Belle in the auction pen.

The Shipshe Four-Rescue #2-Now Named Belle

The hard part of rescuing Draft Horses from the kill auction is that they tend to be more expensive than the lighter horses since they're sold by the pound. So, we knew going in we would have to pay more money to get one away from the kill buyers than we would for a smaller horse.
The draft horses were in a separate pen from the light horses. There were five or six Belgians, a big black Percheron and a white Percheron. We purposely looked for the one that was in the roughest shape and one in particular was easy to pick out. She was the only skinny one in the bunch and she had TERRIBLE burns down both of her flanks, We guessed it was from being rubbed over and over by the harness as she pulled the plow. Some of the burns were old and scarred; some were fresh, maybe a day old. She had what looked like a puncture wound on the inside of her front leg. It was just me and one kill buyer that kept bidding on her. I stared at him pretty much the whole time. I was pretty determined to get this one on my trailer. The bidding went to $200.00 and he bid her up to $225.00. I bid $250.00 and it held, he shook his head no at $275.00 and she was ours. I took a close look at her and realized how BIG she was, at least 18 hands I thought. Holy Moly, we sure hoped she’d fit in the trailer.

The white Percheron walked through exactly the same way Rain did; like she was walking over hot coals. It totally broke my heart to watch, if fact, I had to turn away, but we had won the Rain and the Belgian and there wasn’t enough room on my trailer for three full sized horses. I know what her fate will be. We can only pray that she didn’t have to suffer for too much longer.
In the pick up pen, the Belgian mare was unafraid, but aloof, like most Amish horses are. She was very easy to handle and went right on the trailer without a problem.

Maria taking Belle off the trailer. She was covered in old grime and sweat.

Burn marks down her back leg.

Open wound on the back of her front leg.

The white Percheron next to the man is the crippled horse we lost to the killers.

Next we have Justice, the little gelding that wasn't.......