Local women foster hungry horses, now looking for homes for horses
Berl Tiskus
An underweight King’s ribs show, and he’s covered with bites and kicks.
Berl Tiskus
Hardly looking like the same horse, King, left, hangs with a pal near Ronan.
Berl Tiskus
Vixen as a skinny, malnourished filly.
Berl Tiskus
Vixen sleeps in a sunny patch, above, and looks nothing like the skinny, malnourished filly she was.
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RONAN — The skinny palomino filly’s hipbones, backbone and ribs all stuck out. The horse kept her head down, and Bonnie Albrich didn’t know if the 3-year-old would live, since she was so malnourished.
Albrich wasn’t looking for a skinny horse; she just wanted a saddle horse so she could ride with her son and daughter-in-law on their land east of Ronan. Albrich met a person who had some horses to give away so she and her daughter-in-law, Telissa Bissell, went to take a look at them.
The young palomino mare was one of more than 20 horses in a lot foraged down to bare dirt. The horses were so hungry they were eating tree limbs and digging out stump roots to gnaw on.
The owner just wanted to get rid of them, so Albrich kept picking out horses to take home.
A big, gray horse threw his head over Albrich’s shoulder and won her heart. Eventually she and Bissell ended up with 12 horses, including the palomino filly, which they took to their 30 acres. They were feeding the horses hay even before they finally got the paperwork straightened out in November.
One buckskin gelding, Prince, had a wire cut on his back leg so they hauled him directly to the veterinarian. Albrich and Bissel are still doctoring Prince’s wound. He can move well, and the leg is healing.
All the horses are doing fine now — “fat and sassy,” Albrich said.
The palomino filly even has a little bit of a tummy.
The hay, vet bills and farrier charges cost thousands of dollars, but Albrich was willing to go without luxuries to keep the animals. Albrich and Bissell put donation containers at local vet clinics so people who were so inclined could help them out. People were generous, Albrich said.
What worries Albrich is the nonchalant attitude many people have when they decide to get a horse. Some people with an acre of land decide they can keep a horse on that alone, and not have to buy any hay or grain.
She wants to make sure people do their homework before they buy or adopt a horse.
Horses are beautiful and loving animals, but a 1,000-pound horse needs at least a half per horse each day, or sufficient pasture if they’re out in a field. They also drink five to 10 gallons of water daily. Then, of course, a horse needs hooves trimmed, needs worming, needs vaccinations, etc.
While she understands people sometimes lose their jobs and can’t afford to care for their animals, she asks folks to look for someone who will take care of the animals instead of just letting them starve.
Now that the horses have recovered, Albrich would like to find them all good homes. Well, most of them. The big grey and the buckskin will stay with Albrich.
She’s figuring out which horses are broke to ride — and which ones aren’t — and has the bruises and aches to prove it.
Her dream is to start a horse rescue with funds so she can save more equines.
“I’m an animal lover. I rescue dogs, cats and horses,” Albrich said.
