Levi

On March 26 2009 I received an email from a lady in a rescue forum that was very concerned about a pair of white horses she had seen on the U.S. Treasury auction site. They were located in Presidio Texas and were scheduled to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. On the border can be a very scary place for horses, if you are not useful you are sent to slaughter I contacted the organization that was handling the auction and they put me in contact with a lawyer in Chicago that had been appointed the case. After several weeks of negotiations the lawyer agreed to allow the rescue to purchase the horses. We set off for Presidio three days later to bring them home. We knew nothing about the horses we were going to pick up except that they had been confiscated by border patrol, they were being used to either smuggle drugs or people across the border, there was a mare and a gelding and they had a negative coggins. We did not know how old they were, if they were broke to ride or anything. We arrived at a ranch just on the north side of Presidio where the horses were being boarded. We met with a man from the USDA that gave us their coggins papers and we went to see the horses. They were standing in a corner looking scared to death. I went in the pen and was able to touch the mare and get a lead rope on her, but the gelding would have nothing of it. The USDA man had to rope him to catch him and he followed her into the trailer. We started the long trip home and the beginning of what is the "Mexican Strays", as their coggins say, new life.

We named the gelding Levi. He seems to be an appy cross, he is 15 hands tall. He really wants to trust people he is just afraid of what they will do to him. He is doing much better as the days go by, we have brushed him and Les has trimmed his feet. According to his coggins he is 9 years old. He has saddle marks, so we are pretty sure he has been ridden, but we have not yet put a saddle on him. Please check back to see Levi's progress.

August 4, 2009- Levi is ready for his new home.  Thanks to a wonderful new friend of the rescue Lynelle, Levi has made tremendous strides.  She was able to break through his wall of fear.  He has now been to a playday in a covered arena (we just watched from the side lines) and yesterday we went on a 3 hr trail ride with the girls.  He was very good.  You could tell there were a few things that he had not seen before, but he didn't jump he just took some long looks and moved on.

Levi is not a beginners horse just yet.  He will need some one with some horse knowledge because of his abusive past.  But my 13yr old was very comfortable on him.

April 10, 2010- Levi came with us to a playday and a friend of ours rode him, he did great.  We have also taken him on several trail rides now, he is a great trail horse.

Levis has found a wonderful new home

Mikayla riding Levi on August 3 2009