Smokey
grayed out gelding
breeding indeterminate
foaled approximately 1988
Smokey's owners abandoned him. Moved to Arizona, and didn't come back, and didn't want to come get him. The home where he was left fed him for a while, but couldn't keep up. They asked for help, telling me he was 30 and possibly Cushings.
So far he clearly loves mares, and the geldings are taking exception to that. He has tried hard to get Surely, his stallmate, to accept him, but she's moved toward Buck instead. Next, he liked Montego (because they are the same age? both grays?) but I have no way to put him next to Monte, and he has not yet figured out the whole available territory. And so finally, once they return from the southstream area, he hangs with Peanut and Dion. Dion, strangely, is quite accepting of his lurking around. When he feels better, I hope he'll be able to feel comfortable with someone. He has figured out the routine here, and clearly loves coming back to his stall even though it separates him from P&D. More energy may change that too...
He had trouble eating the hay pellets until I soaked them; loves his senior feed, and eats grass hay well - I'm hoping he'll do better now that his teeth have been fixed.
He seems very fragile to me. Was completely exhausted on arrival, and the current heat wave has taken a lot out of him. Although he's the same age as Montego, and very similar in overall appearance, he's in much worse condition so I'm less sanguine about improving his quality of life. Let's keep our fingers crossed this sweetheart can pull through...
Happy to report that after his first friend Dion passed away, Smokey stepped up to guard Peanut; and sortly thereafter, Ashley joined us and fell in love with him! So he has two ladies to guard, and our Cinnamon to guard over them all! He keeps Cinny at a distance, but I think is grateful to have the backup....
This elderly boy was able to come here thanks to the combined efforts of sponsors Kathleen McKevitt; Jan Heppert; Inge Halliday; Sarah Smoak; Diana Desrosiers; Donna Powell and Katja Tootle-Pizka. Thank each of you for stepping up for this boy.