Shiloh Horse Rescue: Growing older at Shiloh...

Friday, December 23, 2011

Growing older at Shiloh...

Something that alot of our readers may not know is that Shiloh has a huge number of elderly horses in the rescue. We currently have 127 horses in the rescue, 62 of these horses are age 25 and above, and of those 62 horses, 26 of them are estimated to be 30 years of age and above.

That means that almost half of our horses are very elderly. These horses take extra care and feeding to keep them healthy. All of our old guys wear warm winter blankets, eat formulated feed and live in herds with like horses.

Our Feed Fairy program is a huge help with feeding these special horses and we appreciate every bag of feed that our Feed Fairies help to purchase.

I have always loved the older horses. Most of the older Shiloh horses are horses who, when they reached a certain age or were unable to meet their owners activity level, were dumped for slaughter. To all of us at Shiloh- these once unwanted horses are priceless and they mean alot to us. Most of our old guys are able to help teach people about grooming, handling and safety around horses and are the horses who are regularly used in our weekend Basic Horsemanship classes. They are spoiled and appreciated by staff, visitors and volunteers.

Sadly, because of Shiloh's large elder population, this means we too often have to say good bye to our old friends and gently send them on their way to Greener Pastures. It is never easy but it is a part of our rescue and our mission. We are able to console ourselves knowing that the time they lived at Shiloh, however lengthy or brief, was a time of love, comfort and kindness.