UPDATE: Lexie

For those who may not remember, we picked Lexie up at the end of November from the individuals who had offered to take her and care for her.  This is the condition in which we found her:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The family who had her told us that they were not sure why Lexie looked so bad- we believe it was a simple case of neglect, nothing more. Her feet had not been done in months, she had caked-on manure on her legs, and her hair was actually falling out in patches, not to mention her obvious body condition.  We had her hooves trimmed, teeth floated, gave her several baths, and fed her- nothing outrageous or special. Merely some basic care and a lot of TLC. We had to feed her extra feed, of course, because she was so thin, but it was just hay and pellets.  There was no reason that we can understand that she was allowed to get to this condition- she was not sick, she did not require outrageous veterinary care, nor did she require costly medication. All she needed was care and food- the basics that every horse should be given.

This is Lexie only THREE WEEKS later:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After another few months, we stopped feeding Lexie extra food- now she is on merely two scoops of alfalfa/oat pellets twice a day and her daily grain. She still gets her normal TLC, but she was actually getting a little chunky, which is something we *don’t* want to have with her, as we don’t want to put too much pressure on her knee.

Lexie’s knee will never be normal, but with daily pain medication, she is comfortable and can walk around the stable. She gets turned out everyday either in the arena, round pen, or next door at our neighbor’s pasture area. She loves getting carrots and apples from the volunteers, and her most favorite volunteer is Misa, who works with her on Saturdays.  Her favorite friend is Brutus, her younger boyfriend who lives next to her (she calls when he goes away and is always happy to have him back next door, which we actually don’t understand because he’s kind of a pill).

Lexie is now finally starting to lose her winter coat, and the new hair that is growing in is her normal liver-chestnut color (she actually was not originally a sorrel color- she originally was liver chestnut, but due to her extreme lack of nutrition the color of her coat washed out).

We thank all of those people who donated to help Lexie- she is doing very well now, thanks to everyone’s efforts!