Richard and Scam; Reunited!!!

Little Richard and Scam were both rescued on November 30th, 2009 from a case of severe neglect. After their rescue, we were able to trace down most of their history and were even able to obtain their registration papers. The story we were told by reliable sources is that Little Richard and Scam were kept at the same barn for years. Because of health issues and through circumstances beyond the original owner's control, the horses were sold to another man and they ended up at a sale. The bids were just not high enough, so the man "no saled" them and ended up selling both horses to another man, who nearly starved the two to death. Investigators received a report and found the horses in very bad shape, but were relieved when the owner surrendered both of them to the rescue.

In December 2009, Scam was moved into foster care for further rehab, but sadly had to leave her long time friend and companion, Little Richard. Then, in June 2010, Scam was moved to a different foster home. At this time, she was totally rehabilitated. Meanwhile, Little Richard remained at the quarantine facility and was also brought back to great health!

Today, Little Richard and Scam were reunited, thanks to Ruth Martin who has been fostering Scam. She agreed to also take Little Richard into her care. Now the two of them can hang out together once again under the shade trees and talk about the good old days. And I think they know, that they are going to be okay now, for the rest of their lives.

This blog is dedicated to their original owner, Richard Dean, a.k.a. "Lucky" who passed away this year. We pray that he can look down and see his beloved Little Richard and Scam; together once again and living a great live with no worries.

Legs; a.k.a. Max

Legs, a.k.a. Max was rescued by PER in June 2007 out of Santa Rosa County, along with 12 other horses. For years, he was tethered on a rope 24/7 without shelter or the ability to exercise or just be a horse. He was a stallion when he was rescued, so what little bit of "free time" he had, it was spent breeding the mares in the herd. Included in the rescue, were four of his babies, one was still not born nor did we even realize that the mare was pregnant until we got a surprise one morning! That colt was named "Wonder's Never Cease" and has grown to be as beautiful as his sire!

Max was adopted by Karen Tucci in November 2008 and received two years getting plenty of TLC. Karen did some ground work with him, but recently became very interested in Parelli Natural Horsemanship and made the decision to send Legs to Mirka Pitts, who specializes in this training.

Today, Michelle Phillips and I assisted Karen by moving Max to Mirka's. We are all very confident that Mirka will do an excellant job with him and bring out his full potential. Karen also plans on taking lessons from Mirka,so she can continue to use natural horsemanship on Max for his lifetime. This will be a whole new chapter for both Karen and Max and I'm sure it will be a good one. Good luck to you, Karen. I know this will be an adventure to remember.

New Trainers On Board!

Most rescues have a trainer to assist in evaluating and retraining their horses. While it is great to ride and see where the horse is at, it's difficult to get a horse started or restarted when there is no one available with the knowledge and great patience required with some rescues that have been abused, mishandled or allowed to get away with "stuff". We are very blessed to have not only one, but two trainers who have agreed to work with our horses. Both of them are very good at natural horsemanship training. Some well known trainers that do this are Pat Parelli, Clinton Anderson and Chris Cox, just to name a few. This training starts with lots of ground work which establishes respect from your horse before you ever get in the saddle. Mirka Pitts and Natalie Thomas have both recently started working with the rescues and we are so grateful to them both. The pictures here show Natalie working with Star. These special horses deserve to have a relationship with a human being that doesn't involve abuse or neglect. Rescue horses are very forgiving, but some have major trust issues, through no fault of their own. It is wonderful to watch these ladies work with them and see breakthroughs! We will keep you updated on their progress. To see videos of Mirka and Natalie; go to www.doublepfarm.com.