11039 - Phase 1

June 1st 2025

Today we picked up our first ever makeover Loshenka to take home to the estate. It was a difficult choice, but I settled on a beautiful palomino mare that's severely underweight. My main reasoning for deciding on her is that I have experience with rehabilitating underweight horses, and I didn't want to go headfirst into unfamiliar territory for my first rescue.

She seems reasonably well handled, despite her state of body. I assume her previous home simply didn't have the funds to take care of her needs. It's a harsh reality of equine ownership that money can't be tight. I was able to look her over hands-on after selecting her, and besides her lack of nutrition, her teeth are also in bad shape. It probably has a hand in her weight loss. She's fairly head shy from the pain, so I couldn't get a deeper analysis of her dental condition.

While day 1 of the makeover allocations comes to an end, I spend some time with Echo and Venus. Neither have been drawn for allocation yet, but I have high hopes they will soon, so we can go through this journey together like we did previously at a similar Horndes event.

After they help me load 11039, I bid farewell and good luck. On the drive home, I have my stable hand Arthur keep a close eye on the trailer cameras. The last thing we need is 11039's weakness to bring her down in the tailer. She already barely holds her tail.

For the time being, she'll be quarintined in the sand lot without access to grass or hay to prevent choking if she tries to eat but fails to chew. I called the equine dentist as soon as 11039 settled in the sand lot, and scheduled her to visit tomorrow. For tonight 11039 will be getting a very small dinner of water-soaked grain and oats with some vitamins crushed and dusted over top, under supervision of course. If she does well with it, I can toss some carrots and graze paste into the blender as a snack, but it's important I don't over feed. One of the slowest aspects of rescuing a starved animal is that you can't feed them all they want right away. You have to ease them from small portions to full meals, or else you risk digestive issues and refeeding syndrome.

By nightfall, 11039 has had dinner and lots of water, and is laying down to sleep. I'm happy that she's comfortable. I just hope she's strong enough to stand back up in the morning. I need to start brainstorming for a name.