Little Hidalgo - The auction horse who inspired us!

Although we (our founders and dedicated volunteers) have a lifetime of equine experience, our journey begins in 2017 with a scrawny, skinny, and neglected little horse my husband and I rescued from auction for $70.

We had no intentions of buying a horse, having seven of our own, and were at the auction for tack. But being who we were, couldn't resist the horse auction. We were no strangers to bringing home a needy soul. We once brought a well-behaved mini mare home in the back of our minivan! One can only imagine the stares we got at every stoplight!

.

Back to the current auction - An emaciated and pathetic little bald-faced paint horse was just about last in line, and no one was bidding. He was ewe necked and looked like a starved and dying yearling. We couldn't stand it and placed our bid.

We could hear laughter at our perceived stupidity but even the meat buyers weren’t interested. $70 later he was ours. The only problem was, we didn't bring a trailer. We scooted home for the two-and-a-half-hour trip, grabbed the trailer, and drove back, not knowing if he had even survived the trauma of the auction.

We arrived back at the stockyard six hours later to find him tied up, alone, and without food or water. It would be a miracle if he made the trip home. Fortunately, he survived the journey, and we settled him in a stall with a small amount of hay, grain, and beet pulp. We said goodnight and hoped he'd still be standing by morning. We named him Little Hidalgo because he reminded us of the tough, rangy little paint horse depicted in the movie “Hidalgo.”

This little boy had a fight in his soul! He survived the night and the next day we gave him a bath to get rid of the stink of auction and death. Imagine our surprise lifting his tail and find he was a stallion and not the yearling he looked like. He was so emaciated that his genitals had retracted beyond sight! Next up was a call to our vet.

A day later the vet came out for an assessment. It wasn’t good. Due to starvation, he was given a 40% chance of survival. On top of that he was indeed a stallion and at least 10 years old, with only one testicle palpable. We had a tough task in front of us.

After a couple of months, with significant weight gain, our local vets were amazed he had made it this far, and were impressed with his weight gain, but they were concerned about a lesion in one eye. Despite their concerns we planned to have him gelded and let him be a happy horse. It required a trip to Michigan State as they thought he was retracted but we didn’t care about the cost. We would do anything to save Dalgo.

Thankfully, all went well, and we got him home safe and sound, albeit thousands of dollars later. Might we add, the vet techs all loved him and said he was a perfect gentleman!

For the next two years we bonded and just let him get fat and healthy with his new herd. He was always easy to handle and easy to love. His eye lesion was still a concern but between fly masks, ointments, and sprays, we appeared to have his vulnerable blue eyes under control.

Finally, it was time for some serious training. We brought in a trainer that we trusted. The progress was nothing short of amazing! Dalgo went from a fearful boy to a trusting liberty horse in no time! The day finally came when I was allowed to ride him. The love and the bond we shared was so obvious! He was perfect and such a joy! The video I have of our only ride will live with me forever. The trainer made it a point to tell me Dalgo was one of the best horses ever in his training career. He really was that special.

 Joy notwithstanding, it was obvious to us and our trainer that his eye issue had gotten worse and worse over time, especially in warmer weather, no matter what we did to treat it. They just weren't healing, especially his left eye with the ever-growing lump that just wouldn't quit, getting bigger and more ominous every day. In our guts we knew it was cancer but, in our hearts, we wanted to keep trying.

We gave him another winter, fly free, to try to resolve the problem. Nothing we did worked. We knew we couldn’t let him suffer another summer with flies and other irritants. So, under our vet’s guidance, we decided to ease his suffering once and for all.  May 21, 2020, we said goodbye to our Little Hidalgo. We gave him over 3 years of care and love and, with no regrets, gave him a peaceful and dignified end. 

Less than two years later, in April of 2021, we were granted our 501c status and in February of 2022 we bought an almost 20-acre farm to accommodate the constant flow of horses coming our way. We have been to Kansas to rescue mustangs from a kill pen to Texas for slaughter bound horses, to Pennsylvania, and Ohio and all over Michigan. Our focus always has, and always will be, on slaughter-bound horses with a focus on Standardbreds.

RIP my sweet friend