Sunshine came in with a pack of "auction" babies...all who became very ill and went through hell.. nothing any baby deserves.. This country not only deals with unwanted horses but also unwanted babies. Many times it is hard to get babies adopted because it is a long road before they can be ridden.
Someone like Nik Meechee wanted to travel that long hard road with her baby...look at them now!! Great job Nik!! Thank you for giving her everything she needed and MORE!!
It is amazing how life takes you through many 'twists & turns' and then you find yourself where you are meant to be...
Six years ago, I was online searching for answers on a reality I learned about in America. I had no idea it happened to horses anywhere, they are our companions...hundreds of thousands of horses were being slaughtered and transported overseas to foreign restaurants. I was devastated and confused and so angry. In my search for answers, I found a wonderful horse rescue with a woman who wrote with her heart, Jennifer M Swanson. She had my full attention after I read a few of her powerful articles about horse slaughter and their rescue.
I reached out and we connected...I joined forces with her and several special ladies in 2006, helping to raise funds to save horses from the horrible, unimaginable fate of slaughter. We had planned a Memorial Day Rescue for weeks and raised funds to save as many horses as possible from one of the worst auctions in the country, Sugarcreek in Ohio. We raised enough money to save several horses that day – and also the morning after, before the trucks & livestock trailers came to take them away forever.
There was a beautiful mare at this auction, a palomino paint with a badly injured hind leg. This mare found herself going ‘straight to kill’ as demanded by the auction owner, after he saw her leg and said she could not be bid upon. She was hurt, scared, hungry, full of worms, and became sick due to the poor conditions she was in at this livestock auction. My husband and I went to visit the horses that were saved, and we came with our neighbors who had just adopted 2 nursemare foals from Pure Thoughts at their lay-over facility. I went right over to this mare after seeing her leg. She had an infection in the wounds and it was painful, but she was so sweet as I examined it. My husband was watching me with her at the fence line, and he said to our neighbors, “That is a horse, and she is a horse I would want for myself” – They told me what he said and that was all I needed to hear!
I had also felt an instant connection with this sweet palomino mare with the kind, gentle eyes...those eyes also reflected confusion, hurt and fear for what she and the others had just endured at Sugarcreek. They were saved in the ‘nick of time’ and now she was on our minds, in our thoughts and in our hearts… I called Jen that afternoon and shared the news that we really wanted to adopt her!
The next weekend, after a nice bath and doctoring her leg wounds, the same neighbors that we brought there to adopt the nursemare foals returned to help us bring ‘Sunny’ home! I gave her this name because of the beautiful gold-spun coat she had and also because she brought 'sunshine’ into our lives :)
We have had the joy to love and care for Sunny over the past 5 years, and today is the ‘anniversary’ of her rescue. We carefully treated her wounds and she healed up beautifully....on the outside. The emotional scars from her painful past took longer to heal, but she knew we loved her unconditionally and also that she could trust us. She even began to ‘care’ for us, always so loving and gentle, silly and playful, treating us as if we were valued members of her ‘herd’…she has always had a strong maternal instinct, and 4 years ago, we found her the perfect companion, a miniature donkey weanling, “Milo” :)
Sunny has taught us so much, and also others who know us and have seen and heard her story. They were shocked and saddened when we tell them what nearly happened to her. Sunny has been ‘telling her story’ and many have heard and learned what the truth is about horse slaughter in our country, and she has helped to inspire people to stand up for America’s horses.
We are honored to have Sunny in our family and she has brought us so much over these past years. My husband’s mother called him one day shortly after we adopted Sunny. She didn't know about her yet, but she had a dream that Bobby had found a special horse, a mare...that he would be touched by a horse. She was so thrilled to learn that Sunny found us!
