The Story of Faith and Hope

    In August 2007, Bert and I agreed to take 2 fillies from a lady in SC who could no longer care for them.  We met the 2 girls on Friday August 10, 2007 in the field in SC where they had been running loose for some time.  One filly is a lovely chestnut and the other is a chestnut with a flaxen mane and tail.  One filly had a halter on that was terribly small and had grown into her jaw.  Both girls were terrified of people and were a bit on the thin side.  They did have some grass in their pasture but they needed real groceries in order to grow up to be what they should be.  Their feet were horrific with the darker fillies feet being the worst and she limps.  We lured them into a round pen with some feed and then loaded them right out of the pen and into the trailer.  Once in the trailer we removed the halter from the flaxen tailed filly.  The halter had grown into her jaws and it hurt when it came off but she was soooo good about it.  We then headed home with "the girls" .

    Upon arriving home, we backed up to the round pen and prepared to treat the one fillies face.  We placed a mare collar around her neck so that we could hold her to treat her.  She stood like a champ in that trailer while we reached in and cleaned and treated her wounds.  The wound on the off side of her face was well over an inch long and went all the way to the bone.  The one on the near side was as long but not quite as deep.  The one on her chin wasn't to bad after it was cleaned.  We put Farnam's Tri-Care on all the wounds (I LOVE that stuff!) and then let the girls out into the round pen.  They jumped out and checked out their new surroundings.  They hit the water first and drank and drank and drank.  Water dribbled from their mouths as they walked over to the hay.  The darker filly shoved her head into the middle of the hay and wasn't coming out.  The lighter filly quickly followed her. 

    As Bert and I stood standing there looking at them he asked me if I had any names for them.  I said no as I hadn't really thought that far ahead.  He said that he wanted to name the darker filly "Hope" as she looked at him during the trailer loading with hope in her eyes that their situation was headed in a better direction.  I told him that I thought that was perfect and that it gave me a perfect name for the other filly.   "Faith"

    As I write this on August 19, 2007 Faith and Hope have been here for 9 days and have already gained 100 pounds each.  Faith loves to have her face rubbed and comes easily now for some loving.  Hope is coming along but definitely slower than Faith.  That's OK with us though.  We have time. 

    Each filly is currently receiving 1 scoop of 12% alfalfa based pellets with lots of good quality hay.  Both fillies were very wormy and we have had to use feed through wormer as neither filly is thrilled about you handling their faces and we don't want to push things to quickly for them.  They will be bumped up to 2 scopps gradually as they can handle it. 

Cost of rehabbing a neglected horse: 

Sept 2007

Faith and Hope are improving by the day!  Hope let us catch her and start the farrier work on her pitiful feet.  Oh they must have hurt but she was very very good.  We will continue to work with the girls in hopes of them finding a forever home soon. 

Sept 2008

Wow a year since I wrote anything.  Faith and Hope are in a new home and they are TOGETHER!  Gordon that I work with and his lovely wife have adopted them both and adore them greatly.  Both girls are loved on daily and have bloomed into the wonderful young ladies that we knew they could be.  Faith's Face bears little scarring and both girls are now fat and happy.  We appreciate all the kindness of the wonderful people that rallied around these 2 sweet girls and helped save their lives.  MAY GOD BLESS YOU!