was hard to watch.  We finally  had to make the ultimate decision broke my heart as they were such a bonded pair.  So when Donkey Charm (yep you read it right Donkey Charm because they say the 3rd time is a charm and he was the 3rd baby.  (when momma came in she was bred and not long after coming to rescue she aborted.  We tried to separate her and Honky without luck they spent the nights digging under the walls of the stalls to get to each other, we couldn't geld Honky due to  his age and COPD so we opted to leave them together for safety reasons) Loosing Honky was hard as he was one of our favorites but  he left behind a legacy that will be gelded next month LOL.  

Still have all the pot bellies Diesel, Wrinkles, Cookie, Squid and then the wild one Peanut.  They are all doing amazing.  Getting ready for a pedicure.  

 

Rescue News

Please excuse the lapse in time since the last update.  Things have been a whirlwind since loosing Lane, unfortunately  the website is often forgotten about.  Since our last post we have had 2 new rescues come in.  One was a little mare she was a Chincoteague pony.  Misty Chincoteague was one of my all time favorite books growing up.  I have multiple copies of it and have read it countless times.  Sadly enough this mare was not cherished as many are not.  Her owner died several years back and the husband had her he was very abusive to her and fed her when he felt it necessary which was not often.  She was with us about 6 weeks when she went to her new home where she is learning to trust and be loved again.  The rescue was Shadow.  Shadow was one of the original 54 Arabians we handled in Okeechobee many years back.  He was with another rescue facility that I have worked with for years with no issues.  Sadly enough Shadow was returned to us in very poor and pathetic condition.  We knew when we agreed to take him back he had a old leg injury what we didn't know was the extent of it.  When he arrived he was at least 100 lbs underweight, covered in battle wounds where he had apparently been battling for food, and his left rear leg was severely swollen.  He had a open area under his chin that resembled a chain being used on him.  We contacted the vet right away and had her out to do x-rays immediately.  We received news we didn't expect or want to hear.  His seasmoid bone was not only broken in one place but multiple places.  The vet recommended euthanasia.  Now with that in mind this injury from what we understand happened at least 6 months prior.  So he had suffered that entire time with no vet care.  We opted to give him time since he had already been like this for that period of time and see how he did.  He had so much life in his eyes still he wasn't ready and we were not either.  Oh and he also had a broken rib on the same side that healed funky.  We were blessed to have had a donation of a supplement that one of our adopters uses on her older horse that had some injuries like his.  We started the supplement and within 2 weeks the swelling was down 75% and he was no longer lame on the leg.  To the point he scares me as he knows no limitations.  We will continue to allow him to be a pasture pet as long as he continues to thrive and not be in pain.  He will let us know when it is time and when he is ready.  Until then we will continue to fight with him.  All of our other long term residents are doing well.  Honky the old donkey has been having some issue with his COPD his breathing has been pretty rough.  He still eats, drinks and screams at you when he see's the light come on in the house in the mornings so he still has some life in him.  Not sure how much longer but he will let us know.  We are in the process of trying to get some refinancing done so we can build a pig area where all the pigs can be in one area and renovate the stalls do some much needed work.  Please pray the financing goes through and we can get done what we need to.  

Rescue News

 February of this year the President/Founder of Faith Equine Rescue and the rescue family received some devastating  news.  Lane the husband of Dawn and active participant in the rescue was diagnosed with Stage 4 Glioblastoma Multiforme brain cancer.  After a very vigilant and brave battle Lane won his battle as he entered into the doors of Heaven on July 2nd, 2021.  It was a huge loss for our rescue family.  Many have asked if we will be closing the rescue.  No, Lane would not want that as he knew all the animals that we have helped and took pride in the work we did.  His eyes would sparkle when he talked to people about our work.  We will be downsizing some though.  Focusing more on the seniors one's that no one wants that just need a place to live out their days.  We have also been taking some pot belly pigs in.  There are so many that need homes and just not enough homes out there.  It is really heart breaking to see so many being turned loose dumped like dogs, turned over to animal shelters or abandoned when homes are sold and owners move.  Please I beg you do your homework before you purchase an animal know their needs and how big they will grow to.  I get so frustrated when we see adds for "micro mini pigs"  there is absolutely no such animal.  If you feed it, it is going to grow trust me proof is in all the abandoned pot bellies.  We currently have the below permanent residents they will remain with us until the end.  Keep watching our Facebook page for updates and animals that are for adoption.  Please pray for the rescue, the animals and everyone involved with us.  Although it has been almost 3 months since we lost Lane it still feels like yesterday.  

Here is a list of our current permanent  residents.  This is just our permanent babies. 

 

Bey Bey is a 25 year old Arabian Mare she  has been with us for about 5 years her and her pasture mate Destiny who is about 22 years old live with an amazing foster where they are able to run free and be horses.  Both came from a large scale rescue we did back in 2011 one of our first rescues.  Tess is joining them this weekend. 

