Why are they Abandoned
The horses of Villa Chardonnay arrive for a variety of reasons. Many people can no longer afford to maintain, feed, or offer basic health care for their horses. Many horse owners have lost their homes and property, or just simply their job and can no longer afford to take care of their horses. Skyrocketing hay prices over the past 2 years have not helped.
"An Epidemic of Abandoned Horses" (Time Magazine article)
We thank the lord that they closed the American slaughter houses- so these beautiful creatures can live a full life. However there have been unanticipated conscequences to this humane act. Many horses are being slaughtered in Mexico or Canada, so while trying to save these horses, many of them are having to survive cruel and rudimentary transportation to another country to be slaughtered in less humane ways than they would here in the states. THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!
Due to these reasons many small horse rescue sanctuaries like Villa Chardonnay are unidated with horses that need immediate help. We cannot continue to take new horses without additional resources or our entire operation will go under. This is why we need immediate help to continue helping and caring for our babies that we have and for future babies who need our love, care and a home where they will not be shuffled from one place to another.
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Hope - Our latest effort, trying to save Hope, an emaciated 3 Year old fillie
Hope when she first arrived. After she went down in her stall, then while the vet and friends were here with us trying to save her for hours...
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She was tied to a fence post in Perris, alone, starving to death, and never received proper nutrition. She was small and undergrown, never would come to her full potential. We named her Hope, with all the hope in the world that she would survive and become a resident at Villa Chardonnay.
She arrived on a Tuesday morning May 17th after we received a phone call from a resident of Perris, near where she was tied to a fence. She did well for the first 24 hours and started to eat slowly. You have to start them slowly to eat as their systems are not used to the food.
After 24 hours she was down and struggling, we could not get her up. She was eating and drinking. Both us and the vet were hoping she was just exhausted and going to pull out of it. By afternoon we were giving her IV fluids, medications, stimulants and more trying to revive her. We had a crew of 7 trying to lift her in her stall and get her to stand up, for hours we tried. We succeeded once, and she stood for a few minutes but she could not sustain it.
We had to euthanize her at 1:00 am to relieve her suffering.
To take her to the hospital would cost a minimum of $2500, in fact you can't even check a horse into San Luis Rey Equine Hosptial without paying $2500 in advance. Monika, who was with Hope nearly every moment she was with us, was naturally devistated, as we all were. Please say a prayer for little Hope who suffered more than any animal or human should ever suffer, in her short 3 years on this earth.
DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO MORE HORSES - THEY DON'T DESERVE IT AND WE CAN HELP!
They were all homeless and headed for the slaughterhouse until they found a forever home at the sanctuary of Villa Chardonnay. Help us save more from the horrors of starvation or the slaughterhouse
Click this button to donate to our MEDICAL FUND using American Express, Visa and MC
Ziggy Continues to Improve - What a great patient!
DR. MANGAN says Ziggy is continuing to improve. We don't know if he is out of the woods yet, and we are praying for the best
Dr. Mangan continues to visit Ziggy about every week or two and perscribe medications. We can't than Dr. Mangan enough for all his generousity.
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The above photos show Ziggy at the . San Luis Rey Equine Hospital Ziggy is coming out of surgery and going into the recovery room. That's our big boy upside down on the padded gurnee. Then his is going into the recovery room. Next Dr. Mangan put in the lavage system which is a small tube going into his eyelid. This allows us to continue to give medication to Ziggy for the next 2 weeks while he is at home. Then finally Ziggy is in his stall at the hospital, sporting his new pirate eye patch...he starts to eat a little dinner!
Our Medical bills have been over $12,000 so far this year, last year we were at about $3,000 for the entire year. PLEASE HELP and Click this button to donate to our MEDICAL FUND using American Express, Visa and MC