Re: Gusto is home! (long)

[avpinc@bellsouth.net]

Dear Heidi,
    Thank you for a wonderful and inspiring story.  Congratulations on
bringing your lost boy home.  He is a lucky horse and will have a
well-deserved, and wonderful life, no doubt.  It is heartwarming to
hear of a happy ending and of your (and the other's) diligence and
concern in bringing this situation to a speedy and happy closing.
I'm very, very happy for you both.
                                                            Linda
P.S.  If I can donate any of our products to help with Gusto's full
recovery to health and happiness, please let me know.  You have
my number.

CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com wrote:

> Ten days ago, a post appeared on ridecamp (the endurance list) from someone
> named Michelle Eddy (someone I don't even know) forwarding the plight of an
> Arabian stallion in a feedlot in California awaiting slaughter.  Imagine my
> shock and horror when I scrolled down and discovered that the horse in
> question was Aya Gusto, a wonderful colt that I was responsible for breeding,
> that I had foaled out, and who I had no idea was in danger of being sold into
> such dire straits!
>
> Gusto's story began long before his conception.  I was trying to gather a
> group of good mares to breed to the stallion Argonaut, who came to central
> Oregon at a very advanced age, hence was not likely to be around for a lot of
> years.  I contacted a very good friend of mine in southern California who had
> a group of mares he was willinig to lease to me, including Gusto's dam Aya
> Augusta (Aurab x Tueyma).  This mare was particularly special to me for
> several reasons, one being that she was the daughter of the only full sister
> to my foundation stallion Surrabu, and one being that she was one of the
> kindest, nicest mares I have ever had the privilege to know.  She had been
> through a rough life--she had suffered founder from a retained placenta, and
> then had been mistakenly confined, with the thought that she would do herself
> more damage if she were free to exercise.  Consequently, when she came here,
> she was a bit on the unlovely side, with poor muscle tone, underweight, and in
> dire need of foot care.  Still, the hand that life had dealt her did not alter
> the fact that she was an absolutely lovely mare in her day, nor did it change
> the quality of her genetics.  Augusta also had some problems producing Gusto;
> because of her age she suffered from a condition called uterine insufficiency,
> and Gusto was born with badly contracted tendons.  He also nearly did not get
> born; his nose hooked on his mother's pelvic brim during delivery, and I was
> fortunate to be able to grab hold of it and get it pointed out before
> contractions drove his head further down and out of reach.  He spent two days
> in leg braces before he could stand on his own, and one of the braces slipped
> off of its padding briefly and cut his foot, leaving a scar on his coronet
> band.  Still, he was a dandy colt, and a real sweetie--I felt fortunate to
> have produced him and to have gotten him up and going, and he never seemed to
> look back once he got through his immediate troubles at birth.  Four of the
> mares from this lease had foals by Argonaut; as part of the lease, I was able
> to keep two, and two returned to the owner of the mares in southern
> California.  Gusto was one of the two who went back.  Both his owner and I
> agreed that he was stallion quality, and I expected to be able to breed to him
> at some point on down the road.  I was startled when his owner sold him as a
> three-year-old to a woman in Escondido--I had seen him a few times and he was
> growing up nicely.  The owner was trying to regroup his program somewhat,
> though, and felt secure that the colt had gone to a good home.  That was the
> last I had heard of Gusto until I saw the horrible post on ridecamp.
>
> Needless to say, the keyboard started humming here!  I contacted Gail Garrett
> (whose post Michelle had forwarded) and was eventually routed to RoseAnn Nemes
> of Arabian Horse Rescue Network.  It has been a real privilege to work with
> RoseAnn over the past ten days to get Gusto rescued, and I have come to admire
> her hard work and professionalism.  Normally, it is RoseAnn's policy to geld
> stallions that she rescues, which I applaud.  (Lord knows there are plenty of
> good geldings out there masquerading as stallions!)  However, RoseAnn was
> impressed with Gusto and really did her homework checking into his background.
> She found folks that I have never heard of (as well as several who I know) who
> told her that Gusto's CMK lines were being preserved by many of us, and not to
> be in a big hurry to geld this boy if she could place him in the right hands.
> I will be eternally grateful to those folks for their advice to her.  I was
> also impressed at how carefully RoseAnn checks out her adoptive homes.  If you
> are not already acquainted with what this lady does, check her out at her web
> site (www.ahrn.org).  She works on a pretty tight budget, and can always use
> donations.
>
> To make a long story short, I just returned home from a 2000-mile round trip
> to bring Gusto home for good.  He is a bit thin and has a case of ringworm
> around one eye, but otherwise does not seem too much the worse for wear.  (I
> found out during my various e-mail and telephone conversations that his
> odyssey started approximately two months ago when he went through a sale in
> Pomona; he later went through another sale in Bakersfield before ending up at
> the lot where RoseAnn was eventually able to rescue him.)  He is friendly and
> was definitely looking for a person; about the third time I climbed up on the
> fender well to check on him, I started to see "ears" and recognition,
> beginning to hope that perhaps I would be a permanent fixture that he could
> depend on.  He is a gentleman, hauled well, ate and drank well in the trailer,
> and is at this moment chowing down in my isolation paddock.  (RoseAnn
> forewarned me that the feedlot where he was is notorious for strangles, so he
> will stay isolated until he is past the incubation period--we will all keep
> our fingers crossed, but he seems healthy other than his ringworm.)  He even
> seemed grateful for the attention when I stopped at a drug store on the way
> home for a tube of miconazole to start treating the ringworm--must have felt
> good having it applied!
>
> I owe a debt of gratitude to Michelle and Gail, who I have never met but whose
> posts brought Gusto's plight to my attention, as well as to RoseAnn for
> helping me get this wonderful horse back where he belongs.
>
> Heidi Smith, DVM--Sagehill Arabians (Oregon)