Andalusian Rescue
a note from Josephine
I am fortunate in that I live among so many caring, careful, horse-loving friends, riders, and fellow breeders.
But in every nation there are those few sad people who forget what is owed to the animals.
The andalusian rescue story below is a story with the heart of my Spain, someone
who cared enough to make a difference, and bring about a happy ending.
Andalusian Rescue - Tracy’s Story
Pelucas, Shandor’s sire, (his real name is Fraguoso) was named after the incredible mane and tail he so proudly wore.
peluca translates as wig
When I first moved to Spain over 10 years ago a friend took me to a ’yard’ to go for a ride and see a little of the countryside.
We rented horses and I was given Maria La Tonta to ride. A very nervous, typically skanky, know-all mare somewhat on the light side of healthy!
We had a great ride. She ditched me on a rocky river bed as she high-tailed it away from an iberian giant donkey stallion that appeared in the middle of nowhere! (That is a whole other story, she is Chiclanera the dam of Shandor)
You are wondering what this has to do with Pelucas, yes?
I had to walk back to the yard and in so doing I came in the back way. There I saw a row of 4 concrete stalls with all the doors shut. No windows, no light, no air. It was July!
They were clearly occupied, and Parker being Parker I couldn’t resist a peek.
The first two stalls contained well kept, if long in the hoof, stallions. Their bedding was clearly a couple of days old, but it was 5 star compared to what I saw next. The third stall was where the chickens slept.
Upon opening the top door of the final stall a fire breathing dragon snapped his head out with all teeth bared. Eyes blazed out from a magnificent head and the longest, tangliest mane I ever saw.
Half an hour passed before I could get near enough to peek into his stall without him snapping at me. He had no bedding. He had over half a meter depth of solid - er, I leave it to your imagination.
Andalusian Rescue - The Clean Up
I had no Spanish in those days, but made it quite clear to the ’caretaker’ of the yard that I would not allow the horse to stay like that. Over a matter of weeks, working little by little day by day, I managed to finally be able to take Pelucas from his stall to the very make-shift corral, and leave him there long enough to ’muck out’ his stall.
It took myself and a friend 10 hours of solid work to get down to the original floor. We removed plant life, worms, fungus and heaven knows what else!
This poor boy had the equivalent of mud rot from being left 3 years in that stall. He was lucky to still be walking. He also had what initially appeared to be a urine infection. I later discovered it was far worse.
Apparently the caretaker got more money for letting people ride the dragon horse. The kids called him Jaws! Pelucas was so, very understandably, wired that he would be tacked up in the stall with the door shut and the ’lucky idiot’ of the day would mount him inside. Then the caretaker would open the door so rider and horse could come flying out!
A Lady owned him and three mares that she had left there and stopped paying for their keep. Pelucas was Alta Escuela trained - a small fortune in its day - never mind the obvious quality of pedigree of the horse himself.
Andalusian Rescue - The Dramas
Time and patience soon had me riding him with mares and other stallions, and with my then young daughter, to Romerias and Ferias. All during which I tried to negotiate to take him away from this place. I had finally bought a property with land and stables.
I was taking Chiclanera - who I had now purchased; my daughter’s horse; and Nepa -a 26 year-old mini shetland, blind in one eye and also abandoned at this place - so there was no way I would leave Pelucas to certain abuse and neglect again.
I had to denounce the owner to the Guardia Civil, pay for a new green card and pay a ridiculous sum of money to the caretaker, but I got Pelucas out of his horror hole.
Sadly, although treated at the time, the urine infection turned out to be much deeper, and Pelucas had a prolapse. Fortunately the new Equine hospital had opened 3 weeks earlier only 20 minutes away from us, and to there we rushed him to save his life. Before that our only option was Cordoba. He would never have survived the journey.
The fabulous vet Miguel saved his life, and one of his testicles. The other testicle was strangulated.
But hospitals are no place for sick people and Pelucas started to fade fast. After a week his recovery was still behind schedule and Miguel told me to take him home. Capable of keeping him on his drip and giving him his injections myself, we decided that at home is where he would get better if he was going to get better.
Andalusian Rescue - Pelucas Comes Home
A shadow of his former self, Pelucas was shakily loaded into the box and taken on the short, but bumpy journey home. Heart in mouth, stomach doing cartwheels we arrived and unloaded him. Led to his box - 5 x 3 and up to the hip in fresh straw - he could hardly put one hoof in front of the other. But as I shut the bottom door he lifted his head and called.
He knew he was home. He was calling his mates. Little Nepa shot down the field and tried his usual trick of opening Pelucas’ stall to let himself in with him. I couldn’t let him this time. They had to be content with a nuzzle over the door.
Over the next week Pelucas improved remarkably. I started taking him for little walks around the yard, and Nepa spent all his time at his door. Couldn’t keep the pesky boy away, as he was so small he escaped through all the fence bars and gates!
Then again we had a scare as the wound hemorrhaged about 10 days later. Rushed back to the hospital, this time he lost the other testicle and 12 meters of intestines. Scans and tests revealed that one kidney was virtually defunct and that he had a murmur on his heart.
But as I looked at the screen showing the murmur everyone agreed when I pointed out that it looked like an angel, fluttering its wings. Pelucas has his guardian angel inside, keeping him safe.
Andalusian Rescue - Pelucas Today
Six years have passed. Pelucas has a hernia on his stomach on the surgery line so he is officially retired. But occasionally I climb up on his bare back and we go for a little canter up the hill. He is coming up 24 this spring and no one dare tell him he is no longer a stallion. Turned out with my mares he also ponies up alongside sometimes when we go for short treks, completely at liberty without halter or rope as nature intended.
Shandor was his last get.
gelding Shandor son of andalusian rescue Pelucas now happy in a new home
