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ARRIVED August 2011
ADOPTABILITY AVAILABLE as adoption or foster!
SPONSORED BY
  • Feed: SPONSORED, thank you Cassandra. Twiggy is no longer eating a specialized diet as she is now at a good weight!
  • Medical: extensive help needed! Please see below. 
BREED/AGE 2-yo (2009 model) arabian mare, papers unknown
approx height 13.2hh; approx weight, 8/11: 600 lbs; 12/11 at 800 lbs.

twiggy when savedTwiggy on 8/1/11; click the boxed photo to enlarge...and view her progress here at CWER!

(CLICK for LOTS more photos in her folder on Facebook!) Photo taken the day she was confiscated by animal control in Indiana..  

VIDEOS:
Skills Report Card!
Overall Health: A
8/20/11 -- arrived completely emaciated (starved), body score of 1.0 which means "bare minimal body fat and muscle, key internal organs may fail."
 		8/26/11:  Twiggy was surrendered to animal control in Northern Indiana in the condition shown in the photo on 8/1/11. A private rescue in Northern IN did an amazing job of caring for her, getting her needed vet care, rehydrating her and starting her on food, stabilizing her. Then they brought her to us here at CWER.
9/1/11: Doc Jenn Miller of Prairie Rivers Equine did her preliminary exam here at CWER. She also found no cause for Twiggy's condition other than lack of proper feed. Twiggy is gaining weight safely, her coat is starting to brighten, and she is very interested in the horses here and her surroundings. Doc Jenn approved her to promote from semi-quarrantine with Tessa to regular turnout. Enjoy the facebook photos and video of her first day in the pasture!
10/22/11: In mid October, Twiggy was still not strong enough to have her dental work done. However, otherwise, she is recovering very well. Shei s even growing a small amount of winter coat!!! That will make these bitter months ahead go far more easily.
12/10/11: Twiggy is at an excellent weight! She has a very solid winter coat. We are SO excited for her. She is no longer on a weight gain diet -- simply eating Purina Strategy and pasture grass, even coming into the winter months. She is fit and healthy. She will need her teeth floated in spring, but the vet doesn't feel she needs anything yet this fall.
Ground manners: B+ Twiggy is respectful but nervous on a lead. She is anxious to stay with her friends, and looking to go out to pasture or be with the others at every chance. She is improving in this area, but as of 10/22/11, she remains more flighty and anxious than we would expect.
12/10/11 Twiggy has made great progress here as well. She is not a beginner's horse, with a typical high energy Arabian personality.
Basic Riding Skills:
N/A
 We were astounded to be told that the former owner was riding this filly, IN THIS CONDITION. She is not nearly physically mature enough to ride even if she weren't emaciated. It will likely be fall 2012 before we consider riding her.
TO AN ADOPTER who takes her home fall 2011, we will request that she not be asked to do any signficant per-riding work nor riding work before Fall 2012.
Don't miss her YouTube videos...IN THE FUTURE
Ideal Career: NOT YET It will be a year before Twiggy is well enough to begin thinking about a career. She is a high energy, mildly nervous filly, at least at this stage, and seems to have the personality type of an endurance or other speed horse. She is both quick and fast in the pasture with the other horses.
Stall Manners: B+ Twiggy is respectful but nervous in a stall. She is unsure what you want from her and clearly afraid from prior abuse. She gets very nervous if she thinks she will be left as the last horse in the barn.
DEC 2011 -- Twiggy now has good stall manners. She is calm while being fed and groomed in her stall, although ready to go outside. She no longer gets worked up about being the last horse in the barn.
Trailering Skills: B We are told Twiggy loaded well, and travelled calmly. She was mildly anxious when unloading but had no real problems.
Companionism/Pasture: B 9/1/11: Twiggy is very submissive with Tess and does excellent when with her.
She teases and plays with Sasha well.
When pastured with Serge, she was a pest and annoyed him enough to get herself nipped pretty solidly initially, but now, in the large pasture, she and Serge are friends and play together.
She may not be a good companion in a small paddock for an older horse that won't want to play; however, in a larger space she will likely companion well with any other horse. She is relatively low in the pecking order within the pasture.
DEC '11: Twiggy has settled very nicely and would do well as a companion to most horses. She isn't pushy or a pest with the adult horses if they don't want to play any longer. she does enjoy playing with the other 2 youngsters.
Routine Medical Care: B+ 9/1/11: Twiggy was good for her intake vet exam here at CWER. She will need future dental work, and has damage to her front teeth from something in her past. She is mildly nervous about needles and unsure about her hooves being handled.
10/22/11: Twiggy has made excellent progress with hoof care. She does not need major dental care at this time, so we will wait until spring.


