Willow

Willow (retired from adoption scheme)

This is Willow who had been badly neglected and was rescued from almost certain slaughter as the horse dealer was looking at selling her for dog food. She was very thin and covered with lice when she first arrived but she has now put weight on and is thriving in her new surroundings with all the love and attention she is getting.
Willow is a very proud old Arabian mare who is very flighty and independent.
She is a stunning sight to see galloping in the field with her tail held up
high.
May 2007
Willow is showing her age a little now but is still happy and healthy in many ways and still trots and gallops around the field with her tail held high.
We noticed that a small lump had appeared on her left knee some time ago, and as we kept an eye on it we noticed it growing in size and decided to call a vet out. She had also had a few episodes of muscle seizure which got us worried but the vet advised over the phone to supplement her diet with Electrolytes, which we did as well as starting her on a course of Equine Muscle Release Therapy which is always good for horses with muscular problems or those with skeletal pain which in turn causes muscle imbalance. This all seemed to help Willow a lot but as the lump on her leg grew a little more the vet said that she should be taken to the specialist vets center for x-rays of the knee joint.
She loaded onto the trailer very well and was sedated on arrival at the vets, and the x-rays showed that although the knee is very arthritic, fortunately the excess bone growth is not in the part of the joint that bends, so her painkillers were increased on bad days and we are to keep a close eye on her knee.
She is still a good friend of Paddy but she is not to keen on our new horse, Hilton who is stabled next to her.
She seems to think he is below her as he is not very gentlemanly and finds it great fun to chase the older ladies about and make them squeal. He is only nine years old and so does not treat the mares with such respect as Paddy and Trigger do. Hopefully with time he will learn but in the meantime Willow always makes it clear to him how much she dislikes him by laying her ears flat back on her head and flying toward him through the bars in her stable at feeding time.
Willow was really lucky to have a really flash new rug donated by one of our volunteers and had got a lot of use out of it during the rainy weather in March and April, she seems very pleased to wear it out in the field as it has a lovely design on it which draws attention her, which is always a good thing because then people driving by always notice how beautiful she is.

July 2006
Willow is doing well for her age but is showing a few more signs of arthritis and is walking a little more stiffly this year. We have purchased a large pair of magnetic boots for Willow and Penny to share, so hopefully in time this will benefit them both.
Paddy and her still have a little gallop together in the mornings though so we are not too concerned.
We've also heard more about Willow’s history from a lady who took pity on her at the horse dealers and managed to get permission from him to take her for walks to get some extra grass, as she was so thin. We are told that the dealer repeatedly tried to get Willlow in foal but with no success, which is the reason why he saw her as worthless and was looking to sell her to the meat man. We can never understand the mentality of people who see animals as machines like this and neglect them so badly as happened with poor Willow.

March 2006
Willow is doing great and is no trouble to care for. She always appreciates all her feed and rugs and nice deep warm bed and asks for nothing more.
She prefers to be left to her own devices now that she is over her ordeal of being starved & neglected but as she is an Arab we can understand her wanting to stay proud & independent as this is what her breed are known for. We would not have her any other way and we all love her to bits!

November 05
Willow has been doing very well, she is in such good condition that the vet did not need to rasp her teeth or do much else on his recent check up. She had her tetanus injection and was very good although very nervous when the vet went near her head.
She is now wearing her stable rug at night as she is old and it is getting so cold and she appreciates the extra pampering.

October 2005
Willow is doing very well and is now in very good condition. We have been able to reduce her feed as she was doing so well on her weight gain diet, and she was actually becoming quite excitable and very difficult to hold at the gate to the field every morning! For this we have done a bit of halter training but she is still quite excitable so we are planning to look at a low cereal diet for her, as Arabs are notoriously sensitive to cereal feeds which is one of the ingredients in Willows Veteran mix.
We also had a very interesting visit from a lady who owned Willow for 10 years!
She managed to trace us through the Arab Horse Society web site, and gave us a lot of useful info on her background which we will be writing about in the near future for those of you who sponsor Willow.
She has been receiving Bowen and Equine Muscle Release Therapy along with
Penny as she is very stiff along her back and hocks. This therapy is very effective and Willow had a lot of varied reactions during her treatment which showed us that it was working. These included varied breathing patterns, yawning, going sleepy and then being wide awake and also lots of weight shifting too.
She had 2 sessions and will be receiving top up sessions every few months, but already she seems a lot looser and less stiff when she comes out of her stable, her back will never be normal again and she will never be ridden as this would be totally unfair and so she will probably remain with us for the rest of her days now.

August 05
Willow is coming along very well and everyone is delighted with her progress.
She has gained tonnes of weight and is a completely different character than when she first arrived.
She enjoys beating Paddy in their morning races and is regularly seen standing with him or Perry.
One thing we are concerned about is that she has a suspected rotated Pelvis.
The vet has checked on her and says there is a problem with her back/hind legs and has advised that we need to bring in a horse Physiotherapist, which we will do.
We are now wondering if this explains why Willow was left unwanted at a dealers yard as her back problem may mean she is unable to be ridden. It is a very unfortunate fact that horses are no longer wanted once they can't be ridden, no matter how many years of pleasure they have given their owners.
At least Willow has ended up with us and she has a safe and secure future.

May 15th 05
Today Willow was turned out with the rest of the herd in the big horses field, it all went very smoothly. Paddy was a real gentleman and showed Willow where the water troughs are and how they are meant to walk through the gate then wait for their head collars to be put on at tea time. Willow is picking these things up very quickly.
We are all really pleased to see willow having a good gallop every morning, the girl who bought her from a dealer had said to us that she had never even seen Willow trot in the weeks she had kept her.
She is putting on weight and is improving condition steadily, we don't want her to put too much weight on too quickly as this would not be good for her joints or digestion. We will put pictures up soon of the new, happy and healthy Willow so please keep a look out on this page!

May 05
Willow is definitely coming out of her shell since she arrived here 3 weeks ago.
When she first came to the sanctuary she was really easy to handle as she was a bit subdued from being malnourished and having a severe louse infestation.
Now her personality is starting to come through she is proving to be proud, confident and highly strung just like an Arab should be!
As soon as Willow came on to the yard we had a vet check her teeth and take samples to check for internal parasites. She was de-loused and given a large hay net, and a really deep warm bed.
The vet also weighed her and told us that she was 50 kilos underweight. We contacted a nutritionist who advised a feeding program for Willow which involves feeding her little and often.
She certainly has no problem with her appetite, as she eats double the amount of all the other horses! She is also a very impatient eater, she will paw at the ground as she cannot eat fast enough. This comes from her being unable to feed herself properly for so long.

Willow was isolated for a week and she is now kept in paddocks adjoining the big horses field. When her and Paddy first set eyes on one another it was love at first sight, we are confident that she will be able to look after herself in the field as well as making friends with her new family properly.
We will continue to keep an eye on Willow's weight, as the vet has come back to us with the test results and said that rather than worm or teeth problems, Willow has basically been deprived of proper food for quite some time. This must have been torture for poor Willow as one of the horses' most important instincts is to have food available all the time, and to be nibbling on something for 20 hours a day.
Also, the amount of lice on Willow's body when she arrived was the worst we had ever seen and that in itself would have made her weak and unhappy.
We have wormed her and she will now be kept on a regular worming program along with the rest of all our animals.
We will continue to feed Willow carefully and we'll let you know how her first outing in with the other horses goes.