She didn’t set out to rescue horses. Lucky for Firebolt and Grace, she ended up doing exactly that.
Lake Forest Park resident Wendy Tinker, 50, discovered two Arabian horses needed more than the hay she brought with her to Fall City on March 19.
“I drove up and saw the terrible conditions,” she said. “I just couldn’t leave the animals sitting in the mud, shivering cold.”
The horses were in obvious trouble; covered in mud with knotted manes, ribs and other bones were visible through their skin, they had no stalls to sleep in and only mud to eat. Tinker, a single mom with three of her own businesses and three other horses, decided to rescue the starving horses. Three weeks later, the horses are gaining weight without complications while being boarded at Kenrock Equestrian in Arlington.
Soon the two will be able to handle supplements and undergo needed dental work to soften points on their teeth, Tinker said. However, they still need to be fed three times a day instead of two times a day like healthier horses are, and it will be several months before even a child can ride them. One day, the horses’ quality pedigrees may help transform them into show horses. Or maybe they will be adopted. For the time being, Tinker said she and trainer Melody Lee are committed to helping the pair grow stronger.
Both horses still need to gain 100 pounds or more, Lee said.
“I think it will probably be a year long process realistically, as far as getting systems working,” she said.
Although Grace and Firebolt are the first horses in such a malnurished condition to stay at Kenrock Equestrian, she says the price associated with keeping and caring for horses is high and some owners can’t afford the expense.
“The worse the economy gets the worse this problem gets,” she said. “I think there’s a lot of people that can’t afford to feed (horses) and they need to find homes for them or euthanize them but they don’t do that.”
Tinker estimates that Grace and Firebolt will cost her about $1,000 per month each. Each costs $450 to board while hay runs $300 a ton and bedding, supplements and veterinarian bills increase the cost of owning even one horse, let alone five. A trainer’s fees are often additional expenses.
“It’s really expensive even if you have horses on your own,” Tinker said.
Her goal is to “get (Firebolt and Grace) fattened up and then find new homes for them.” She’s set up the Bargello Farms Arabian Horse Rescue account for donations at any Washington Mutual Bank.
Six-year-old Grace was bred to trot and bred to be a show horse despite the way one eye is slightly higher than the other, Tinker said. She needs to be paired with someone who “has the patience and time to spend working with her.”
Firebolt, a 5 year old, is a “real sweatheart” according to Tinker. He’s recovering from rain rot, a skin infection caused by extreme moisture.
Although their condition has improved since Tinker began caring for them, she’s convinced that their story isn’t finished. She hopes elementary students up to the sixth grade will use their imaginations to write the next part of their lives. The winner, she said, will get to spend a day with the horses.
Write the next chapter
• Write the next part of Grace and Firebolt’s story in five pages or less. Entries may be typed or handwritten and can include pictures.
• Contest open to students up to sixth grade.
• Submit by 5 p.m. on April 20 to: The Enterprise Newspapers, 4303 198th St. SW. Lynnwood, Wa 98036. Please include contact information with entry.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
