Tales of Rescue

Tales of Rescue Chrome and Charm

By Pam Gleason

Chrome and Charm, both former polo ponies, live together in a grassy paddock at Aiken Equine Rescue on Aiken’s Southside. They are shiny and content, spending their days grazing and lazing in the sun. Chrome, a chestnut in his late 20s, betrays his age a bit in his outline and expression. Charm, a dark bay mare in her mid-teens, is intelligent and energetic. They both look like happy, healthy horses.

But they were not always this way. When they were brought to the rescue from a neglect situation at the end of April, both were little more than bones covered with ragged, rain-rotted coats. Charm, with relative youth on her side, was in much better shape than Chrome. Older horses need more food to survive, and neither horse had had enough for a very long time. With a body score of 1, his hips and backbone stuck out painfully. “He would not have lasted more than a few more days if he hadn’t been grabbed, we don’t think,” says Caroline Mulstay who is the manager at the rescue.

Caroline says that when they take in horses that are in terrible shape such as Chrome and Charm, there is always an immediate outpouring of support from the community. Horse people in Aiken and beyond are thankful that the horses have been saved, and often express their relief that they are in such good hands at the rescue.

What most people don’t fully understand is that taking a horse out of a bad situation is really only the beginning. Horses suffering from severe neglect have a long road back to recovery, and they are often not really out of the woods for several months, or even longer. The refeeding process with starving horses is excruciatingly slow, since it is very easy to overwhelm a horse’s system with too much nutrition at once. At the same time, the horses need to have enough feed to give them the strength to carry on. Finding that balance is difficult, and many horses have a rocky road to recovery.

Such was the case with Chrome. “We thought we were going to lose him about a week after he came in,” says Caroline. On that day, she had noticed that he was lying down in his paddock. “At first I thought he was just resting in the sun,” she says. “But then I saw him a little later on and he was lying down in a different place. That was a bad sign – horses often lie down to rest during the day, but they don’t get up and lie down again somewhere else. We thought he might be colicking.”

When Caroline and her staff went to check him, they discovered that he had gone down and didn’t have the strength to get up again. Fortunately, they were able to help him to his feet and to steady him until the veterinarian could arrive. After some intravenous fluids and vitamins, his eyes brightened and his strength returned. For the next few weeks, he spent time in a stall with a fan, and the rescue staff made him as comfortable as possible while he recuperated. He had gotten over that bump in the road, but it could easily have gone the other way.

“You have to watch these horses every day, and you really have to pay attention to everything, how they eat, what their manure looks like,” Caroline continues. “You have to be very observant.”

Starved horses are first introduced to small amounts of alfalfa given to them frequently throughout the day. When they are ready, they can have small amounts of concentrates as well. Chrome and Charm were fed soaked senior feed mixed with a ration balancer, along with high quality alfalfa.

“You have to raise the amount that you feed them very slowly, by a quarter of a scoop at a time,” she says. “It can be difficult. You want to give them whatever they want to eat, but you can’t do that.” Eventually they were eating eight scoops (about 16 quarts) of concentrates along with as much alfalfa as they wanted. “We try to keep people updated on our horses’ progress with pictures on our Facebook page,” says Caroline. “We have the best supporters. We have some who will call to ask about a horse and want to know how he is doing and what he might need even months after he comes in.” Still, the rescue, which is supported by donations, has significant expenses, which is why Caroline says it is most helpful when donors commit to giving a certain amount every month. Starvation and neglect cases can be very expensive, but the rescue also has more many horses to feed and care for year in and year out.

What’s next for Chrome and Charm? Caroline says that if they spend the rest of their lives at the rescue, that would be fine. Chrome, because of his age, might do that –though if the right person came along who was committed to spoiling him and loving him for the rest of his life, that would be wonderful. Charm, who is probably about 15, seems to be sound and healthy and looking for a job, so she might be an excellent candidate for a riding home. “For these horses, like for all of our horses, they would have to be going to a great place.”

Both horses are “fat as ticks right now” according to Caroline, and doing so well that their feed has recently been cut back. How does it feel to see this transformation? She described it well in a post on the Equine Rescue Facebook page:

“It’s the best feeling when you’re looking at a horse in the distance and think ‘what horse is that?’ And then realize it’s the pile of bones that came in months ago that now has a pile of fat and a pile of muscle on top of those bones and he looks like all the other horses. It’s hard to see the progress when you’re with them every day but when you take a minute and really look and really think about where they came from it will take your breath away.”