Buddy.. the antique pony

Buddy was another "find" from Craigslist, The ad showed a very thin sad looking old pony, and stated he was looking for his "forever" home....


It is pretty sad that this pony gave all these years of his life to different families, and he got kicked to the curb, and at age 35 (so my vet thinks) ....has to finally find his "forever" home.

The people we got him from, said they "rescued" him. They presented this story about how they had actually looked at him the previous winter when he was listed on Craigslist (and supposedly was much thinner than when we got him from these "rescuers"..).but they found him again 6-8 months later, after 2 different other owners...what???


Well, I guess I am as big a sucker as any other person who comes across some poor forlorn animal. My daughter and her Family were going to have Buddy as their first "livestock" as my son- in-law said. They were excited, the kids were excited, we even celebrated Buddy's arrival home!


I had fields of grass, and we slowly got him out on them, and Buddy was truly in pony heaven...it was an absolute delight to see him run in my fields. Than he foundered. If you are not a horse person, just so you know..this is not good! For you folks that are horse folks, you know how bad that is! My vet said, oh... he has probably been foundered before.

OK, so maybe others would have seen the handwriting on the wall at that point, and let him go.. but I just wasn't ready to do that.

About $1000.00 in vet bills later, he was feeling a bit better. We also had him tested for Cushings Disease,(which is like diabetes for horses), and common in older ponies. Yes, add this to the list too! The medicine for this runs about $300 a year.

So we have old Buddy, the antique pony. He cannot go out on the grassy fields, and has to be in his (fairly large) grass free paddock, being fed Senior Feed (he barely has teeth!) and cannot have hay with alfalfa, so he gets the pricey orchard grass hay. One good thing has recently happened. I got a new horseshoer who donates his trimming of Buddy's feet. God bless that man!!

We honestly don't know how much longer he will be with us, but I am pretty certain... he has found his "forever" home.

Ps.. I have never had a horse get a winter coat as thick as this old boy gets.. he is like the "woolly mammoth"!