- Bay Arabian Gelding – Born in 2005
- Entry Date – 7/21/17 at 12 years of age
- Type of rescue – Owner Surrendered
- Reason – Unmanageable
- Special needs – Gelding & Training
- Story catch – Better Late Than Never
This beautiful Bay Arabian came to us as a completely untrained and dangerous twelve-year-old stallion. His former owners are nice people, but simply didn’t know what they were doing. They acquired a mare twelve years ago who was pregnant with Leo. He was born on their property and Leo’s mother has since passed away. Leo was never trained and attempts to geld him failed because the veterinarians could not contain him long enough to anesthetize him for the surgery. His lack of basic training as well as being a stallion had made him completely unmanageable. Leo was kept in a field separated from two other horses on the property and although they could visit over the fence line, Leo spent years without any real physical contact with other horses and developed no horse social skills.
This also meant that his health needs could not be met. His feet had never been trimmed, he had never been groomed, and his teeth were never checked or floated. After two attempts to geld him, his owners intended to have him put down. Fortunately for Leo, the vets couldn’t get close enough to do that either! When the Sheriff’s office declined the owners’ request to shoot Leo, one of our veterinarians – called to the property to treat a wound on one of the other horses – referred the family to us and Leo was transported to our Sanctuary by Equamore volunteers.
Leo was isolated until he could be safely gelded and learned to be led. We could then turn him out daily with the big gelding herd. He slowly learned how to be a part of a herd – with the other horses teaching him! He only had one friend at a time which he shadowed very closely during turnout. Two of his chosen friends passed away and his final friend when he passed was Tucker.
