Gentle Giants rescues 4 CLYDESDALES, 1 with a NAIL stuck in its hoof!

So there was this guy who had been a Clyde breeder who's rather old and had had a stroke and had been needing to downsize his herd. He ended up having to send 7 of his horses to an auction up in Athens, PA (practically in New York state) and, unfortunately, GG only heard about it after the horses had already been consigned to the sale. Here's what Christine says about it:

The owner of these horses suffered a stroke and has struggled for several months to sell the horses privately. I had the pleasure of speaking to him on the phone. He is very hopeful that the auctions efforts to promote the horses will draw good homes. We talked at length about what could happen if they sold to a kill buyer, and while he doesn't want that to happen, he is truly in dire straights. He lamented that had he met Gentle Giants beforehand he would have happily sold them to us for a low price, but they are already consigned and he hired a shipper to haul them to the sale. He's an old time gentleman, and won't revoke the consignment, he feels that would be wrong of him. That's why we are going.

Anyway, so GG drove up there yesterday (not me, I was busy buying a car!). Three of the horses sold for well over meat price (two of them actually sold for the most the auction had EVER sold a horse for, $1800 and $2250, respectively). Those three were two pregnant mares and a stallion. The four Gentle Giants got are two 6 or 7 year old mares, one 3 year old filly, and a yearling filly who went through the ring lame. Supposedly, she'd been kicked by one of the other mares and "would be fine in a few days"....

Here's some pics they took of the mares at the sale:


I believe the one in the middle is the one we ended up with and the other two on the sides are the pregnant mares.


The other three.

So they loaded up the horses at around 8PM last night and started making the long drive home (5 hours!). Unfortunately, they had a blowout (one of the inner tires on the dually) somewhere around Scranton and couldn't find ANY roadside assistance that would come out and change the tire on a dually and double wouldn't come out for one hooked up to a loaded horse trailer. After calling God only knows how many folks, Christine finally got a referral to someone who does tows for semi trucks and had some kind of lift that could do the job. Once that was done, they were back on the road, and finally got in around 6:30am today.

Not believing the filly would get better "in a few days", the vet was called out for an emergency visit. What did she find, you ask?

A four inch framing NAIL stuck up near the heel bulb. Before pulling it out, the vet took some x-rays so we could find out what the nail actually penetrated but in the mean time, the filly (named Sunrise) is being treated with IV Antibiotics once daily, oral Antibiotics twice daily, twice daily antibiotic flushes of the wound, oral vasodilator (to help get more medication flowing to area) and regional limb perfusion with antibiotics every 48 hours. Prognosis is extremely guarded.

Here's video of the nail coming out:



If you could, please keep this filly in your thoughts!