Project Hope Horse Welfare Victoria Inc.

I received a call from former RSPCA inspector Sally Heath late one Monday afternoon. She wanted to know if we were in a position to take on ten horses that had been surrendered from an Arab stud in Portland. Given the distance Portland is from any of us we were unsure of what to expect. I was told there were ten horses in total including two stallions that were running with the mares and foals. They were all a body score of two and below when the inspector first become involved.

The committee agreed to help (thank you to Nicky and John for offering to be the initially drop point and place of care) and the first few days were spent trying to organise transport and decide if we should make the trip down there. After further consultation with Sally it was decided there was no need for us to go as she was happy to see them loaded on to a truck. She had someone down there that was feeding them and keeping an eye on the situation, as we were having difficulty getting a transport company to go down that way. Sally finally found a local transporter after our initial plans had fallen through twice.

The horses were finally on their way and arrived at Nicky’s about 9.00 on a Tuesday night. They were unloaded and inspected for injuries. All arrived safe and sound after their five hour plus trip. They were yarded and the stallions separated. The next morning they were moved into a bigger paddock where they remained for the next few days. That weekend Jenny, Nicky and myself set about taking photos and identifying them all; at the same time they were wormed and began their full vaccination program. The three young horses were weaned.

They completed the initial phase of short term care that takes six weeks. They had been through a full worming and vaccination program; they had been seen by a vet, horse dentist and the farrier.

Two of the mares that were in foal went out on a lovely property close to Melbourne in order for them to foal down, under close supervision.

The three young ones were fully weaned and had tying up and leading lessons soon after. They were quick learners taking to tying up and leading with ease. They stayed on with Nicky for several months to continue with their basic handling. We had an offer for them to go to a stud that one of our members owns to grown up with her babies.

Stallions; one was gelded pretty much straight away and rested up at a lovely property in Arthurs Creek, he was then broken in. The other was gelded once his body condition had picked up.

We had many people kindly offer feed and donations to help with this rescue. Huge thank you goes to; Perry`s Feed Store at Kyneton for their donation of oaten and lucerne chaff; Ascot Saddlery for their donation of CSL vaccinations, along with head collars and leads for each horse; Fort Dodge—the makers of Equest Plus Gel wormers; Kentucky Equine Research for their donation of Equi jewel; Tony Carter-Smith for freeze branding at no charge; Mark Burnell for dentistry at no charge. We estimate each horse we rescue costs about $500 just for the first six weeks.

Donations like this go along way in easing such a huge financial burden that comes with taking ten horses on at once. There were vet bills for the horses to be gelded and for the mares to be preg tested. We had more vet bills once the mares foaled – one mare slipped her foal rather late.

There will be the on going breaking in costs as all of these horses are young. This breaking process starts at $1500 per horse. We would like to thank the AEBC for kindly offering to break in one of these horses at no charge.