Anselm

Anselm was the 39th mustang we saved as a sanctuary. Never wild, he was born in captivity at the Litchfield BLM corrals after his mother was rounded up.

We learned about him when we were tipped off that a kill buyer in California had an older mustang, who had been abused as a tripping horse. We immediately offered to take him. Anselm was tiny and delicate, as tripping horses usually are. Tripping horses while they’re run at the gallop is an event in the Mexican rodeo (charreada), where cowboys (charros) prefer smaller, light-weight horses as they’re easier to bring down.

Anselm’s body was scarred from what looked like rope marks from beatings. His legs were covered in scars from being repeatedly tripped with a lasso. He was emaciated and coughing relentlessly with a snotty nose. His coat was dull, his eyes were dead, and his face was full of gravel. After being abused for “sport” and entertainment, then thrown away for slaughter, he had all but given up.

Anselm was quarantined with Adeline, another rodeo survivor, who was sick and completely traumatized. They embarked upon their new life in Malibu together. I spent a lot of one on one time with him picking gravel out of his skin with tweezers, talking to him and comforting him. In the beginning, he would flinch when I raised my hand to pet him, but his fearful reflexes are gone and that makes me really happy. It took a while to bring him back into health, but once he was physically healed, his mental state was one of optimism and gratitude.

A bit cheeky at first, Anselm was food obsessed as many starved horses are. He’d lived too long not knowing when his next meal was coming. No one could fault him for that. When he and Adeline moved up to Oregon, no matter how much space we gave them, they stayed close to the fence. Anselm really didn’t want the wild life and was more comfortable in a pair than a big herd. After Sweet Adeline passed away, Anselm continued to prefer a quiet life watching over a small group of mares and two mini-mules with special hoof or dietary needs. When he gets a case of spring fever, he’s been known to romance Dani California.

Anselm is occasionally hard to keep weight on, so we give him extra bowls through winter to keep him warm and fat. Recently, we noticed he was losing weight so we increased his grain and hay, but it didn't help as much as we hoped. We took him to Bend Equine for diagnostics, where he was diagnosed with Equine Odontoclastic Tooth Resorption and Hypercementosis (EOTRH). This condition is very painful and the only treatment for it is to remove his top and bottom front six teeth. I know this sounds brutal, but it's actually quick and easy. We’ve been through this with Tank, who is now pain free, able to eat fine, and feels a ton better. Anselm was also recently diagnosed with Cushings, but with a little medical intervention, he's going to be just fine and we hope he has many years ahead of him in our care.

If you want to know more about the Mexican Rodeo and the Tripping Horse event, this text is from Fund for Horses:

“Charreada is a national sport in its home country. As big in Mexico as the NFL Superbowl is in the United States. This cruel and horrific ‘sport’ has now infiltrated the United States, mostly in the West. There are ten individual competitions in a Charreada, six of which involve horses. Charros (rodeo cowboys) continue to trip horses until they are lame or can no longer run. Horses sustain multiple serious injuries, including broken legs and necks, and spinal damage. Horses who try to escape by jumping over fences or walls are only captured and brought back to the arena for more torture to the cheers of the crowd.

The horses are not typically privately owned, but instead leased as they do not normally survive. One source of horses for leasing to charro rodeos are feedlots. Kill buyers employed by slaughterhouses lease out horses for the charreada circuit to make extra money from them before selling the horses to horse slaughter plants. Before horse tripping was banned in California, a source at a Riverside feedlot reported they leased 25 horses per weekend to two different charro rodeos. Upon their return, approximately 2 to 5 horses per week displayed injuries serious enough that the animals were sent to slaughter. For each horse that went to slaughter, another from the feedlot replaced them on the charro circuit.

#skydoganselm

 Mustangs & Burros Need your help

In addition to supporting our work by donating, becoming a patron on Patreon, or sponsoring a Skydog, there are several important pieces of legislation to protect American equines currently moving through Congress. It only takes a few minutes to contact your Rep and Senators and urge them to support these bills:

Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act of 2023 (H.R. 3475 in the House / S.2307 in the Senate). This bill will shut down the slaughter pipeline that sends some 20,000 American horses and donkeys to savagely monstrous deaths in foreign slaughterhouses every year.

The Wild Horse & Burro Protection Act of 2023 (H. R. 3656) This bill will prohibit the use of helicopters or fixed-wing aircraft in the management of wild mustangs and burros on public lands, and require a report on humane alternatives to current management practices.

Ejiao Act of 2023 (H.R. 6021). To ​​ban the sale or transportation of ejiao, a gelatin made from boiling donkey skins, or products containing ejiao in interstate or foreign commerce, which brutally kills millions of donkeys primarily for beauty products and Chinese medicine.

You can Contact Members of Congress by calling the Capitol Switchboard (202) 224-3121‬, submitting contact forms on their individual websites, or sending one email to all three simultaneously at www.democracy.io

See our How to Help menu for other actions to ban zebra hunting at US canned hunt ranches, stop production of Premarin & other PMU drugs, and defund the Adoption Incentive Program.