Sandy
Sandy was rescued in July 2026 with a group of other high risk horses, all of which were in various states of severe neglect and poor quality of life from injury, disease or other factors.
Sandy is a Belgian draft horse mare who stands about 17.2h tall. She is docile and easily handled. Her body condition score (BCS) is 5/9 with a soft quality hair coat. She stands at rest with her right forefoot propped laterally and cranially without bearing weight.
The hoof wall is obscured by abundant feathers, but the wall is severely dished and flared, and she bears weight on the sole and frog and does not touch the ground with the intended weight-bearing structure, the hoof wall. Sandy is a 4 out of the 5 to a 5 out of 5 lame on the right foreleg, and moves cautiously, slowly, and needs breaks before proceeding, indicating a chronic, adapted level of severe pain.
The left hind medial canon bone bears an old deep scar, and the left mandible is misshapen with masseter muscle atrophy in the caudal third.
A draft horse of this size with 3-legged lameness has a poor prognosis, regardless of the cause due to the mass, size, and physics of weight-bearing on only 3 feet for days to weeks.
Dependent limb laminitis is often incited early, and her stance indicates pain in the left fore as well, albeit less severe than the dominant right fore pain. Both forelimbs were not fully examinable due to the severity of pain.
The left mandible changes may be due to a traumatic event, or from the chronic wearing of headgear, typically an inhumanely placed wind-sucking or “cribbing” collar.
As prey animals, horses are instinctively wired to not show pain. Draft horses are often very stoic, but there was no doubt that Sandy was in a constant, extreme level of pain and suffering. She was humanely euthanized with compassion and respect.
Due to a time constraint we were unable to take Xrays once she had passed in order to further document the level of damage in her lower extremities.
There is no excuse for the human(s) who caused her decline and whoever kept her in prolonged suffering.
More About Sandy
- In Assessment
- Palomino
- Mare
- 2011
- Belgian Draft Horse
- Colorado