A horse community coming together

Monday was a hard day. As many of you know BITS has been raising money to help Gina, a 29 year-old Rocky Mountain mare with severe laminitis. Her owners had come to the conclusion that no more could be done to ease her pain and that her time had come. After much heartache they realized that they could not afford to lay her rest.

 

 A caring friend offered to help find a solution to their problem and was able to find our low cost euthanasia clinic on-line via Google. Unfortunately, she found our information just days after our June 17th clinic. Once Gina's condition was made know to us we knew we could not turn our back on this poor gal and her owner. Thankfully, BITS has an amazing team of generous vets and we were able to secure Dr. Jeske for Monday. This gave Gina and her friends time to say goodbye and they took every opportunity to spoil her rotten. Gina's last days on earth were filled with grass grazing, baths and lots of treats.

As you can see from these photo's Gina's hooves had been casted to try an alleviate her pain caused by laminitis. Her hooves would gently rock with each step.

There was also a large growth on her right leg

as well as many body sores from her constant laying down.

It is obvious that even a short trip in the trailer to our Elk Grove clinic would have been extremely hard on Gina. BITS is grateful to Naturally Cowgirl, Horses, Hope & Healing, the friends at Craigmont Equestrian Center as well Kat, a very dear friend of hers, for their generous donations which allowed for Gina to pass on peacefully at her home.

On a brighter note, our trip to Sacramento for Gina resulted in our meeting up with Horses, Hope &Healing a youth program in the Sacramento area. Tiffany Oreglia, founder, was available to show us around, introduce us to the horses in her program as well as explain her organization and the great work they are doing for the underprivileged youth in the area. Her program includes gang intervention and education, homework assistance and tutoring, teaching leadership skills, safe after-school and week-end activities as well as giving the children the opportunity to participate in horse related competitions.We cannot wait to meet up with her again!

We are also extremely excited; Kate, Gina’s friend, has pledged to be our first monthly Hay Bank donor! With these funds BITS is able to help support and feed horses of responsible owners who have come on hard times. When life throws us a curve ball we need our horses more than ever. Their friendship and trust is what gets us through on our hardest days. Please consider becoming a donor as well, and help keep a horse in it’s loving home during job loss, illness, military duty and family displacement. Together we can make a difference in the lives of our fellow horse lovers.

We hope everyone is enjoying this great riding weather and we wish you all a great 4th of July!