Destiny See above

Buford is a gelding we received from Sumter county back in 2011.  He was a 4 year old unhandled starving stallion.  He was so fearful he would not eat or drink out of a bucket.  The land they came from their water source was a nasty green pond.  We don't think the herd had ever seen buckets before.  It took us some time but we won his heart as he did ours.  He was adopted out to an amazing Mom and was doing wonderful until unfortunately some horrible training was performed (not by Mom) and he went completely backwards.  Mom was willing to keep him as a pasture pet until some life decisions had to be made and he was surrendered back to us.  Due to Buford's inability to trust and the hell he has went through we decided to keep him as a permanent resident unless that absolutely 150% perfect home comes along.  He needs a lot of love patience and understanding. 

Angel.  Angel is a mini that was born after being adopted.  Her momma Willow came in pregnant from a huge hoarding case done here in Polk County.  When Angel was born she weighed 13 lbs and could not stand.  She spent many weeks in the hospital and rehab and is doing amazing.  We have concerns about adopting her out as she does have some health issues.  Her rear legs have some joint issues and she is prone to colic.   The absolute perfect and I mean perfect home would have to come along.  We have had so many bouts with about loosing her I just don't know that we could let her go.  

Honky and Itsy are a bonded miniature donkey pair.  Honky has severe COPD and his health has been declining the last few years.  We are very concerned about Itsy when something does happen to Honky as they can not be out of each others sight.  This pair does run with the mini's so we are hoping when the time does come that Itsy will be ok as she will have them.

 

Our pot bellies:

Squidward came from the Tampa Bay SPCA he is aprox. 8 years old.  We have had him about 4 years now. He is the sweetest baby loves belly rubs

Oreo just came in about a month ago.  This was a really sad situation he was abandoned by his owners when they moved.  He was used to being an indoor pet when they through him outside and moved.  The neighbors in the neighbor hood began caring for him but he kept escaping and getting onto a busy road.  We were contacted to pick him up.  He had not been with other pigs in who know for how long plus he just wanted back inside.  When we picked him up he was so stressed out.  He did nothing but oink constantly and kept jumping into my lap (or trying to at least)  videos can be seen our Facebook page.  He remained stressed and was having a hard time settling in.  Later that day we received a female pot belly that was found wondering the streets in Tampa the folks that had her tried to find owners with no luck.  So that afternoon Cookie as she is now called came to live at the rescue.  We placed her with Oreo and got along right off the bat.  He remained stressed every time he would see one of us but once we were out of sight he calmed back down.  Oreo still loves and craves the attention but he has settled in better.  

Diesel and Wrinkles came to us from a situation where the owner had died from Covid there was someone taking care of them but when they found out they were not in charge of the estate they stopped feeding and caring for them.  The son lived hours away and was having to drive to care for them.  Diesel was also an indoor pig thrown outside when the owner died.  When we received them Diesel was underweight you could tell he was not getting the feed the other pigs were and he was low man on the totem pole.  He is doing much better with us and they have both settled in wonderfully.

Peanut well Peanut what can I say he is actually a wild hog we were contacted about.  The person that contacted us said the neighbor had him (apparently he had momma hanging on a cleaning rack)  and didn't want him.  Peanut came to us under a pound and still had his umbilical cord which was fresh and not dried at all.  Peanut is the most loving and needy pig maybe because he is a tad bit spoiled who knows but he craves attention and loves to still nurse on your finger and belly rubs.  Peanut would not take  to a pan to eat and would not suck a bottle so to feed him I had to put a glove on allow him to nurse on my fingers and syringe milk in his mouth to eat.  We did that for the first couple weeks until he finally got the hang of  pan feeding. He is a pretty awesome fellow very affectionate.  

TP as he is know was found wondering the roads in the trailer park (hence the name TP)  down the road from our house.  He was all of a pound when he came in.  We thought he was a pot belly as did our vet.  He had some health issues on and off we almost lost him a couple times but with wonderful vet care we didn't.  Well TP is now about 200 lbs an is without a doubt not a pot belly.  We still have no clue where he came from.  He is living his best life getting belly rubs and he also likes to suck on her fingers its like a soothing mechanism for him.  He is a playful 200 lb critter. 

We still have several cats that have come in from different scenarios.  Anyone looking for one please contact us. 

Our biggest expense is hay as we don't have a lot of grass.  We place compressed alfalfa blocks out for our residents.  They have 12 hour access to it as we have to rotate in and out.  We also go through obviously a lot of grain.  We feed the pigs All Stock and the horses Purina Strategy GX.  Shavings are a big expense also as we like to keep fresh bedding down as much as possible.  During the winter we will use hay for bedding for the pigs they love to wrap up in it.   We also have farrier expense although our farrier is absolutely amazing and works with us.  

 

 

 

 

Summer is here

Summer is here and so are all the hassles that come along with it.   1st the most annoying of it all bugs.  The flies and mosquitos are already horrible.  We spray daily with no results.  We have used commercial bought items home remedies and nothing seems to be working.  Anyone with any suggestions please let us know.  2nd the heat oh my goodness everyone is already hassling and panting due to the heat and its only May.  We are going to need to invest in some fans for sure.  3rd rain Yep mud pit which doesn't help the bug population any.   We were able to get 2 loads of sand in and can not wait to get it spread.

It is that time to give back to the community.   We are gearing up to start our summer pet therapy program for our special kiddo's.  Anyone that knows any kids that would benefit from some pet therapy emotionally or physically please have them contact us.  We have experienced volunteers that work with autistic children and we love and cherish our time with them.

 

 

View older posts »