CASSIDY
20 something OTTB mare, bay, 16hh
Foaled approximately 1992
Passed Away October 2014
Cassidy was owned by a breeder in Southern California who became unable to feed her horses, and put an ad in craigslist to find them homes. The mares were running in a big field with the stallion, and so hungry they'd stripped all possible trees of bark. A local So Cal woman wanted one horses, and took Cassidy because she looked bad, not just thin, but with an obvous very bad infection in her right eye. But this "rescuer" was not able to feed the two horses properly, and didn't medicate the eye (which I admit Cassidy was NOT helpful about), and went on Facebook looking for a home. TGC agreed to take her, although we were scared she might be pregnant.
So right off, we have done two pregnancy tests and she is NOT pregnant. Whew! She had one foal, as you see, and my vet opines that was her first and only baby.
So from the lovely picture above, to this below, was just a year.
Cassidy was very thin by the time she arrived here, and her eye was completely prolapsed and all that could be done was clean up the infection. She is blind in that eye. She fought medication in that eye, but at 37 days (yes 7 days after I introduced her into the herd), a strangles abscess burst out under her jaw, just below the right eye, and the eye FINALLY began to heal up a little. It's still ugly, with a strange reddish bit of tissue over the collapsed and cloudy eye. But her other eye is beautiful and she seems to have little problem as a result of it. She eats voraciously, has gained a lot of weight and truckoads of energy!
She became friendly With Comet when Comet's mom Allie died at the first of the year. And when Comet died recently, she attached herself to Sarge, who had been Allie and Comet's protector.
I had hoped to be able to apply for aid for Cassidy to some of the organizations that raise money for off track or other Thoroughbreds, but the woman who asked me to take her has failed to provide the paperwork she promised. Unless I'm able to read her tattoo, and that is often impossible to do at this age, I can't prove who she is, and that she qualifies under those programs.
However, Cassidy has a lot of sponsors, a committee of people all pitching in what they can to create a sponsorship for her.
Thanks to Jane Crase (sponsor of Star) and Ruthie Roberts and Marilyn Braly for your help supporting this lovely mare.
Goodbye to Cassidy