Dallas
Rescued: December 11, 2012

Dallas had been passed around like a pass-the-parcel before we took him in, all because of his advancing age and a leg injury likely caused by overwork.

In his day, Dalls was a show jumper – and quite a good one, we’re told. But at some stage he suffered a jumping injury and his fractured leg never healed properly.

Then the Spanish economic crisis hit and, because of the recession, Dallas’s owner simply stopped feeding him. Eventually, he was given to a riding school, but they also decided they could not afford to feed him, as Dallas could no longer be ridden and therefore could not earn his keep.

When one of our supporters, Karen Webster, finally found Dallas at this riding school, he was nothing but skin and bones. This old horse had worked hard all of his life for his owners and now, because of his age and disability, nobody was willing to care for him.

No one was even willing to pay the €450 to have put him to sleep humanely and dispose of his body.

We couldn’t let this big-hearted horse slowly die of starvation. So we brought him home to our rescue centre, where he will live out the rest of his days beside his friends, in peace and with a full belly.

Dallas – who was named after the popular 1970s TV series, Dallas – quickly gained back all his weight under our care. His injured leg mostly doesn’t trouble him now that he’s no longer ridden, although we keep a close eye on it and bandage him up with anti-inflammatories whenever it flares up.

Dallas now lives permanently outdoors in one of our fields with Vinny, Beauty and Tamarisk. He is the herd boss, a big but incredibly kind horse.

We love him to bits. We don’t care that he can’t be ridden – we love him just for being Dallas.