Roman had a great life living in a field full of grass. As he got older and his nutritional needs changed and his teeth needed additional care this wasn’t enough to sustain him. He began losing weight and his hooves were in need of special care. Lucky for him his owners turned him over to someone who was willing to take care of a horse during his senior years. Since he was turned over to True Blue Animal Rescue he’s been eating a delicious mash of senior feed and alfalfa cubes three times a day. This mash is made in the house with warm water and then topped off with vitamins and minerals to give Roman all of his nutrition he needs. After a week of that he was ready for his shots. The vet examined him and determined him to be about 20 years old, with a strong heart and all his organs in good working order. That means he will make a full recovery with the right feeding plan. His teeth needed to be floated but he was too thin and undernourished to be sedated to do that yet.

The next thing that needed to be attended to was Roman’s hooves. They were badly cracked with deep cracks that were close to soft tissue. It wouldn’t have been long before he would have been lame and unable to walk. The vet recommended shoes to help keep his hooves together while the cracks grew out. Lucky for us our son, Colton DeAeth, is a professional farrier with the skills and experience to fix Roman’s feet and as you can see, they look great with his new shoes on. It’ll take months for these cracks to grow out but Roman is already walking with more ease in his new shoes.

A week later Roman went to the vet to have his teeth floated. Horse’s teeth are constantly moving and pushing forward and as they chew hay and grain their teeth grind together to keep them worn down. Over time this grinding might not be even so they end up with points or hooks along their teeth. These make it impossible for a horse to grind their feed to get the proper nutrition from it and causes chewing to become painful. The feed starts to drop and the hay and grass can’t be chewed properly. For more information visit http://www.doctorramey.com/does-my-horse-need-to-get-his-teeth-floated/

Roman’s teeth had a lot of hooks and he had even lost one of his front teeth. That’s why we have been feeding him alfalfa cubes and senior feed mash to help him gain weight. This mash doesn’t need to be chewed and offers him a lot of nutrition easily. The vet uses a drill to grind the teeth down and that is unnatural so the horse needs to be sedated to accept it.  The vet found another molar that was about to fall out when he was floating Roman’s teeth so he had to pull it out. Now Roman is missing two teeth but the rest are flat and even and will be able to chew hay and grass without any problems.

Roman will continue to need senior feed to provide him with all the nutrition he needs and as you can see he is a very large horse. He currently weighs between 1300 and 1400 pounds but will weigh closer to 1800 pounds when he reaches full weight. To get him to a healthy weight he will need to eat 20 pounds of senior feed a day which is three bags a week. We were blessed when Triple Crown Nutrition Inc offered to supply enough senior feed to bring Roman to full health! That will take 8 – 12 months and up to 200 bags of feed! Roman is a lucky horse and we are blessed to have Triple Crown on board to help with Roman’s rehabilitation!

True Blue Animal Rescue offers an educational program for children. In this program children are able to come out to Tbar Ranch and meet the rescue animals. Tbar volunteers teach the children about proper care and nutrition and what abuse and neglect looks like and what to do. Roman will now be part of that program. The hundreds of children that come to True Blue Animal Rescue each year will have the honor of seeing a draft breed horse and they’ll learn about what these horses can do and what they have been used for in history. They’ll also learn that Roman is a senior horse and has different nutritional needs than younger horses and what can be done to help meet those needs. In addition they will see what a gentle giant he is and how important it is to treat horses with love and compassion. Roman’s story, and huge presence, will make a lasting imprint in the minds of our young people. Through this educational program True Blue Animal Rescue will be making a change in how animals are treated and cared for.

This beautiful horse is thankful for the angels that watch out for horses that need help and do something about it.  He is also thankful for companies like Triple Crown Nutrition Inc for providing top of the line feed for his recovery and to True Blue Animal Rescue for providing a safe place for him to live and be loved. Thank you to those who have donated toward his care and to our horse sponsors who make monthly donations to make sure these special horses will have what they need for the rest of their lives. Please help us continue to help horses like Roman by becoming a horse sponsor too!