***** ***** ***** *****

The following is a story with a very happy ending, but not before horror for all involved.

On Saturday, March 18, 1994, Stacy Nichols (Sunlit Farm Owner/Trainer/Manager) had a lengthy telephone conversation with Linda Moss of Equus Horse Rescue and Sanctuary about the following day's Kavanagh Arabian Auction Sale in Pomona, California. Plans were made to attend the sale, and the next morning Stacy anxiously headed for the nearby Los Angeles County Fairgrounds, where the auction was to take place. At nearly the end of the sale, a petite bay Purebred Arabian mare was presented in the sale ring under saddle.

Clearly traumatized, the young mare trotted nervously to the chanting of the auctioneer. She was a late entry, and was not included in the sale catalog, so no one but the few folks left and her consignor even knew she was there. As the bidding started slowly, Stacy watched the mare's graceful and elegant carriage, looking through the coarse, unhealthy coat and poorly trimmed mane, only to see a horse which revealed a possible penchant for the English Pleasure division. She was intrigued by the young mare, but had been instructed by husband Steve not to bid on a horse. When the gavel fell, the poor little horse has been purchased by Mr. Leonard Grenier, a known California horse dealer who routinely sold horses into the slaughter trade to be consumed by wealthy Europeans and Japanese who relish horsemeat. All for the sum of $400.

. . . .

Click here to view Angel's pedigree

Following the conclusion of the sale, Stacy wandered through the barns, peering in at the many horses who had exchanged hands that day, most of which were going to new loving families and would get on with their lives. That could not be said for "Angel" and the several others who had been bought by those men termed "the killers". The sad, horrific fate of those trusting horses would soon be realized. At Angel's stall, Stacy stopped and took a moment to speak to the frightened mare.

"I am so, so sorry for where you are going....but there's nothing I can do, sweetie," she said. "I only wish I could take you home!" Then she walked off into the cold, and headed for home.

The next morning, the telephone rang at a little before seven o'clock, with a frantic Linda Moss on the other end of the line.

"Stacy, they got six horses, and I think we have homes for five of them...but there's this little bay mare..." The "they" Linda was referring to were the meat buyers, and this told Stacy there was a distinct possibility one of the horses would be lost to the slaughterhouse if no one intervened on her behalf. Over the course of their conversation, Linda began to tell Stacy a bit of the history behind the bay mare, and recited her pedigree. She also asked if Stacy might know of someone, ANYONE, who might be able to step forward and save the sweet bay horse. The more she pondered the mare's pedigree and recalled what she had seen of her potential at the auction, the more determined Stacy became that the little bay mare would become hers -- but ahead lay the obstacle of getting her husband to agree to buying yet another horse. The challenge of a lifetime!

One of the most frightening turns taken in this story was that prior to Stacy's getting involved, the mare was but hours away from being hauled off to become an unwilling participant in the most cruel of equine "sporting" events -- the Mangana, or Horse Tripping events, of a Mexican Rodeo (Charreada), now illegal in the State of California. It took a great many telephone calls, promises and hours of persuasion, but upon returning from the Grenier ranch that afternoon where she met up with her good friend Katherine who looked over the horses with her, Stacy had negotiated to purchase the lovely bay mare for $600. She was not too tall, but not small, either. Lovely, well put together, and boy could she move (which was hard for her to do, seeing as how her hooves were all at different lengths and angles). Frustrated that once again the horse-trading "killer" was making $200 on a horse in a matter of a couple of days, Stacy was none-the-less relieved that she would be taking the mare home....for good.

Slowly, very slowly was Angel brought into condition as Stacy and the family gained her trust, which had been shattered due to her ordeal. She has a large scar on her left front fetlock which turns out to be the result of carelessness on the part of one of her owners. She had been tied to a fence with large gaping holes in it, and being an impatient young horse she had begun pawing her forefoot at the fence. Her foot became stuck, and the owner had left her there to fight against the fence in fear, to "teach her a lesson".

With a great deal of investigating, they discovered this lovely mare had been donated to a local Southern California University's Equine Program for a tax donation, then sold to a student at the school. As a two year old, Angel had been offered for sale as an English Pleasure prospect for the sum of $7,500 in the Arabian "glossies" (magazines)...Ironically, the student who had bought her and, indeed, consigned her to the ill-fated auction lived mere minutes away from the Nichols family home. Upon learning of her fate and that she had been rescued from the clutches of slaughter, the young girl was relieved. Sadly, the reaction of her breeders was not the same. Angel is but one of thousands of "throwaway horses" bred and disposed of every year in this country.

 

Today, Angel is a show horse and a broodmare, a mother and a friend. Most of all, she is a treasured member of a family that loves her, and will see that she never again has to endure the abuse or neglect she has suffered, or the terror involved in winding up at a sale barn and sent to an uncertain fate -- likely certain death.

 

Copyright 2011 © Sunlit Farm Arabians/Sunlit Farm Training Services/Stacy Nichols - All Rights Reserved