Faith the old, blind mare
This
old girl went through the auction in Salt Lake City three
times in 2004 and somehow escaped the slaughterhouse.
The last time through the sale yard, a fellow bought her just $50. She was thin, scarred from other horses beating her up, and about 30 years old. In other words, she wasn't worth much at all. She didn't even have a name, just an auction number.
Incredibly, the new owner wanted to breed this elderly Appaloosa. Once he got her home, however, he discovered the mare was blind. So he traded her to a friend for $10 and a goat.
The friend quickly realized a blind horse was not what he needed. He returned the old mare, and didn't bother to ask for his $10 and the goat back.
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At that point the fellow just wanted to get rid of the horse and called a local sanctuary. The folks there knew they weren't set up to care for a blind horse, but agreed to take the mare just to get her out of the awful situation she was in.
Then they contacted Best Friends, the nation's largest animal sanctuary, for help finding a permanent home for this old, blind horse. Best Friends called us.
When she first arrived here, she liked to throw little hissy fits, so we nicknamed her ‘Snitty.' With all the upheaval in this poor thing's life, she probably thought she had been taken to yet another sale yard.
She started realizing things might be different, though, on her first night here. We brought her into a barn stall with fresh wood shavings and set a bowl of Equine Senior grain down in front of her. “Hmm, I wonder what this is all about,” she seemed to ask.
Pretty soon she understood that she was home for good. She's settled down and is just a big love now, yet the nickname ‘Snitty' stuck. But yes, her real name is Faith, as in ‘blind faith.' After all she'd been through in her life – and to finally end up in a place where she is now loved and cared for – we thought Faith was a very appropriate name for her.
She has a boyfriend half her age, our blind gelding Scout. Faith just dotes on him and tries to go into his stall in the evenings to be near him. Scout heard he was getting a girlfriend, but he thinks grandma showed up instead.
