Dulcie’s Story

I am posting this story about my horse, Dulcie, here. I spend so much time thinking about all the horse rescuers and their situations….. This was one of my own experiences, and it continues…..  

Two years ago, I struck a bargain with someone about a horse. I told a story, I shmoozed to get what I wanted- which  was the nearly dead Mustang mare he had in a little corral. I saw her from the road, observed her utter loneliness and despair, and just did what I needed to do…….. tresspass, and confront.  I played the dumb blonde card to distract him.  I left with a written agreement that, in exchange for him bringing her to my home, she was mine for $600.00.  With no horse-trailer and her completely uncatchable, untouchable, I had no hope of walking her the 4 miles home and I didn’t think she would make it, if I tried. I made calls, trying to get someone to help me get my hands on her myself so that dreadful man would never have to attempt to. I came up empty-handed. I thought about having a vet come and dart her, but then what? Drag her into the trailer? I was pretty sure she would not survive  anesthesia. I prayed for her protection, called on her Warrior Angels to hold her up, and let him trailer her to my place through whatever means it took. He said he could do it. It was the only hope she was ever going to have. I went home and got things ready for her, trapping the other horses for the time being. When Dulcie arrived at my place she almost fell out of the trailer.  She wandered, unsteady on her feet. I’m sure her ride over was hellish for her as weak as she was. I think she survived on  a prayer that sustained her while she worked her way into my little herd of horses, nibbled on a little grass hay, and sipped some cool water. When she got down on the ground to rest, ignoring the caution any horse would have in a new environment, she slept and slept. I didn’t know if she was going to get up. I put her in God’s hands.It was hard to get up in the morning, so great was my dread that she had given up during the night. I tentatively looked out the window, and I counted horses….one, two, three, four…five! She was up, and she was standing with Monet, our Arabian gelding, who was being very solicitous towards her. I was and continue to be very grateful to him for giving her the emotional support she needed to begin to heal her mind, as well as her body. She looked so small. When I saw her from the road I thought I was seeing a yearling, but she was 3 years old. So emaciated, so filthy.A herd environment was obviously exactly what she needed. Eat, sleep, run, buck. Sanctuary, solice, and peace, with the occasional adrenalin-rush of bolting en masse and thundering across the field in response to real or imagined threats in the neighborhood.  Their digestion is excellent, the adrenaline from time to time helps them stay healthy! It very much mimicked the wild life she had known once, free nibbles of grass round the clock if she wanted, and her new friends. I can’t provide miles of daily wandering for my horses, but they’ve got it pretty good. Two Mustangs, an Arabian, a devastatingly gorgeous white-maned chocolate palomino 14 hh mare, and one devil of a P.O.A .  He is a  brilliant problem child, adopted after being a bottle-fed baby and utterly spoiled. Very orally-fixated. He will pick up a stick and poke the other horses with it when they are rolling or resting.  He does try their patience.

Dulcie has blossomed into quite a beauty ( though my view may be filtered through eyes of love). Maybe 200 pounds later, she is healthy, a perfect weight, her coat dazzlingly shiny in the sun. She is the color of coffee with a tad of cream and has a dorsal stripe and leg barring, bi-colored mane (blue-black, and medium brown) and even some striping on her neck. She has a snip, a star, and white pasterns in the back, with ermine spots on the white. None of the stripes show up well in photos, but in person, they tantalize me. I find the primitive markings very exciting. Both my Mustangs are primitive-marked. I am an artist, I paint lots of horses, and the primitive-look really lends itself to art. It seems exotic and fascinating. I want to touch this mare, to groom her, stroke and admire and croon to her. She has completely stolen my heart, but she won’t let me show it. I am greatly frustrated, unrequited. I am pitiful in my need to touch her. It feels like a rare and precious gift to occasionally be granted the extreme priviledge of running my hand down her neck. She looks at me with eyes that are pure and sweet and receptive…… for a minute. I have to remind myself that this is the same mare who tried to remove my face last year. She is very fearful and unsure, but we have established a rappore that works for us for now. I am without a round-pen and with fencing that Dulcie, a jumper, would simply pop over if she were crowded into a corner. My taming of her is completely in accordance with her decisions about trust and approachability, that, and my persistence. If I use the advance and retreat mode long enough, she will at last turn and walk to me. Victory! And sweet it is. My goal for now is simply to be able to put a halter on her if the need arises. I don’t leave halters on, so it is going to have to be a repeatable activity. As for her feet, they are rock hard of course, and though long, they are in acceptable condition. Foot care comes after haltering. In two years, she has kept her pretty feet worn well enough, thankfully. In two years, she has gone from snort and run to considering including me in her immediate circle.

I’m waiting right now for a barefoot-trimmer to come work on all the horses, maybe by the time he comes, Dulcie can be included. That is part of my over-all goal. Natural hooves with mustang-rolled edges, grass hay only, a herd dynamic, and the simple joy of burying my face in their manes. When the day comes that Dulcie lets me do that, I will have come full-circle back to the way my life with horses began so long ago. I hugged the neck of a horse named Lynn Allen, my first and everlasting love. His mane glinted in the sun the way a raven’s wing does. Dulcie’s is like that too.

   

Just another blogging animal painter

Following the excellent advice I received at the Internet Entrepreneur’s Club, I have started this blog as a place to talk about things that matter alot to me and that I hope to soon have a specialized website to help inform and promote the ways that animal rescue organizations can explore and optimize their fundraising capabilities.  I have been involved in this field for some time as an eBay powerseller selling original animal art with nearly every auction contributing to various animal charities. I do this on my own and also within my affiliation with the eBay group, Art for Critters”. A4C’s sole purpose is to hold animal art auctions for animal charities. I am so very proud of my membership with them.  And what beautiful art they produce! 

I have the occasion to be in contact with many animal rescue people. They  frequently seem to be at an impasse about methods to acquire funds for their needs.  I also notice a little bit of short-sightedness,  a reluctance to be open to possibilities. But I understand what that hesitancy is –  the only thing that really holds people back from trying something, even if it sounds positive and it’s even being offered for free, is lack of knowledge and therefore a lack of confidence about making a decision. I read a book once by a religious leader, his name will come to me, and it was called “Possibility Thinking”. I made me realize that that is a good label for me, I really am a possibility thinker!  I’m so open to good ideas, if anything, a few probably fall out due to overcrowding!  For example, many rescue groups have highly useful images on their sites, that could be used to garner attention and money, used the right way. And one right way, is to allow a good artist (like me) to create art from those images and use that art in an auction on eBay that calls attention to the charitable cause. But there is more…. much much more……. and I will begin to address those things with each visit here.  Do you have questions? Knowledge to input? I’d love to hear from you. My purpose here is to help animal rescuers, both individuals and groups, be able to do an even better job because they have more financial support.  Oh, and in case you are wondering, yes I am one of those people, and I do have an animal  sanctuary that I own with my grown daughter. It is called The Promise Animal Sanctuary, and we are filing papers to become not-for-profit.  We support it through our own work, with very little outside assistance. This month, vet bills are high.  We know how it is to be in the situation many rescuers are in.  Let’s brainstorm, shall we? I’ve learned some answers and I know you have some too.  Remember……  this is an abundant universe and there is unlimited financial abundance out there.   All “It” needs is for the light to be held up so it knows where to go. We can help put up the signposts too.