Welcome to

Panhandle  Equine  Rescue

On Saturday, June 16, 2007, a Santa Rosa County man voluntarily surrendered 13 Tennessee Walking horses to Panhandle Equine Rescue when he could not meet court-ordered compliances. PER began investigating this case in March 2007. Complaints were called into PER as early as two years ago, but until February 2007, PER did not have jurisdiction in Santa Rosa County. These horses had never been handled, vaccinated, de-wormed, or had their hooves trimmed in at least three years. The horses were discovered by neighbors after some of them escaped their pasture in search of water and food.

Two stallions were kept separate by tying them on short tethers, one on the the bumper of a truck, and the other to a stake in the ground (see pictures to the left). Their halters have left permanent indentations in their faces.

THE RESCUE: 

The stallions, Joe and Legs, were first secured. 

Then with feed buckets, volunteers successfully lured the whole herd of the other eleven into a round pen without  a hitch.  All of the horses were safely loaded in small groups on several stock trailers and transported to a facility where they will remain in quarantine until they are cleared by a veterinarian.

Now we have many more challenges facing us.  We must get them halter broke, vetted out, and rehabilitated.  The stallions must be gelded ASAP. Foster homes will be needed once the horses come out of quarantine and have a negative coggins.  Or if anyone is interested in adopting, once they are vetted out, they will be up for adoption.  

Panhandle Equine Rescue would like to send a special thank you to all the volunteers that helped make this  rescue a success.  These names are not listed in order of importance; this could not have happened without each role these people played a part in.  They are all very appreciated: Rose Marie Winchester, Jim Nowlin, Michael Satterlee, Chris Jones, Alice Harris, Christin Tank, April Roachblave, Eddie Young, Gerry Hombrick, Gary & Lynn White, Kevin & Linda Saighman , Jesse & Mimi McClelland, Matt & Vickie Bell, and Cheryl Sikes         

Now the work begins.  We are in desperate need of donations, corporate and individual sponsorships, foster homes, hay, grooming supplies, fly sprays, etc. and volunteers willing to do general labor.  Doing your part will be so rewarding.  Help us to help the horses.   

UPDATES

10/22/08 UPDATE: Jumper has been adopted by J. Nowlin of Molino, FL!

09/30/08 UPDATE: Little Bit was adopted by the Gaskill's of Holt, FL!

07/26/08 UPDATE

Check out these adorable pictures of Wonder!

04/02/08 UPDATE: 

The Santa Rosa 13 can now be called the Santa Rosa 14.  One of the 13, Sterling, had a colt on 4-2-08.  Her foster mom discovered the colt when she went out to her morning feeding.  We are so relieved that Sterling was rescued in time to become healthy enough to carry and deliver a full term baby.  Things probably wouldn't have gone so well, had she not been pulled out of the neglectful situation she was in.  We have named the colt "Wonders Never Cease" and will call him Wonder.  He is going to be a bay and he has four white stockings and a wide blaze on his face like his mother.  We suspect that his father is Legs, the paint stallion that was rescued with the herd.  Mother and baby are doing well.  We will keep you updated on his progress.   He was born at the right place.  Sterling was in training with April Violette, whose expertise is with horses that have never been touched.  This baby will be bomb proof!

09/28/07 UPDATE: 

Callie has been adopted by Mr. Burns of Cantonment, FL. She is in a great home! 

09/15/07 UPDATE:

Joe has been adopted by Margaret and Laura of Cantonment, FL. Laura grooms and rides Joe regularly and have a great bond. 

We still have 9 of the Santa Rosa horses up for adoption!

07/08/07 UPDATE:

We still have six horses that are needing foster care and ten are still up for adoption. Click here to see who is available.

6/30/07 UPDATE:

Negative coggins has come back on all of the horses. Ten of the thirteen need to be adopted. They will need foster homes in the interim. Please visit our adoptions page! 

The Williams family of Molino, FL have adopted Ebony, Shadow, and Lucky!

Ebony, five years old, and her colt Shadow (left). Shadow was born 2 weeks before they were rescued. Lucky, in June at the quarantine farm (right). She is 11 years old. Lucky and Foxfire, another mare in the herd, were the only ones that were halter broke.

6/21/07 UPDATE:

The vet check was successful.  All of the horses have been vaccinated, microchipped, and had a coggins pulled.  All of the stallions have been gelded.  Only one horse was hurt when he jumped over the corral panels and required some stitches in his stifle area.  (By the way, the horse that jumped the panels, was Jumper)  He was named right!  Since the vet checked all of them, we now have more accurate ages on these horses.

Please note:  Any of these mares or older fillies could be pregnant.  We didn't know that Twister and Jumper were already 3 yr. olds, so it's quite possible that they have already been bred.   

PER volunteers worked together beautifully today and we managed to get all but three horses vetted out on the farm.  The other three, Jumper, Star and Dot obviously had never been touched and they managed to escape the corrals.  Twister was the same way, but we were able to squeeze him into some panels and get him sedated before he got too unmanageable.  After the vet left, volunteers took a break, then miraculously culled out the three that didn't get seen by the vet, loaded them on a stock trailer and transported them to the clinic, where they were vaccinated, microchipped and a coggins was pulled.  Jumper also was gelded and the wound on his stifle area was stitched up.  The vet said it would not cause any permanent damage.  We did leave Jumper there for five days, so that he could receive antibiotic injections. 

Nothing was done to Callie, the 2 month old paint filly or Shadow the now 3 week old black filly per the vet's advice.   

Last updated: Thursday October 23, 2008.

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