Zac was one of Jill’s inspirations to start Manes &
Danes of Maine. At his previous home, Zach injured someone very badly, and as a
result, they didn’t want him anymore. To get rid of him, they dumped him him in
Jill’s driveway. Though Jill herself had been severely injured by a horse not
long before, she took Zach in anyways. She had her veterinarian ride him first
and he loved Zach. After that, Jill started riding and training him. Today,
Zach is being leased by a 13 year old girl and is living a happy life at Manes & Danes of Maine.
Strawberry was rescued by one of the girls who works in our barn. Strawberry was injured by machinery at her previous home. It was the second time she’d injured herself on one of the tractor blades. When she came to us, all of her wounds had healed, but her scars were still pretty new. Now that she's at Manes & Danes, she’s doing really well. When she first got here she wasn’t riding or doing much of anything, and now she rides and she jumps, walks, trots, canters, and does trail rides.
Biscuit
When Biscuit arrived, it was nearly impossible for us to approach due to the neglect and abuse he'd experienced. There is a scar on his neck from being chained to a tree on
either side of him. He was there for three weeks without food, water, or
shelter. In addition to this blatant neglect, he was beaten daily with a
shovel. Finally somebody noticed and they took him away. He’s still nervous, but
when he first arrived, you couldn’t walk up to him without him shaking his head
up and trying to bite you. Today, he’s still a little on edge if he
doesn’t know you, but he lets you come in and pat him. Biscuit used to be very
aggressive about his stall and his surroundings, but that's no longer the case for this handsome boy.
Leon
Leon is a racetrack rescue. He jumped pretty well when first came here. I had originally gotten him for dressage, but he had other plans. When he first got here, Leon decided to jump a four food fence, so we learned pretty quickly that he likes jumping. Though
he is now in a loving environment, Leon still is in the habit of cribbing, a
compulsive behavior of sucking or chewing on solid objects. In Leon’s
case, he bites on the wood edges of his stall. The habit is common in racetrack
horses, and it comes from being kept in the stall for too much time. Currently, Leon is jumping
over smaller fences (as he doesn’t like to stop after jumping the big ones) as
well as walking, trotting, and cantering.
Bear
Bear is believed to be a Palomino cross. He was an owner-surrender. He belonged to an older lady who had bought him for her children. Eventually, her children grew up and left the house and his owner brought him to Jill. At first, Bear would buck anyone who rode him, but today, his demeanor is calmer and he's doing much better.
Bear is believed to be a Palomino cross. He was an owner-surrender. He belonged to an older lady who had bought him for her children. Eventually, her children grew up and left the house and his owner brought him to Jill. At first, Bear would buck anyone who rode him, but today, his demeanor is calmer and he's doing much better.
Rosie
Rosie is a two year old Premarin foal. Because she’s still
young, there is not much we can do with her in terms of training except for
lunging and brushing. We’ve nicknamed her the “Burdock Queen”
because she likes to get in the prickly burdocks. So she’s learning to be
brushed a lot. We don’t think she’s going to be a big horse, so along with her
sweet, personable personality, her size will make for a good child’s horse. For
now, we have some more experienced kids who can work with her.
Domino
Domino was another inspirational rescue. He came from a dealer. Though we don’t know what they did to him, it took Jill two years to actually lead Domino. Now we can turn him in and turn him out. Certain individuals can ride him and he knows how to walk, trot, and jump x’s. He’s very afraid of making a mistake. Domino is still a young pony and is expected to live a long time, so we're taking our time to train him at his pace.
Domino was another inspirational rescue. He came from a dealer. Though we don’t know what they did to him, it took Jill two years to actually lead Domino. Now we can turn him in and turn him out. Certain individuals can ride him and he knows how to walk, trot, and jump x’s. He’s very afraid of making a mistake. Domino is still a young pony and is expected to live a long time, so we're taking our time to train him at his pace.
Zen
Zen was another one of our inspirational rescues. Zen came from a dealer. We brought a
bunch of kids out to learn what to look for when they buy a horse. He was in
the kill pen, and though the children didn't know that, they loved him because of his beautiful, white color. Due to neglect, Zen had a
severe cut on the tendon on his left hind leg, and it was swollen all the way
up to his hock. He was lame and the people in charge let all the children there ride him. Of course, he was
wonderful with everyone. With the money we’d saved to go to Fun Town Splash Town, we bought Zen at the kids' request. Not only did he inspire Manes & Danes of Maine, but he also
inspired Jill to work with the kids and the horses together.
Smudge
Smudge, an Appaloosa, was starved along with another horse.
Like the stereotypical Appaloosa horse, Smudge is stubborn and pushy. When he
first arrived, we couldn’t get on his back because he'd run us into walls. Very naughty. Now he’ll do walking and trotting, and we’re continuing to work on cantering
and ground polls. Though he’s still stubborn, he’s doing quite well. We're very proud of Smudge.
Buddy
Buddy was an owner-surrender. His owners were moving to
Florida. Though he had had some training, he used to be a carriage horse. Even though our intent is for Buddy to be a child's horse, he still is learning to go slowly. We’re currently working on cantering and jumping over the x’s.
Farrah
Farrah belonged to a friend of Jill’s. Her owner
found herself in a financial situation in which she could no longer take care
of Farrah and had to re-home her. Farrah’s new home turned out to be neglectful.
So she found her another. The second home ended up not wanting Farrah, so Jill
went to New Hampshire to retrieve her. Upon arrival, Farrah's condition was. She had lost much of her hair, and was skin and bones. In addition, we feared that she was pregnant. Fortunately, she ended up not being pregnant. Today, in
Jill’s words, “Farrah is fat and has lots of fur.”
