Montana's Story

This is the beginning of the story of how we ended up with Montana. On November, 22nd, 2011, Will, River Glen's farm manager, was at a gas station paying for the diesel when the cashier asked, "Is that your horse trailer?" Will told her yes, she then said,"Do you want a horse." Will informed her that we have reached our max of 22 and did not need anymore. She went on to tell him that they had gotten an Irish Draft horse several weeks earlier and he was a really sweet horse but they had to keep him 15 miles from their house and that it had become more than what they had bargained. Will returned to the farm and told me and Cowboy Rick, our horse wrangle, what had occurred. I had just promised my husband no more horses, but I ask Will to go look at the horse the next day. Will and my grandson, Cory went to check the horse out. It was pouring down rain when they arrived at the field where this horse was being kept. Will called me and said, "Man, this horse is really a nice horse and he is gigantic, but he is so skinny." He went on to tell me that the small field was enclosed by three strands of barbed wire. Barbed wire is so very dangerous for a horse. I asked to speak to the owner. I asked the owner how old the horse was. He said that he was eight. I asked if he had Coggin's papers. He replied, " His what?", I said, "His Coggin's papers." He said, "Mame, I don't know what you're talking about". I proceeded to explain that any horse that is moved in a trailer in Kentucky has to have Coggin's papers on board. It is a law and anyone that gets stopped by an inspector from the agriculture department and doesn't have their Coggin's papers, may risk receiving a $20,000 fine.
He said he had never heard of that, that he and his buddies move horses all the time without any papers. Anyway, I told Will to go ahead and get the horse on the trailer and take him straight to the vet for worming and Coggin's blood work. I met Will and Cory on the way to the vet. Will pulled off the road so I could climb on board and check out Montana, When I saw him, my heart broke. He was soggy from the rain and his ribs were sticking out as well as his hip bones and I knew from looking at him he wasn't 8 years old. I rubbed his face and promised him that he was in good hands and that life was going to be better for him.
Will took Montana on to our vet, Dr. Murray, from Nash Cleaveland and Godfrey in Danvill, Ky. He looked at the horse and said that he was about 18 to 20 years old.
Due to the fact that we had just received four Friesians that needed a home at our farm the day before- two of which were stallions- we decided to board Montana at Meadow Lake Equestrian Center in Lancaster, Ky. until we got the Friesians settled in. Julie the trainer at Meadow Lake had been working with some of our horses and agreed to help us out. When Julie saw him she noticed lumps around his rectum, which she thought were skin cancer. We later found out that she was right,they were skin cancer, which is common in gray and white horse. Some forms of this cancer can be deadly but fortunately the vet said Montana could live another ten years with it. Montana also has a bad ankle. His ligaments are stretched and frayed which could lead to his canon bone pushing though his hoof. Julie felt that Montana was probably about three hundred and fifty pounds underweight. However, she told us that we would have to put it back on him gradually and that we will be walking a tight rope with his weight because too much weight may cause more problems with his ankle and even cause his suspensory ligaments to give out.

Montana's medical problem with his suspensory ligaments is in his right back ankle. His ankle is huge due to the scare tissue that has built up. The vet said that this is natures way of protecting the joint. We were hoping that it could be helped by surgery, but the vet from Rudd and Riddle felt his age, which he guessed at 20-23 was against him and that the surgery would be too hard on him. I ordered a special brace for horses with this problem but when we got it it was way too small. Since then I have ordered a yard of neoprene and am going to try and make him a customized brace. The vet has put him on pain medicine twice a day to help with the pain that this condition can cause. It seems to have helped him, he doesn't limp as badly as he did when we first got him. We don't know how long his suspensory ligaments will hold up.

We moved Montana to our farm, River Glen Farm and Retreat on February 1,2011. It was a rainy day and as we were unloading him he slipped backwards down the ramp and fell on his front knees. Will, Cowboy Rick, and myself all gasped in horror. To our amazement this tall lanky old boy quickly got back up on his feet without any injury. We put him in our birthing stall, which is a pretty big stall, we gave him some treats and we told him that he had finally made it to horse heaven. This stall has an open window in which horses can stick out their heads into the isle way to see what's going on. He is so big that when he stick his head out it almost reaches the center of the isle.

The next morning he had diarrhea, we called our vet, Dr. Murray, who came out to check him. By the time Dr. Murray arrived his diarrhea had stopped. He felt that the diarrhea was cause by stress from the move. Horse tend to get stress fairly easily by change.

Since we got Montana I was really curious about his history. This is what we have found out. The guy we had gotten him from gave us the name and phone number of the woman from whom he had gotten Montana. Will called her and she told him that she only had him for about two months, that she had bought him at the Paris Kentucky Horse Auction. When he was auctioned off the audience was told that at one time Montana sold for thirty thousand dollars and that he had been a champion dressage horse. (I guess this is his thanks for being a champion.) She said that she bought him for a hundred dollars and he was really skinny. She said that she got a little weight on him and then gave him to the people from whom we had gotten him. I can't help but think about the story of Black Beauty when I look at Montana, wondering what all he has been through before he found his way to us.

At River Glen we now have 23 horses. I have only actually bought six of them. Three of the mares I got were already pregnant. This accounts for nine horses of our 23 horses. The rest of them I have taken in because the owners could no longer care for them or the horse was sick and the owner was going to put them down with a bullet. One owner surrendered his colt to us because he couldn't afford to have the vet take care of him and was going to shoot the horse the next day. We took him to the vet but the infection in the horse's hoof was so advanced that he couldn't be saved. This beautiful yearly colt never made it to our farm, we ended up having to have him humanely euthanized at the vets.

Taking care of a healthy horse cost a pretty penny but taking care of a pregnant, sick, or old horse can be extremely expensive. We cannot turn our backs on these magnificent animals who through no fault of their own are thrown away or mistreated and neglected. It has come to the point that financially I cannot do it on my own anymore. We need help to take care of Montana and any future horses that we come across who needs our help. Any donation is appreciated. We also welcome volunteers to come to our farm and help us with the care of the horses.
We are located in Harrodsburg, KY. If you are interested in coming to the farm reach me on Facebook, or e-mail me at gemmaziegler@hotmail.com