When you purchase a kill lot horse, every moment counts.  I’ve heard horror stories where people have purchased a horse from a kill buyer, and attempt to make transportation arrangements for their horse.  In the meantime, if the slaughter bound trucks are low in weight, they’ll grab the closest horse they can catch.  If the horse is already sold, they just refund the purchasers money.  It’s heartbreaking for the buyer who gets their hopes up on their new family member, and the poor horse whose fate is all but humane.

So, when I decided to invest in “Panda”, I  knew that I had to pick her up as soon as possible.  In the meantime, I have a two horse trailer, so why not pick up two.  I found a gorgeous grulla filly that had just arrived at the lot and hadn’t been listed on the site yet.  I made arrangements for a very good friend of mine “Cindy” to leave the next morning and make the three and half hour drive to pick up our new horses.

When you purchase a horse from the kill lot, you have one of two choices.  Leave right away and drive to the lot to inspect your horse before buying, or take a leap of faith, and purchase the horse sight unseen.  I always think about the fact that I am saving a life, and not that there may be cosmetic or physical blemishes on my purchase.  I bought all four of my rescues sight unseen.  I trusted that the people who hosted the page were honest in what they believed that they had on the lot.  They also don’t know much about the animal.  They usually only have a couple of days to move each horse, and some of the women who help live out of state.

When Cindy and I finally arrived at the lot, there were people who worked there that had corralled both of my horses up.  Panda and Porter had never met before,but both were standing in the corners of their corrals, looking completely defeated.  They were both very underweight and Panda had every rib and bone in her back exposed.

I had bedded my slant load with hay and shavings, and taken halters to gently load them up.  When I told my plans to the man in charge, he said for me to open my trailer, and they would run them down a chute.  I stared at him wide-eyed.  He said that they were both wild, and not halter broke.

I was appalled when they chased them with flags, through a cattle chute, and up into my trailer.  I was just so relieved to get them out of that place, I didn’t protest to these foreign ways of handling horses.

When we arrived home, it was nearly midnight.  I backed my trailer up into my round pen, and let the girls out.  They were alarmingly calm and grateful for their clean, dry ground and the fresh hay and water provided.  Both girls had caked on manure and mud all the way up to their sides.

As grateful as Cin and I were to get our girls home, it was hard not to think about all the other ones that were left.  Seeing how depressed they become when they are taken from one place to the next makes you really think about how emotional horses really are.  They had no idea what was going to happen to them.

Here are some pictures a few days after we got the girls home: