These are the pictures Officer Beth Les of Inland Valley Humane Society and S.P.C.A. took in September 2011 when she first saw Autumn.  Shortly after she was brought to TIER.  The only food she was getting was the silage that was being fed to the cows.  She came a long way since September 2011!

Today was the first time farrier Val Dean was able to give Autumn a full trim! NOTE that she is standing in front of the barn and not in a pen! Sandi has done a wonderful job desensitizing Autumn so that she is more comfortable with having her feet handled! THANK YOU SANDI & VAL DEAN!

Autumn has rope burn scars on her hind legs from her previous experiences with "Horse Tripping". She is VERY defensive of her hind legs (understandably!). Val Dean & Sandi were very patient with her and helped her through her fear.

Chino & Autumn at the tie rail. It wasn't that long ago that you could not even touch these two because of the abuse they had endured.

TIER volunteer Peggy visiting with Autumn at Training Camp!

11/12/2012

NEW VolunTIER Kathee came with me to visit Autumn at Training Camp. This lovely little mare continues to amaze us all as she instantly hooked up with Kathee. Followed her around like a puppy and kept reaching out to touch her with her nose. WONDERFUL!

"We've Come A Long Way Baby!"

TIER friends Alesha & Andie joined us for one of our regular visits to Autumn's "Training Camp". Autumn is now to the point where it is VERY beneficial for her to experience some handling by folks other than her trainer. Alesha (pictured above) was ecstatic to be able to finally touch Autumn.

Trainer Sandi Anderson gets just as much, if not more, joy in watching Autumn's progress.

Unfortunately, I was so into watching Andie when she was in with Autumn that I forgot to take pictures! Maybe I will remember next time!

Due to her past experience of being used in horse tripping, having the tips of her ears CUT off, roughly handled, starved to the point of almost no return, Autumn remained fearful of humans. The only way we have been able to have her feet done is to put her in a "squeeze" and have her sedated. She did not do well with the sedation and had difficulty coming out of it. We did not want to put her through that again and possibly cause her to be permanently damaged.

The alternative was to send her to a trainer. Unfortunately, hay prices & cost of care for the TIER residents have not come down and the economy has drastically impacted the ability of our donors to contribute. Because of financial reasons, we have had to put off sending Autumn & Chino to our trainer of choice: Sandi Anderson who is well known in our area.

Sandi has participated in the Mustang Makeover Challenge for the past 5 years. She just has that Special Something that the wild horses trust. Being that Autumn was most probably wild, she was also abused. This means that she brings extra baggage to any situation involving humans.

Thanks to the Blue Thong Society, Menifee Chapter's recent Bunco fundraiser for TIER, we were able to send Autumn to Sandi Anderson's facility for 1 month of training in hopes that at the end of that month her feet can be trimmed without the use of sedation. Blue Thong Society's fundraiser paid for a large portion of the cost. We can only afford training costs for one month, so please keep your fingers crossed that Autumn's progress continues!

9/24/2012 Convincing Autum to load in the trailer to go to training took a little time.

9/24/2012 Wondering who this woman is and what she wants.

Familiarizing herself with Sandi's scent. (Notice that she is now wearing a halter)

Allowing Sandi to brush her. Her eyes are soft and she has come to trust Sandi in only a few days!

Flag work. Autumn is ready to bolt if she can't take the pressure. Especially on her hind end. BUT...Sandi released the pressure and was eventually able to touch her all over (down the front legs too!). She was very accepting and trusts Sandi.

Finally.........the Yucky/Unhealthy coat is gone!

But we still have that windblown look going on!

HUGE thanks to Officer Beth Les of Inland Valley Humane Society-SPCA and the DA for their hard work in processing the case against Autumn's abuser.

Autumn's abuser was convicted on 3-14-2012 of Felony animal abuse. The following was his sentencing:

Three year formal probation

One day in jail

Must meet with his probation officer every 14 days

Mandatory animal cruelty counseling

Search and Seizure at any time

Restitution of over 900.00 to the vet he never paid. (Instructed by IVHS-SPCA to get a vet out to evaluate & treat. Vet gave abuser instructions for treatment/care . No improvement to Autumn&rsquos condition was noted therefore Autumn was seized and brought to TIER.)

