Fur In The Paint

This spring I went to photograph several rescue horses in preparation for doing a portrait as a fund raiser. This is the horse I chose to do for IERAL (Iowa Equine Rescue and Awareness League) as he is so beautiful in both looks and spirit.

Colton is a 7 year blind old Arab gelding. I fell in love with him immediately. He has the sweetest nature and in many ways reminds me of my own horse Chicory.

The following is part of an email to me from Karla Sibert with Colton’s story.

Colton, was brought to IERAL on August 18th, 2007, along with 5 other horses that were abandoned in Lee County, IA. He was six at the time and had never been away from his mother. When he arrived at IERAL foster care facility, we had no idea that he couldn’t see, and we were so taken back that he had never been away from his mother his entire life.

We took two stallions (Colton being one of them) to get gelded that same day. When we picked them both up at the equine clinic Dr. Abraham said “You know this gray is blind don’t you?” I’m like no way he is only 6 years old, what would cause the blindness this early in life? He said, probably moon blindness, which he probably caught some virus that went untreated and so he went blind. That would explain why he never bred his mother I’m sure.

So, he was put back in with a half sister and his mother upon his arrival back to foster care. We adopted out both sister and mother within about three weeks after that, so we brought in a pony to keep him happy. Well, he was lost with out the two mares, but he finally adapted with his pony friend. So, at this point you know the rest of the story. My goal is to get Dr. Abraham out to evaluate his eye sight, and get him referred to ISU for eye surgery.

Tags: arabian, horses, IERAL

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