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12-07-2006: WHISPER IS HOME !!!  Again - THANK YOU to everybody who helped to make her adoption possible..... Here is the e-mail I just received from her adopter: Gabi, I've seen movies in which Julia Roberts or Audrey Hepburn make beautiful entrances, but those entrances pale in comparison to Whisper's entrance.  She got off the trailer and pranced around - SHE'S SO BEAUTIFUL !!  Ok, I'd love her even if she wasn't, but WOW is she pretty. Well, we are off to pick her a little clover from a nearby pasture so her introduction will be a sweet one. .....

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11-06-2006: URGENT - If you are willing to make a donation towards Whisper's transportation fee, then please contact us at horses@lazyhorseranch.org !! A qualified hauler will be here in 1-2 weeks, and we now have several foster- or potential adoptive homes lined up in different States. So if we can raise enough $$ to pay for transportation, Whipser would be able to go to a suitable new home for sure....

**ADOPTED**  - WHISPER - 12-yo SHIRE Mare, 18 hands, NEEDS HELP !!! 

06-04-2006


10-15-2006

  • Full SHIRE Mare
  • Born in 1994
  • Approx. 18 hands
  • Black with 3.5 whites and a regular blaze, natural tail
  • Basic vaccinations & Coggins test done on 10/11/2006
  • Healthy and sound, but needs to get her hooves trimmed after training
  • ABUSE CASE - terrified of human touch
  • Used to be calm and halter trained a few years back (prior to her abuse)
  • Arrived here in April-2006 and made some progress

**THANK YOU for your donations towards her adoption fee**

Whisper came here in April with Mindy, Lucy, Molly and Chloe, 4 other draft mares - neglected, starved and abused.She was a PMU mare years ago, halter-broke at that time, and then she obviously fell into the hands of an abusive, selfish, neglectful,..."person".....

Whisper was at least 600-700 lbs underweight when she came here and had scabs, bruises, wounds, etc. all over her body, covered in thousands and thousands of lice. She is scared to death of being touched by humans.

Whisper was adopted about 2 weeks after she arrived here that's why she was never on the website until now, and back then (April) I thought I would be able to halter train here until she's ready to go. Well, I won't be able to train her after-all, so the adopter backed out just recently.... 

And here is the long story about Whisper:  A few weeks back I had Whisper in the roundpen - thought I would give it a try and see if I could finally pet her and put a halter on her, etc. Well, after working with her for about 15 minutes, she started dripping milk, so I immediately stopped and let her go, thinking she would foal any day - but after no signs of foaling, I decided to have a pregnancy test done. (According to the Vet it is possible for a mare to drip milk even if she's not pregnant.) So on 10/11/06 the Vet was here and I was able to put Whisper in our self-built, draft-size, wooden chute - thinking we could get her vaccinated, Coggins tested, pregnancy tested and finally put a halter on her. Well, it didn't go too well...... She was just terrified of being touched - scared to death. She must have been severely abused, that's for sure. The Vet and me, we both felt so sorry for her, but we had to get things done......... So we gave her 2ml of sedation into the muscle to calm her down a bit, then got her vaccinated and got blood for the Coggins and pregnancy test, but that's pretty much it. There was no way of getting a halter on her (of course the below-freezing temperatures, high winds and the first snow on the ground didn't help at all). I petted her calmly while talking to her, the first few times she literally jumped and kicked out of fear, but after a while she was very still, letting me pet her on the shoulder. However, she didn't allow my hand ANYWHERE near her face, and decided to let her go instead of making matter worse for her.....  Fact is, I'm just not qualified for such a severe case like Whisper, and I'm afraid I simply don't have enough time either.........  Whisper will need a very good, calm, soft-handed and patient professional horse trainer to overcome her horrible past. A stable home, repeating daily routines, daily one-o-one time, lots of love and patience and most of all - trust.

At feeding time she comes to me, she lets me stand very close to her, she doesn't run away from me anymore and seems very calm overall, but the idea of getting touched just terrifies her beyond believe. I know that she was fairly calm and halter-trained a few years ago as a PMU mare, but something terrible must have happened to her after she was sold........She is not dangerous or aggressive, nor would she ever "come after you" as long as she can get away - it will just take some time and the RIGHT kind of training to help her overcome her fear. She's more beautiful than ever, healthy and sound, in good weight and she moves like a dream - she "floats", just like a Shire is supposed to. In the older photos she is still very thin, but she gained a lot of weight since then and looks great now - all scabs and wounds are healed, at least the physical wounds.... And she has those kind and sad eyes that just make you love her ! 

