05/30/2026
She was hobbled with wire. He tied her pasterns together with a single strand of high tensile wire. He was mad she kept getting loose. So his answer was to wrap wire around her pasterns with a twist and leave her. Leave her to stomp flies. Leave her to shuffle back and forth from the water supply to the grass. Leave her to spook against her restraints.
This wire began to leave a line in her hair. Over time it embedded itself into her skin. Shortly after that the exposed skin became infected, but still the wire went deeper. That’s when he saw the damage, cut the wire, but left it like a twist tie still embedded in her skin. Eventually the skin began to heal over these wire bracelets. The infection remained as the body tried to remove the foreign object. That’s when the wire began to alter bone and the irreversible damage was done.
She stood parked-out or chose to lay down when the pain was too much. Everyone thinking she was a “nasty mule” because they couldn’t touch her legs, but they couldn’t see what was beneath the scabs on her pasterns. The negative palmer angle increased because she couldn’t handle having her feet trimmed. Her entire body ached because she didn’t have a healthy foot to stand on.
Despite all of this pain she gave me the chance to help her. Over a few days, this draft mule I had renamed “Adele”, allowed me to groom her, touch her legs and within 10 days tolerated the vet squatting by her puss-covered pasterns to see what was hiding beneath the skin.
Prior to her arrival, I had been told she had old wounds from getting tangled in fence. 10 days after her arrival I was told “The wire is still in there…” as my vet spun the X-ray around. Suddenly I was in a horror movie. I couldn’t euthanize her quickly enough, yet I still wanted time with her. I wanted her to know a life without pain, with regular care and more than anything I wanted her in my life. She was to be a pet. My first bad business decision became the best decision I had ever made.
To those of you who urged me to take them, thank you. To those of you who helped me take them, thank you. To those of you who shared their posts and videos, thank you. To those of you who donated to my Venmo and directly to my vet, you made this possible. There is no way I could have given her peace this quickly without the financial help all of you so generously gave. Diagnostics are expensive as well as the medication to maintain comfort while a horse becomes safe to handle for those examinations. Together, we laid one to rest and provided the other with a forever home full of friends and above-average care.
Thank you for helping me help them.
