A Nicholasville nonprofit that cares for neglected and abused horses says their phone has been ringing nonstop.
The caller is Animal Control.
“The calls have picked up; they seem to come when you least expect,” said Carrie Wood, the executive director of the Kentucky Equine Adoption Center.
Wood said their most recent guest include two young foals and their mothers.
“The mares were down hundreds and hundreds of pounds, and the foals, honestly, they probably only had a week or two to live,” said Wood. “They had severe rain rot throughout their coats, they had bacteria growing, they were just in really bad shape when they arrived on the farm.”
The mares were so malnourished that they were unable to produce milk for their babies.
“We knew their real mothers couldn’t do the job nature had intended,” said Wood.
She said that’s when they called Heavensent Nursing Mares. Mares Norma and English Bell stepped in to feed the starving young foals.
“The difference was almost immediate we saw the rain rot start to clear up, we saw a spark in the foal’s eyes that we hadn’t seen before,” said Wood.
The stand-in moms will nurse the foals for several months. When the foals reach 6 months, they’ll be weaned.
To donate towards their care, visit the Kentucky Equine Adoption Center’s Facebook page for more information.
Credit: Ellen Ice/LEX18
