The quest for Quest

I don't think Aurora and I have ever been on a short drive together and Saturday was not going to be the exception. We got up super early to go pick up Quest . She was being housed at the feedlot in Fallon, Nevada. A rescue had a man buy her and a few others at the auction but her potential adopter backed out and the rescue's rig was out of commision. Sooo the next thing you know we are on a 4 1/2 hour drive to Fallon. Remarkably for the first time on a drive together we did not have any car problems or get lost. We stopped in Boomtown for lunch . The only thing in Boomtown was Denny's. We got a huge kick out of the menu . The menu is divided into sections; hand held food or fork and knife. I'm not sure what the average IQ  is of the regular Denny lunch clientele but I'm guessing there must have been a reason they had to put that on the menu.  They also served something called "Basket of Puppies" which was a little creepy. Glad to find out they were mini pancakes. How ironic that they dumb down the menu to explain how to eat your food but then think mini pancakes isn't clever enough.
Really glad we stopped there though, when we did because there was major construction right outside of Reno for miles that really slowed us down

Hmmm. knife &fork or hand held lunch?

Spaghetti is not a hand held food item, who knew?

After lunch we got into Fallon and drove out to the feedlot. It looked like just any ordinary little ranch and Quest was the only horse there. She was very sweet and friendly and walked right into the trailer. So back on the road we went and managed to hit more construction going the other direction as well.  It just wouldn't be a road trip with Aurora without major delays somehow.

We finally made it back and all went well . Quest will be in quarantine for a while because auctions and feedlots hold a lot of animals and its a good chance she may have picked up a few bugs along the way. She is super sweet and very mellow. I know Arabians get a bad rep for being snorting spook machines but this girl is so very calm, and easy going. We went for a walk , past dogs, flapping flags and a few birds flew out at us and she did not even care She is registered and we do have her papers. Her registered name is Bey Street Blaze .  She is even cuter in person than she was in her pictures and I hope I did her justice. Its hard to take a picture of her because she wants to be right next to you. Not crowding just friendly.
I don't have a halter small enough for her tiny face so I had to use the one she had on when we picked her up.After she is vet checked and ready for work we are going to send her to All Terrain Training to see if she is going to be the calm trail buddywe think she will be. We decided that each horse will have it's own training blog so the potential adopter has a good idea of if the horse will be a good match .

On the way over to Fallon , Aurora had asked me to explain a little about feedlot saves and how they work . I am not trying to start the slaughter / anti slaughter debate I just don't see the logic and would rather see people do more productive things with donations.

While Quest was bought at an auction not from the feedlot itself, there are other groups that say they are against slaughter but  who are actually paying kill buyers money for horses . The kill buyer does not just quit his job, he  just uses that money to buy more horses. The same number of horses go to slaughter , just different ones. I know people who are very anti- slaughter and they get so frustrated at these types of saves. Sure it's high drama and tear jerking to some people, particulary people who are against slaughter , it's counter productive, a waste of donations , explotive to the horses and emotional backmail  to the donors.  ,. I think, and this is just my opinion, but I think it's a bit like the Denny's menu and people are treating donors  like they are so dumb that they don't think behind the sad horsey pictures to where the money is going. You would not buy drugs from a dealer and think you are stopping drug abuse or buy blood diamonds in an effort to stop that trade.
Why would you bankroll a kill buyer if you want to stop slaughter?
. Or is it just an effort to save the one in the picture regardless of how many others take it's place . Nobody seems to be able to answer that question yet and I am tired of trying to figure out the logic
.
BITS would rather help a horse before the situation is so desperate the horse ends up neglected or sold at auction  and  when nobody is rewarded financially for failing the horse.
It might not be as exciting but we know this is the right thing for the horses and adopters.
Off the soapbox about that subject

.

The other problem with helping a horse from just a picture is that you don't get to know very much about the horse. With Quest we don't know her history and she could be pregnant or have medical issues so we will get her checked out and before she is adopted out we are going to talk to the vet about having her marbled . Marbling  is not always foolproof but it is the only option we have at the time to try to keep horses from getting pregnant.  If she turns out to be an amazing show horse that should be bred things may change but considering the number of amazing horses selling cheap and not so amazing horses being given away  , there does not seem to be a rush to make more horses just yet.

Well, this was a lot longer post than I had intended. I wanted to tell you guys about the other horse we have in as well. He is a BIG STOUT  smutty  buckskin  that is going to need a name because I keep calling him Smutty and that's just not right. Here is a sneak peek of "Smutty"

The End-pun intended

As always your support is most appreciated and we could really use some for these guys and a few other horses that need help. Any donation amount helps  and goes right back into the horses and programs.