Lilly came to us very sick.  She was born with systemic yeast.  She has a corneal ulcer, sores on her skin and mouth.  Her hooves are in awful condition and so are her ligaments. She lived in a small stall on concrete laying in her own waste.  She has urine scald on her skin as well as having hooves so overgrown that it was impossible to walk.

She will have to have her hooves trimmed every 2 weeks.  She is still on milk and we are teaching her how to use her legs and eat solid foods since she does not have a mom to teach her.

There have been a lot of questions as to why the new baby that we rescued has no mom. We were skeptical to post this info. But, we believe that people don’t truly understand all that goes on behind the scenes of many industries. So here’s a story for ya.

Reba is what is called a “nurse mare foal or junk foal”

What is that you ask?

Female racehorses can give birth to one foal per year. Once she gives birth to her racehorse foal, a mare/mother is transported to a stallion to be bred for the next season. Her foal is considered too valuable to endanger in transportation, so another mare is brought in to be a wet nurse to the racehorse foal that has been left without a mother and subsequently, the valuable milk it needs to thrive. These nurse mares are called "junk mares." She is only bred to produce milk for the racehorse foal. Her own foal – known as a “junk foal” - is left to starve to death or is "bumped" on the head with a hammer to kill it. Unlike the PMU* foals who live with their mothers and nurse for four months, the Nurse Mare foals are rescued when they are only hours or days old and are even more vulnerable than their PMU* forebears…

The Nurse Mare foals are essentially orphaned when their mothers are taken from them. Their needs are great. They are so small you can hold them in your lap; they have tiny little hooves with an imprint smaller than the palm of your hand. Given the chance they will suckle on your fingers hoping for milk to flow. Without a mother, they do not receive the immunity in her milk to protect them. Without a mother they do not receive her teaching about social skills. Without a mother they do not receive her warmth and nurturing, the feeling of safety that she gives, that all babies cling to.

*PMU mares are a different thing as well.

The drugs used as a hormone replacement therapy aids for women rely on PMU. This pharmaceutical is derived from chemicals found in the urine of pregnant mares.

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To produce these medications, mares are impregnated, surrounded by a pulley system and normally kept in cramped stalls that measure approximately 8 feet long, by 3 1/2 feet wide, by 5 feet high. The mares are confined for seven out of eleven months of gestation and get about 30 minutes of exercise a day. The mares give birth to their foals in pastures during late April, May, June and July. There is a stallion in each pasture, and the mares are generally re-bred on the foal heat. In September, they are herded into the barns where there is just a pipe panel between mares. A pulley system surrounds them, with a capture container feeding the urine to large vats. Pregnant mares go into the barns, foals go to the feedlots.

So there you have it.

Makes me so sad just thinking about it.

There are many rescue organizations across the US that take these foals in and adopt them out once they are ready.

Our amazing Whisper was what you would call a junk mare or a brood mare. She was simply used for breeding and remained constantly pregnant. Her goals were taken from her right after birth. And when she was too old to breed again, she was discarded on the side of the freeway.