A Fairy Tale Gone Wrong
- Diamond – Grey Percheron Mare
- Entry Date – August, 2013 at 20
- Type of rescue – Surrender
- Reason – Part of a feral Percheron herd
- Special needs – Taming/Training
Diamond, a feral Percheron mare, was tightly bonded to her mate Flint. Their story before being brought to the Equamore Sanctuary is a fairy tale gone wrong. Named after characters in “The Lord of the Rings,” these beautiful horses were the innocent victims of an owner who dreamed of a tranquil herd of Percheron stallions and mares living freely on a large property in northern California. Unfortunately, as Flint’s scarred body bears witness, allowing stallions to breed indiscriminately with mares who inhabit the same field is folly.
We have no idea how many years Flint or Diamond spent in that field – Flint defending himself from the dominant stallion and Diamond bearing foals. We first learned of these herd mates in 2012, at which time the owner agreed to surrender a portion of his untrained and now unmanageable herd. A pregnant mare, her two-year-old filly, and her tearling colt were taken to northern Oregon and re-homed in January of 2013. Three stallions, including Flint, remained on the property with Diamond and another mare named Agate, who died in an unfortunate accident before she could be rescued.
Finally after Agate’s death, the owner agreed to surrender the remaining three stallions and one mare. With much effort, the stallions Gandalf and Flint and the mare Diamond were loaded and trailered to the Equamore Sanctuary by a crew of Equamore staff and volunteers. Another stallion refused to be loaded and was retrieved and rehomed at a later date.
Diamond lived at Equamore side by side with Flint for the rest of her life.
The gallery below gives some indication of how large these Percherons really are as compared to a normally sized horse.