Cannot own any horses (during the probationary period)

Scheduled the vet to come out to sedate Autumn so she could get her feet trimmed. I was hoping we would be able to lightly sedate for trimming. No luck.

(Above) Autumn after the first attempt at sedating her.

(Above) This picture is AFTER her Second shot of sedative. As you can see, she was still quite fearful and the decision was made to administer a stronger sedative to lie her down. We might have had an easier go of it but the vet rushed closing the back end of the squeeze which escalated Autumn's anxiety and she remained on high alert! NOTE: That's Chino in the background napping under sedation as he had a manicure done too!

Francisco quickly went to work cleaning out her hooves and trimming her feet. It is much more difficult to get a balanced trim when they are lying down. In the picture above Francisco is evaluating her natural wear pattern to try to get as balanced a trim as possible.

While she was snoozing, Dr. Lois Yu examined her teeth and determined that she is approximately 7-8 years old. Dr. Yu and Francisco both said they thought that someone had cut the tips of Autumn's ears off. This is what I had thought because if the tips of the ears had been frozen off from being in cold weather, they would not have been straight across. Someone was extremely cruel to this poor girl.

She was out for quite awhile. She came out of the sedation under the watchful eyes of Dr. Yu, her assistant Antonio, and myself. Francisco did an excellent job and Autumn's feet look great. Her experience in the squeeze has set her back a bit and she is once again very wary of people approaching her. We are working to once again regain her trust.

Arraignment for Autumn's previous owner is scheduled for January 25 2012. He is being charged with felony animal cruelty.

Chino & Autumn discussing the benefits of having hay every day (at 17.99 a bale!) instead of eating corncobs and corn husks in Chino's case or being fed rotting vegetables in Autumn's case. Hay fills the belly and makes it round! HA!

The Little Black Mare is putting on weight slowly. Which is just how we want her to do it. Her coat has the "winter fuzzies" which disguises the fact that she is still quite thin. Her topline is prominent and her hip bones still jut out. The swelling in her right hind leg from the untreated rope burns has gone down, but that leg will probably always be thicker than the other. She still gets edema on her bellyline, but it comes and goes. Turnout doesn't seem to decrease it. As she gets healthier it will probably go away completely as it did with Melvin Black Jack.

We were able to put her in a squeeze situation which allowed us to brush out some of the knots in her mane on her right side. She allowed us to touch her face and brush her back & rump. When we opened the squeeze to turn her around so we could do her left side she was breathing heavy. Since her system is so compromised and she was so fearful we made the decision to tackle brushing her and untangling her mane on another day. The winds have been ripping through here and all the untangling of her mane we did on her right side didn't last. Although her mane on the right side has "wind knots" in it, all the dead hair is gone! YAY!

Autumn has been here 10 days today! Weight gain is slow and mostly in the belly area. She has been undernourished (starved!) for a long time, so it will take quite awhile for her to fill out completely. Right now, she does have some edema under her belly. We put her in the roundpen today in hopes that the edema would go down a bit. We were also hoping she would roll to get some of the yuck off of her back.

She did briefly roll, but because I was in the round pen with her she got up pretty quickly. She is still very guarded about people approaching her and will swing her rear end toward you in defense.

Because of her dark coloring, it is really hard to get good pictures of her condition. The swelling in the right hind leg has gone down some and all her open sores have scabbed over.

She does allow me to approach her when she is in her corral, but my movement has to be quiet and slow. She will reach her head over to sniff my hand, but quickly pulls her head back. We will be worming her within the next few days. The wormer will have to be put into her pelleted feed.

HUGE THANKS to Joan of Pawier Vitamins for sending us a gallon of their product. I've been using this product for years for the rescued horses and it really helps them to recover. You can already see the difference in her coat, appetite, energy level because of these vitamins.

