Redwings received a desperate plea from one of our partner rescues in December of 2024. There was an elderly blind mare at an auction yard that was in terrible condition and was set to ship the next day. Ember's previous owner dumped her at the auction yard with multiple other horses but made a special request that Ember not be offered at the auction and was to be direct shipped without the opportunity for someone to rescue her. How can people be so cruel. Thankfully our partner rescue was able to convince the auction yard to let us rescue Ember and give her a chance at a better life. We wish that was the end of the story and a happy ending, but it wasn't. We quickly discovered that Ember had strangles, a very contagious infection so she had to remain in quarantine for weeks. She was very sick, coughing, excessive nasal discharge and two open draining abscesses on her jaw. A vet determined that Ember's blindness was due to advanced and untreated glaucoma causing horrible pain and pressure in both eyes. The best course of action is to remove both eyes, but due to Ember's poor body condition and strangles, Ember would have to wait weeks to have her eyes removed.

Once Ember is healthy enough, she will have surgery to remove her painful eyes. She is on a strict refeeding schedule to help her get back to a healthy body weight. Ember will remain at Redwings as a permanent resident of our herd.