Lady Joanna was pulled from Bowies 11/6. She was trampled on the trailer to the kill pen and sustained severe injuries. The other horse that was trampled along side her did not make it. She once was a racehorse, but somehow found herself neglected, starved, and left to die as a “direct ship” horse on the fast track to slaughter in Mexico.

After coming to HNH, her trample marks started to show signs of festering. One vet misdiagnosed it as an hematoma, luckily the next team got it right. Lady had a massive abscess, drained 11/9, and spent three days at the vet recovering. Improvement was on the horizon, but never managed to take a strong hold. Soon after settling back into the ranch, her health continued to decline, despite being under the direction of a massive vet team and our 24/7 care. Her naps turned dangerously long as a cushings flair-up started to pain her hooves. The vets initially only identified her pain as physical trauma from being trampled and encouraged her resting in comfort—SO easy to do with dozens of trample marks, two swollen legs and a massive wound on her shoulder. Even with pain medication, she was struggling to get to her feet, we had to help her up and stabilize her, and within a day, her body gave up trying. In just a few days, she went from having a hopeful prognosis to showing every bit of her late 20’s.

Lady passed peacefully in her paddock with Julian, Kait and Honey. Someone threw this sweet soul away knowing her conditions, anticipating her physical unsteadiness, and yet, decided that her best end should have been going to slaughter in Mexico, if she even made it there. Her best way to go was surrounded by love. We were glad to give her that. Someone should have let her go at her home or given her to a sanctuary before letting her sustain life ending injuries.

By contributing, you are supporting our fund to bring on more horses in need of critical care and seniors we’d like to bring in to our programs.