Sugar’s Page
Special thanks to Corbin Dowling! She reached out with compassion and made this rescue possible!
Initial visit with owner 11/24/2019 |
Sugar is a sorrel grade mare, reported to be around 20 years old. Sugar’s owner decided to rehome her and at the urging of a neighbor (Corbin Dowling), Whisper Ranch was contacted. On Nov. 24th, we went to talk with the owners, meet Sugar and her pasture mate a paint mare, Sadie Mae. |
Day 1 at Whisper Ranch 12/2/2019 |
Sugar on her first day as a Whisper Ranch horse. She is enjoying the never-ending food she finds before her! The only time she leaves the hay feeder is when we bring out feed! Given how emaciated she is, it is important that we go slowly with any feed other than hay. Starved horses fed too much too fast can get quite sick and actually die. We are feeding her small amounts every four hours and monitoring her carefully. |
Day 5 at Whisper Ranch 12/7/2019 |
Sugar on day 5 enjoying one of her feedings. This little girl trots over, ears perked up, nickering and excited when she sees one of us come out. Sometimes we are not there to feed and its hard to have to tell her, “Sorry sweet girl, its not time yet.” In just 5 days, you can see the filling out of her underbelly. It is interesting to note that when skinny horses start to put on weight, it always seems that they “fill” from the bottom up! The belly first (at this point it’s not “fat”, it’s her internal organs plumping up from plenty of food), then moving up to the shoulders, butt and neck. The topline (along her back) will be the last to fill in. This is a good sign! |
Day 18 at Whisper Ranch 12/20/2019 |
Sugar at almost 3 weeks. The vet was out to check her …she has no apparent issues, just needs a balanced and plentiful diet. She has hay available 24/7 in addition to three feedings a day of a mixture of soaked timothy hay pellets, beet pulp and copra and specific nutritional supplements. Sugar continues to slowly gain weight and her hair is growing back in the bald spots, and getting thicker overall. |
8 weeks at Whisper Ranch 1/25/2020 |
Sugar at 8 weeks. Our girl continues to do very well. She is steadily gaining weight and starting to relax and realize that food will always be there. When she came here, she didn’t have enough nutrition to even grow a winter coat…now she has a nice thick one! She even feels good enough to take the occasional run around her pasture, kicking up her heels, tail held high! |
5 months at Whisper Ranch 4/2/2020
Sugar at 5 months. |
Spring is here and Sugar is shedding out quickly which is a good sign of an improved nutritional status. However, because she had significant rain rot when she first came, and we can guess she had it for a long time before she came to us, she is “shedding ugly.” What we mean by that is she is shedding unevenly, leaving bald patches where her skin was most damaged from the rain rot. The white you see on her withers and shoulders in these pictures is a zinc oxide healing ointment that we make here. It both protects her bare skin from the sun and helps her skin continue to recover from past damage.
We are very pleased with her progress. She more than half way to regaining her full weight and she seems content, even happy. It is heart warming to hear her deep nicker every time she sees one of us.
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 Getting some lovin’
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What do you think folks? Isn’t she a beauty? She is just as gentle and loving as she is beautiful. We knew she was a lovely little mare in spite of her emaciated condition when she came to us and she has certainly proved us right! |