Overview: 

 Twiggy arrived a 1.0 on the body conditioning scale -- 0 is dead; below 1.0 is major organ failure and unlikely to be recovered.
She will take 6-12 months of careful feed management and expensive care to rehabilitate and return to a level of preparing her for a new career. Additionally, she will need therapeutic massage, exercise and chiropractic to recover the damage to her back from being ridden in this condition.
Please will you donate to help us to help Twiggy?
Adoption Terms: December 2011 -- Twiggy is now available to Foster for winter 2011/12, or to adopt!
An adopter will be asked to agree that they will not begin any major pre-riding work or riding work with Twiggy before Fall 2012, unless they provide CWER a vet's report which indicates the vet feels she is physically mature enough prior to that time period.

Twiggy's adoption fee, as of 12/10/11, is $500.

Please see our AdoptionQnA pages for details of how to adopt.

HISTORY: 

 We dont know the background of Twiggy's owners; only that animal control found out about her, and the owner surrendered her and is being prosecuted for neglect/abuse.
Twiggy had several nasty injuries that appears she may ahve tried to jump a barbed wire fence or similar.
Her back is damaged from people riding her in this condition and at such a young age when she is obviously not done growing or matured. Our vet is confident that massage, exercise, and chiropractic will be able to resolve these issues for her. It will simply take time...and funds....
10/22/11 Twiggy is making excellent progress physically. She is gaining weight well, at a safe and healthy pace. She is now in the big pasture 24/7, and Tessa is slowly distancing herself from Twiggy. Tess guards an animal that is too ill, injured or weak to protect herself. Tessa sees that Twiggy has made it beyond that point, and is now ready to be a 'regular horse'. It will still be a very long, very expensive winter, to keep adding weight, to keep her warm with so little body fat and no real winter haircoat.

She is chilled VERY easily in the fall rains, and has been wearing a rain sheet much of the fall. We have already planned out her blanket 'regimen' for the winter to come.
12/10/11 twiggy has made such great progress! she is at a solid weight already; has a good winter coat; is seldom wearing a blanket; plays with the other youngsters happily, and, if she were a year older, would be in pre-riding training! She has done great with her ground manners education, and is easily lead and handled.

Sponsorship:  Twiggy needs medical sponsorship! Estimated costs:

  • FEED SPONSOR: Please consider sponsoring Twiggy. She will need Junior Feed and supplements totalling, $150 per month -- requesting 3 people to each pledge $50 per month for 6-12 months.   THANK YOU to Hodson Farm for sponsoring her feed for Sept/Oct/November 2011.

  • $100 initial vet exam.
  • vaccinations -- thank you Hodson Farm for providing intake vet care, wound treatment, and vaccinations prior to her coming to CWER
  • $150 dental work and full power float -- hope to be healthy enough to do in October 2011. She may need specialty work to resolve the damage to her front teeth, we won't know until we get there.
  • $100 winter blanket(s). We will see what we have that fits her, then order whatever she needs.
  • $400 multiple chiropractic and accupuncture treatments in winter 2011/spring 2012
  • She may also need medications, and other supplements for his recovery

  • Farrier care: she receives farrier care here at CWER by our own Mike Cross, unless something unusual would be found that requires treatment.

  • Worming: We will test stools and treat as needed. We will do fecals on him every 8 weeks until we are confident her system remains clean as do our other horses. (We no longer rotational deworm; instead we do stool samples and worm those who are needed and only with what they need.

Bloodlines:  Unknown, no papers or papers lost