City Girl Gone Country

Carolyn Barnett, Volunteer

Carolyn Barnett is one of our most faithful volunteers, usually taking care of our horses 6 days a week, and sometimes more. Carolyn is a veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard and a retired Correctional Officer for the state of New York.

Carolyn always dreamed of being a cowgirl, working with horses, and being in the open air. While preparing to move from New York to Texas, Carolyn did some research and discovered Gabby’s Sanctuary ARK. She sent an inquiry, and of course, we welcomed her into the GSA family.

Carolyn enjoys learning about horses from the ground up at Gabby’s ARK, rescuing animals, and giving back to the community. She also enjoys getting everyone’s day started right when she arrives in the mornings. She handles the feeding, checks to see that all of the horses are well and don’t have any wounds or issues that need to be medicated or seen by the vet, and sings a special song to each horse. She also sponsors Oscar and the photo below shows that they are best buddies.

 

Carolyn and Oscar

Sometimes, we at Gabby’s Sanctuary ARK like to brag about our successes. Let’s talk about Addy!

ADDY’S RESCUE

Addy arrived at Gabby’s Sanctuary ARK on April 30, 2015 after being bought by Staci Hamilton, one of our volunteers. She was rescued from a feed lot in Oklahoma less than 24 hours before she was to be sent to the slaughterhouse.

Photo by Elyse White

Addy was about 4 years old when she was brought to us. She had been abused and starved, but was always trusting and affectionate with humans. Later, we discovered that she had started a successful and winning racing career at the age of 2. Race horses are tattooed with an ID number inside their mouths. We discovered someone had tried to scratch out or tattoo over Addy’s ID to hide her identity.

ADDY’S REHABILITATION

In addition to Addy’s weakness, malnourishment, and scrapes, her leg had been injured. She started her rehabilitation by eating as much as she could. She quickly began putting on the weight that she needed and received the proper supplements for nutrition. She was exercised gently as her leg healed. It took a long time for her leg to gain enough strength to support a rider. Addy has healed and excelled.

Photo by Lily Bragg

ADDY’S REINTEGRATION

Now it’s 2017 and Addy is winning races again! She loves to run, loves to win, and she loves Staci as can be seen in the photo’s below.

Photo by Lily Bragg

 

Photo by Lily Bragg

 

Photo by Lily Bragg

ADDY’S SUPPORT TEAM

You can be a part of Addy’s Support Team by visiting our Virtual Feed Store and making a tax deductible donation.  All donations go to providing feed, veterinary and ferrier services to our rescued horses and support of our other animals.