On May 24, 2020, the Stroud Oklahoma Kill Pen posted a video of a young 2-3 year old miniature mare that was underweight and had a pretty severe overbite. We had already taken on another group of minis, but I was immediately drawn to this tiny and scrawny little horse. I decided to take her on as a personal rescue since the Little Hooves funds were being allocated to the original group of minis. After a few weeks in quarantine in Oklahoma, our hauler brought her out to California on June 17th. She was so small and skinny, that I decided to name her Pip because she was a "pipsqueak." When she arrived, she couldn't walk very well. She had lost so much muscle that her hind end was really weak. Her back legs twisted in ways that weren't normal to try to compensate.
In addition to this, we quickly found out she had pneumonia in both lungs. We started her on antibiotics, but it wasn't improving. We decided to add a second medication after doing several rounds of the first medication and ultrasounding her lungs. It took about 3 months to finally get her cough and the pneumonia to go away and get a clean ultrasound on her lungs. So she was trying to get healthy across many different aspects of her life.
We got her on a good diet and I slowly started increasing her workload to try to build her muscle back up. She was friendly when she arrived, but you could see in her eyes that she had been through a lot. I will never forget the first times she started to feel better and ran around the turnouts bucking. You could tell that she was coming back to life and feeling confident and healthy again.
A few months later, we got in a 3 month old colt that had been taken from his mom way too early. He tried to nurse off every horse and we had to put him on special supplements since he didn't get all the proper nutrients from his mother's milk. I decided to put him with Pip as his "adopted" mom. He earned the name "Squeak" and they became the perfect pair. At first, Pip wasn't so sure, but she quickly accepted him as her new sibling and they bonded very quickly. In the last few months, Pip and Squeak have become inseparable. Pip has become so spunky, knows she is the queen of the barn and is so full of life (and a little attitude). Meanwhile, Squeak is the ying to her yang and is very calm, cool and collected.
We decided to keep Pip and Squeak as the mascots for the rescue and they travel to local horse competitions to help raise awareness for the rescue. We also take them on adventures locally (like the beach) and Pip has even been in a wedding! This dynamic duo truly brings a smile to the face of everyone they meet. It's been incredible to be a part of their journey while we continue to help many other neglected minis.