Success Stories, Gypsy Magic's Rescue, Rehabilitate, and Re-home Gypsy Horse's
Horse #2: Makana's Story of Rehabilitation, Progress, and Purpose
Gypsy Magic Equine Outreach was contacted about potential candidate for our rescue, rehabilitate, and re-home program. Makana means "Gift" in Hawaiian. She is a beautiful unregistered 7 year old chestnut and white piebald special needs Gypsy mare named Makana. We learned that Makana has a few health issues that required special care. Makana’s feather and leg care had been neglected and she has Chronic Progressive Lymphedema (CPL). (For more information about CPL: https://ceh.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/…/chronic-progressive-lymphe…
She was under weight and has a substantial over bite and will need specialized dental care. Although she is fully mature, Makana not been trained under saddle or has had a real purpose in life. Because of her over bite and CPL, genetically she is not suitable for breeding and will never be bred. We are very fortunate to have a wonderful team of kind people who wish to see Makana lovingly cared for and loved! Gypsy Magic has sponsored the very costly transport expenses across the country from back East to bring her to us in California. We want to thank Teri at Gone Gypsy Transport for generously offering a discount for her transport and for taking such loving care of her before and during her travels. Makana has had her feather shaved so that we can see the true condition of her legs. Although she was in poor condition, has enlarged heal creases, leg thickness, and enlarged lymph nodules, thank fully with special care, her skin is healing and the thickness is subsiding! Makana will always need on-going special care for her CPL. Her legs are routinely washed and dried and carefully treated with a special ointment that is working wonders with the surface healing process. Vineyard Oak Dressage Training is currently sponsoring all of Makana’s boarding and care costs and trainer Stacy Sutton is providing no-cost dressage training to help Makana become stronger, purposeful, and useful as a potential future riding horse in the Gypsy Magic program. Veterinarian Dr. Kristin Weillep has very generously donated Makana’s first dental care service and with continued dental care every 6 months we know her bite will continue to improve under Dr Weillep’s expertise. With her very sweet and calm demeanor we really hope that Makana may be suited as an outreach horse and we will be assessing her as a Pet Partners registered candidate.
The Gypsy Magic Equine Outreach is a non-profit 501 C3 organization. Although we work very hard to fund raise all year we have several programs that require funding and to keep us a float in our mission. The rescue, rehabilitate, and re-home program is one of those programs. Without the assistance of this team and the kindness of people like you that donate, we could not have taken Makana into our care.
UPDATE 2021! After her completed rehabilitation, Makana was adopted in 2020. Sometimes things are just meant to happen for the right reasons. We are pleased to announce that Makana has returned to Gypsy Magic Equine Outreach and she is here to stay! Makana has received some wonderful under saddle training by her prior adopter. Due to life changes Makana has returned and will be utilized in our GMEO programs. She has a special gift touching people emotionally and is excelling in our recent addition of the Equine Assisted Coaching program. To help assist with her care expenses, Makana has also been co-leased and sponsored by two wonderful caring riders and caretakers. Makana is very, very happy with her new role in life and we are thrilled to be able to have her with us again.
Horse #1: Blazen's Story of Trial and Success and a Journey of Love
Blazen and his full sister Silvie were brought to Stacy's attention by a "friend of a friend" phone call in 2016. They were two young Gypsy horses that were being offered for sale and were said to be in need of a good home. When we went to see the two horses, it was clear they needed placement immediately with someone who could give them the health care, handling, and training to become healthy and mentally happy horses. We purchased both horses the next day and transported them to their new "home of hope". Both horses were quite feral and would not allow people to come anywhere near them for several weeks. Our contact process was slow. They did not know what treats were, or even what grain feed was so we started to offer them enticing blades of green grass through the fence. This small gesture slowly lead to them understanding they did not have to run away or fear the sight of humans. They were very bonded to each other so we did not dare try to separate them. Through a long and patient process we gently worked with them together. They learned to not fear us or a halter and lead rope within their enclosure. We started to introduce them to small new things each day and their trust grew until we could finally start leading them on walk-abouts outside their enclosure and start some simple ground work in the arena.
Our volunteer team at Vineyard Oak all took part in helping these two neglect cases. It was a joyful journey of love for both humans and horses. It took us over a month to be able to touch their legs without them kicking out in fear. We finally were able to wash off the layers of embedded mud and matted hair and treat the horrible open wound scratches covering their legs. Our farrier took extra special kind and gentle measures to carefully make each hoof trimming experience as stress free as possible. Our wonderful equine dentist donated their first professional dental services. Over the next year the horses received medical treatments, feed, vaccinations, and worming, and a careful exercise and training program to bring them to the peak of health. All the volunteers involved in this process helped these two horses become more confident and their personalities finally began to shine through. Eventually we could start balancing small play sessions into work sessions and they began their training apart from each other in the round pen. They grew more confident and became more independent. They were now more curious than cautious and bonded with their human handlers. They were happy and wanted to please us more and more, just like the wonderful personality traits Gypsies are well-known for!
It was during this time that we started to discuss placement for the horses. We had intended to move the horses along to qualified owners at some point. Silvie found her home at Vineyard Oak, and it just turns out that the client at the barn that had co-assisted with the rescue announced she wanted to give Blazen his forever home! We felt this was a perfect match for both horses as we knew they would continue to receive the care, love, and understanding they so needed after such a rough start in life. Along with his under saddle progression, Blazen is a purposeful part of our therapeutic outreach programs. He is a horse who has been through a tough start. He fully understands fear and neglect and has over come obstacles to become trusting, loving and kind. Many of our visitors can identify with these issues and Blazen's story resonates with many of those he meets. We are so honored that Blazen can help others on their journey in his special way.
Our volunteer team at Vineyard Oak all took part in helping these two neglect cases. It was a joyful journey of love for both humans and horses. It took us over a month to be able to touch their legs without them kicking out in fear. We finally were able to wash off the layers of embedded mud and matted hair and treat the horrible open wound scratches covering their legs. Our farrier took extra special kind and gentle measures to carefully make each hoof trimming experience as stress free as possible. Our wonderful equine dentist donated their first professional dental services. Over the next year the horses received medical treatments, feed, vaccinations, and worming, and a careful exercise and training program to bring them to the peak of health. All the volunteers involved in this process helped these two horses become more confident and their personalities finally began to shine through. Eventually we could start balancing small play sessions into work sessions and they began their training apart from each other in the round pen. They grew more confident and became more independent. They were now more curious than cautious and bonded with their human handlers. They were happy and wanted to please us more and more, just like the wonderful personality traits Gypsies are well-known for!
It was during this time that we started to discuss placement for the horses. We had intended to move the horses along to qualified owners at some point. Silvie found her home at Vineyard Oak, and it just turns out that the client at the barn that had co-assisted with the rescue announced she wanted to give Blazen his forever home! We felt this was a perfect match for both horses as we knew they would continue to receive the care, love, and understanding they so needed after such a rough start in life. Along with his under saddle progression, Blazen is a purposeful part of our therapeutic outreach programs. He is a horse who has been through a tough start. He fully understands fear and neglect and has over come obstacles to become trusting, loving and kind. Many of our visitors can identify with these issues and Blazen's story resonates with many of those he meets. We are so honored that Blazen can help others on their journey in his special way.
