Name: Lacey

    Type: Horse

    Color: Dark Bay & White Tobiano

    Markings: 4 Stockings

    Sex: Mare

    Birthday: 1/1/2012

The first picture we were sent of Lacey was heartbreaking. In it she stood, her blind companion dead at her feet, starved and deathly ill herself, with both strangles and rhinovirus, either of which could kill her. She had the defeated, hopeless look of an equine who is leaving this world behind. My heart just stopped. We immediately facilitated her rescue, and with the help of several equine lovers and our talented Oklahoma vet, Dr. Grace Owen, she miraculously survived. She endured a long stay at the vet clinic, during which time our friend Janelle visited Lacey daily. When it seemed there was no way Lacey could survive, Celine Myers of the Ark Watch Foundation suggested a damp cloth with a couple drops of peppermint oil on it be applied to her muzzle. Lacey loved this! Janelle would arrive and Lacey would walk over and put her muzzle into the cloth and just breathe. The peppermint oil helped relieve the congestion and seemed to offer some comfort. Lacey wouldn’t eat due to the abscesses from strangles so Janelle tempted her with oatmeal balls filled with Well-gel, a nutrition supplement. Lacey beat the odds and after months of rehab she was able to come to Red Bell Run. 

Today, the hope has returned to her eyes and she’s a bit mischievous! She had developed uveitis in her left eye which we watch carefully, but now lives happily with her friends at our Hilltop Barn, spending her days knowing she’ll never be hungry again.