I wish I could save them all

I am on an email list that sends out information on some of the local horse rescue agencies - like CHANGE, the one I blogged about back in February.

Sometimes, it's hard to love horses the way I do and not be ashamed of my own species and how cavalier we can be when it comes to other humans, let alone animals that depend on us to care for them.

Meet Argus, a 16-year old Thoroughbred who spent about 10 years of his life in a filthy 12' x 16' pen, owned by an animal hoarder, and fed stale bread and rotting produce. His story, though it has vastly improved thanks to his foster home, makes me want to scream, or cry, or throttle his ex-owner. Maybe all three.

But that energy is better spent other ways, including spending time with Lena and Bar, making sure they are ridden, tended, rubbed, carrot-ted, and loved as much as they can possibly stand.

I don't always have hours to spend or energy to burn, but there is always enough time for a head scratch and some carrots, even when I'm too sick to do much else. (Like I've been this week.)

Would I have the time and energy to foster another horse, especially one that would require the kind of rehabilitation some of these horses need? I really can't imagine being able to do that and do it well. Maybe that makes me selfish, or maybe it keeps me from collecting more horses than I can really care for, which is probably a good thing in the long run.

What I can do is scratch a nose, rub an ear, and offer a carrot to any number of the horses at our barn that don't get visited as often, plus make sure my two get all the good energy I can give them. It doesn't seem like enough sometimes, but it is at very least positive input to the universe.

Oh, and I can help get the word out about organizations like
CHANGE which are doing incredibly good things for horses in this area.