Honey in the Money

Nicknames: Honey, HoneyBear

Honey in the Money is my very first rescue. She was one of six broodmares being dumped by Adaire Farms. I brought home two - one was a bred mare named Heddy Weed, who died of colic in October 2008. The other was Honey.

Honey was once a racehorse. We don't know the real story of how she was injured, whether a horse fell in front of her and she flipped, or if she got tangled in those overhead exercise thingys that they have on the west side of the state. But she injured her neck, injured her pelvis, and injured her left back ankle.

Honey's neck is mis-shapen and from her withers to her poll looks like (, bowing to the right. Surprisingly, she is most flexible to the left.

Honey can't carry a foal to term. She was bred three times and each year, she delivered her foal a month early and it didn't survive. She was then abandoned by her owners, without papers. Since she was of no use to Adaire Farms, she was being culled.

Honey arrived thin and covered in rain rot. She was aloof and standoffish. Once haltered, however, she was quiet and polite. I started fattening her up and it took MONTHS to get her in the kind of shape that I was comfortable with. She has only once been what I call "fat", and that was this past summer when she was turned out on pasture full time.

She is a wonderful pasture mate, polite and kind to other mares that she is turned out with. She is great with the babies, firm but kind.

To watch this mare float around the pasture, you think she'd be a dream to ride. But a flex test performed by a vet showed that she is not truly sound to ride. So my dreams of riding this lovely mare have been dashed and she is relegated to pasture to do what she does best - eat, poop, and be beautiful.

Honey is now cuddly and snuggly, totally content to stand beside you in the pasture and wait for your attention. She is neither pushy nor rude, but kind, sweet, and lovable!

Her "job" is to be a trailer-buddy for the babies on their first rides down the road. She loads without hesitation, stands quietly and patiently while we fight whoever is next into the trailer, puts her head in the corner and goes to sleep.



Honey wears front shoes full-time. Her left front hoof has a vertical split, completely through the hoof wall, and I was afraid that without shoes to prevent the hoof wall from moving, that it would pull away from the laminae. As you can guess, that would be disastrous for Honey. So, until her hoof grows out, she wears shoes in front.

So Honey is what I call my first TRUE rescue - neglected, dumped, unrideable, unbreedable, and unwanted by everyone. Except me! She has a home with me forever!