BEHS 267 – Lindy

Lindy came to the rescue on Friday, June 6. The sheriff’s office called us to request help. On officer went out on a neglect complaint and found a starving filly. Someone dumped her off on the people who owned her, and they didn’t know how to care for her. I and another volunteer rushed out to get her. At first glance, I didn’t think she was so awful but when I looked again, I was worried for her. Although the temperatures had been in the mid to upper nineties for several weeks, she was still covered in long, coarse hair, a sign of malnourishment. Her backbone stuck up, and her ribs stood out. She moved slowly, too weak to walk at a normal pace. We loaded her up and carefully drove her home. She unloaded well and began whinnying at the other horses; I don’t know how long it had been since she last saw another horse. I fed her a handful of feed which she ate slowly. From her size, I thought she was a weanling who must have been dumped off shortly after being weaned, but a day after we picked her up, she went into heat. I knew she must be at least 1 1/2 to 2 years old.We named her Lindy because after I got home from picking her up, I found out that my husband's Aunt Linda died. Unfortunately Lindy was with us only four days. On Tuesday morning, my husband got up and didn’t see her. He went out to the barn and saw that she was gone. There was no sign of a struggle, but it appears that she just laid down and went to sleep, never to get back up. Some people think it is only the old horses who suffer this fate. But Lindy shows that even young horses can starve to death. Its so sad to know she never had a chance to be healthy. She never got to run and play like other young horses. Her short life was one of hunger and loneliness.