Finally on 10/26/06 the pregnancy test results came back, and obviously Whisper is not pregnant !! The test is not a 100% certain, but enough reason for me to let her go..... I know a few haulers that are very good with transporting horses that can not be touched/haltered/tied. So now all we need is someone willing and dedicated enough to adopt Whisper. I'm certain her case is not hopeless, possibly even a "minor issue" for trainers experienced in Natural Horsemanship, but Whisper is certainly not suitable for an unexperienced horse owner, or for somebody looking for a "cheap rescue horse".........

To answer some other questions about Whisper: Whisper is healthy and sound - no illness or injuries that we know of. Whisper is not dangerous to other horses or humans. She's not submissive to other horses either though. She can be dominant towards other horses when there's food involved, but that is understandable after being starved as badly as she was...... She LOVES other horses and I think she would be miserable alone. She's a very "pleasant" part f the herd and never causes any trouble...The only way she expresses her fear is by moving away when you try to approach her. And she's afraid of being touched anywhere - actually I think it's more the movement of the hand she's afraid of... I've loaded many unhandled horses before - we just back up the trailer to the barn, put food in the trailer and back off. Some horses take more time than others, but eventually they all go in w/o a fight. That's how I got her into the chute - put food in, stepped back and waited.... No, I don't think a long trip would be any different to her than a short trip - the stress issues are the loading, the separation from the herd and then the unloading and getting used to all new surroundings, but for a physically healthy horse I don't believe that the length of the trip makes a big difference - as long as she gets water and food, and as long as she's not hot or cold, she'll be fine. And maybe we could even transport her together with another horse from here that she already knows - that would really reduce the stress a lot.Actually, Whisper is very calm, a slong as you don't try to touch or chase her. Sometimes she even eats whil I hold her food pan. And she lets me stand beside her and work around her, even in a 12x12 stall, but it took a while until we got to that point, just because I don't have much time for her so it took even longer to gain some of her trust. When she first arrived in April, she was so malnourished that I just kept her inside 24/7 - I had her in the stall at night, and in the open barn during the day, and I could go in the stall with her and clean around her, as long as I didn't try to touch her. And I taught her that every evening when I came in and started walking towards her, she would calmly go into her stall, turn around and face me, which was a big deal to me because clearly she could be trained.... She never tried to jump/get out of the stall, and in the roundpen, she would put her head over the panels, but once I walked towards her she just walked off w/o trying to jump. If I had tried to "freak" her out, she might have tried to jump, but I tried to keep her calm.  And something that really surprised me is, that she faces me a lot of times - except when she has her head buried in the feed bucket.... And the question tha tI got before if she is a fear kicker - well, possibly - it all depends what you're doing to her, I think you can cause ANY horse to kick out of fear - she never kicked at me, not even while working around her in the tiny stall. The only time she kicked was when we had her in the chute for the Vet and I actually touched her - but she had nowhere to go, was scared to death, so that was the only thing she could do. But I'm sure she would never kick, bite or even rear if she is not completely cornered. Actually, I've never seen her bite or rear at all, and she wasn't even "grumpy" when introduced to new horses - she's overall a very calm and gentle horse, just like my other Shires.... Whisper is definitely not a hopeless case, and I probably make her sound a lot worse than she is, but that's what I usually do....

Whisper's adoption fee is set (see above), but might be negotiable to a point. Whisper's expenses have long exceeded the $2000 mark, and it would help a great deal to recover as much as possible since adoption fees are our only income: Adoption Fees

SERIOUS INQUIRIES ONLY, PLEASE !! And please keep in mind that Whisper can only be adopted to a non-breeding home, and can not be re-sold (please see adoption procedures and adoption agreement for more info). If you are seriously interested in adopting Whisper, please submit the adoption questionnaire, and we'll go from there.

More photos here: WHISPER

THANK YOU so much for caring enough about Whisper to read all the way to the end.....

11/02/2006: We are VERY disappointed and feel it's necessary to make the following statement - please don't take it personal and don't be offended:  *** PLEASE *** DO NOT INQUIRE ABOUT WHISPER IF YOU ARE NOT WILLING / ABLE TO ....

  • 1. Provide Whisper with a FOREVER home
  • 2. Provide Whisper with a NON-BREEDING home
  • 3. Are aware of and willing and able to pay her adoption fee
  • (we are asking for donations towards her adoption fee/transport, and as donations come in, we adjust her fee - please see above) 

Sorry - Whisper is not "FREE to a good home", and we don't have the time for discussions with everyone trying to convince us otherwise, and we also don't have the time nor see the need having to explain to people why we can't afford to just give her away - everybody who has ever rescued and rehabilitated a horse for 7 months like Whisper, will understand what kind of time, efforts, heart-ache, costs and expenses are involved.... We really appreciate all the e-mails and offers to help Whisper, but PLEASE don't start a conversation with us, just to tell us after 10 e-mails that you can't afford Whisper's adoption fee.... More thoughts about that here: Adoption Fees        THANK YOU !! 


 
   
 
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