The mare presented as emaciated, her back/withers/rump are covered in rain rot/rain scald.  There are many wounds and bite marks on her back/rump area.  The tips of her ears are missing either from frostbite or manual removal by someone.  Her left hind leg is swollen from the hock to the ankle.  Wounds on the anterior suface of her hocks caused by rope burns are healing.  Her hooves are overgrown and in need of trimming.  Possible lice infestation.  Her coat is dull and she has stomach bloat from parasites.

Dr. Thomas Hoyme evaluated the mare on 10/29/2011.  We were unable to catch the mare due to her mistrust of humans which limited performing an extensive hands on examination.  It was his opinion that we wait 10 days before worming to give her a chance to put on weight.  He felt that the worm infestation has been ongoing and that waiting until she was a bit healthier before giving her worming medication would be best. 

Dr. Hoyme was unable to physically examine her left hind leg with the extensive swelling other than by observation.  He felt the wound is healing and was hesitant to prescribe antibiotics due to her emaciated condition.  She does not appear lame on the leg and he indicated that the swelling could decrease or, the swelling/thickness could remain for the rest of her life due to the damage and her not receiving any wound care.  There are wounds on both hind legs that he felt may have been caused by rope burns.  The wounds are healing, but will monitor the left hind leg swelling.  If there is a negative change in the healing process of the leg Dr. Hoyme will return to sedate the mare and do a more thorough examination.

The worming medication in 10 days should help with any lice infestation.  Exposing the mare to daily non-agressive contact will
hopefully build her trust in order to treat the rain rot by using
betadine on a daily basis to kill the dermatophilus congolensis
organism. 

She is bright eyed and alert though guarded when humans enter her area.  She will move quickly away when approached, but is not frantic about escape.  She is eating well, passing manure, urinating and drinking.  Water consumption is a bit low, but should increase with proper nutrition.

She is being fed alfafa hay and grass hay.  Once daily she is given
soaked hay pellets with beet pulp, psyllium (to remove any sand/dirt in her intestines), Pawier vitamins  (Thank you Joan of Pawier for sending a gallon of these great vitamins) and a small portion of sweet feed. 

Dr. Hoyme will reevaluate in 30 days unless there is a health change that requires his attention sooner.  Dr. Hoyme guessed her breed to be a Mustang and that she is young (5 years or younger) but could not examine her teeth to verify age.  His observation was that her neglect was long term and her growth has been stunted by lack of proper nutrition.  His comment was "She has missed more mealtimes than she has had meals for quite awhile".

I received information that there is a HIGH possibility that this little mare was leased out for use in the Charro rodeos on the weekends. Sigh. Needless to say, she will have trust issues. The good thing is that she did present both eyes to the officer when she was taking the pictures.

Chino (one of the Chino-4 rescued earlier this year) experienced the same treatment and would not present both eyes/face you in the beginning. He's better now, but if he feels that there is too much pressure (doesn't take much) he will present his side and only look at you with one eye while the other eye is looking for an escape.

The Little Black Mare has arrived and she has been given the name Autumn by Officer Les who stepped in on her behalf.

The trailer seemed to swallow her up since she is such a small girl. The HS Officer and Ingrid (transporter) were unable to get a halter on her. She is not very trusting after her recent experiences I guess. We waited a few moments for her to check out her exit and then she quickly went in the pen we had ready for her. She moved to the farthest corner from us and immediately met up with Tsan Tsant, Rocket and Newman.

She has a multitude of scrapes on her rear and back. Her left hind leg is swollen from just below the knee all the way down. She doesn't seem to favor the leg too much, but she was anxious about where we all were and kept moving.

The vet will be out tomorrow or the next day to check her out. It won't be easy since she is so untrusting. We will let her settle in for a few days and consult with the vet as to when we can worm her and which type of wormer he recommends.

She has healing wounds on her hind legs at the knee.

And of course, rain rot. She has large expressive eyes. I went out to check on her after she had been here awhile, and she did sniff some hay I had in my hand. Didn't eat it, but she did reach out an sniff it!

Because she is Black and in a stall, the pictures don't accurately show how thin and beat up she is. More pictures will be posted upon her arrival tomorrow. She is going to need feed supplement, wormer, psyllium, farrier care, evaluation by our veterinarian and of course, Pawier Vitamins.