Very Sad News About Our Horse, Twinkle.
We have some very hard news to share with you.
Many of you know Twinkle’s story of abuse and neglect that occurred during her formative years of growth before coming to Hope Reins.
And because of that maltreatment at such an early age, her hooves grew misshapen and she’s lived with chronic pain. Up to this point, her pain has been manageable. But over the past weeks, our staff noticed Twinkle’s hoof pain has been increasing along with the proliferation of abscesses, which can be indicative of a bigger issue.
We scheduled an x-ray with our vet to assess her feet and were able to compare the findings to x-rays taken 2 years ago. Unfortunately, the x-rays show significant bone loss in both her coffin and navicular bones, as well as chronic infections and arthritis.
A horse’s hooves are one of the most important signs of their health. The coffin bone is a tiny little bone that basically holds up the entire horse. They cannot stand or walk without it and bone cannot fully regenerate.
After talking with our vet and assessing Twinkle’s pain level, we have made the difficult but compassionate decision that we must put her down. This is a very, very hard loss for Hope Reins and especially our kids we serve. They love Twinkle so much.
Unlike our other rescued horses who experienced abuse and neglect in their adult lives, Twinkle never had the opportunity to grow normally. But she did have the great opportunity at Hope Reins to be loved, cherished and cared for with such dedication by our staff and volunteers.
God definitely brought so much beauty from the ashes of Twinkle’s life and she impacted SO many kids and adults with not only her story, but her courage in the midst of pain.
We recognize that all of us are struggling right now with this unprecedented pandemic and shelter at home order. And this hinders our ability to process and grieve together. In lieu of the opportunity to gather, please send a memory, story or some thoughts on how Twinkle impacted you to Jennifer@hopereins.org or Elizabeth@hopereins.org. We are going to pull all these sweet remembrances into a memorial of some sort to honor Twinkle.
Please pray for Hope Reins and especially our kids during this difficult time.
In Hope,
Kim Tschirret
Founder & CEO
Hope Reins