MONET'S STORY
Monet arrived at Trinity Rescue in September 2013. She had been bred and foaled every year for 7 years. When she was picked up by her first rescuer, she was starving in a pasture with her last year's colt, was nursing her 4-month-old colt, Picasso, and she was already bred back for a foal due April 2014. Picaso was lame, having sustained a serious kick by one of the stallions in the pasture, and had a large hematoma found behind his left front leg on his belly. Their owner initially offered to sell Monet only, as he thought that Picasso was a “cull” and was planning to shoot him anyway. Luckily, their first rescuer told him to save his bullet and she would take Monet and Picasso both. Since they both had a long recovery ahead which would require refeeding and surgery for Picasso, she contacted Trinity to take them both.
Upon arrival, Monet was sullen and had a dull look in her eye that showed she had lost hope. Everything that she took in nutritionally was going straight to producing milk for Picasso, so she was very weak initially. Once she began refeeding and regaining her strength, we found her to be quite the angry mare. She was incredibly hormonal and would swing from sweet and loving one minute to striking and biting the next. Her aggressive outbursts earned her the title of the Great White Land Shark. On April 26, 2014, Monet gave the entire farm a massive surprise by delivering her colt at 10 a.m. on a Saturday morning with 40 people at the farm for a New Volunteer Orientation session. She made sure we all had a magnificent view of the birth and dealt with the birth of her colt like the seasoned professional that she was. Rembrandt was born a beautiful, healthy colt and Monet was surprisingly happy to let us come in and meet him. While she was much less aggressive after Rembrandt was born, she couldn’t be considered sweet by any stretch of the imagination. We knew that once she weaned him, she needed some time off just to be a horse again. Once Rembrandt was weaned, we sent her to our trainers in Alabama for 4 months to hang out in the pasture and relax. By the time she got back to the rescue in January 2015, she was a changed mare! She was refreshed under saddle, enjoyed being in work, and was very affectionate to everyone she met. People were still weary of her since they knew her history, so she had to work hard to change her brand. Monet decided that one of our long term adopters was going to be her PERSON. She worked hard convincing this volunteer that she needed to adopt her, and after several months was successful. She was adopted in the summer of 2015 and remained with her adoptive family until January 2023 when unforeseen circumstances caused her to be returned to the rescue with the rest of her adopted her (Candy, Gordon and Gizmo).
Monet is now 21 years old and struggles with arthritis. She will remain at Trinity as a sanctuary horse for the rest of her days. Long gone is the angry, hormonal and aggressive mare she once was. Now she is docile and loves getting snuggles from her humans. She especially loves small children and allows them to pet her and snuggle her all they like. She is a perfect example of how much a horse can change with love and care, and how much trauma and neglect can be overcome if given a chance.
