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Amanda's Foundered Friends Horse and Equine Rescue is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit horse rescue that was inspired by a deep love of horses by a small group of friends that wanted to give that love back to horses in need. Most of us here at AFF have either had our own horses most of our lives, or been involved with them in some manner. As most people that have owned horses can testify to, they can be problematic creatures in the health department. Several of our own equines have suffered from soundness issues a good portion of their lives, and we have tried much of the conventional treatments- a lot of times with little to no success. In recent years we have learned a lot about the new growing "natural movement" in the horse world, including nutrition, hoof care, training, and more. Much of the information we came across just rang true to our hearts and minds, and after trying some of it out on our own "problematic," lame, and laminitic horses and having great success, we decided to help more of the domesticated horse population with our newfound knowledge. Be it taking in horses that are thought to be incurably lame that owners are no longer able to care for, or simply sharing what we have learned with an owner that would like to try the same approach with their own horses, we are here for the ones who can't help themselves- our equine friends.
We are still in the beginning stages of setting up our horse rescue. As we continue to grow, we will hold events, workshops, and seminars to educate horse owners about the benefits of natural trimming and the barefoot horse, providing a natural diet, and how exercise can improve the everyday domestic horse's health and wellbeing. We will also hold fun events for horses and owners to enjoy together, such as our Easter Egg ride in the spring. Watch for more fun and educational fundraising events to come!
 Our name is in honor of Amanda, a beautiful bay quarter horse that lived with our President and founder, Sheila Campbell, several years ago. She was Sheila's best Christmas present to date, from her parents during early high school - her next horse companion after losing her first horse to cancer a few months previously. Unknown to Sheila's parents, she was loaded up on bute, a common horse pain-killer, to cover some lameness issues when they purchased her. Over the next few days and weeks after coming home, the full effects of the bute wore off, and her lameness problems were revealed. A couple vet visits later she was diagnosed with founder, and the long shaky path to "recovery" began.
A local well-known farrier was called out, who promptly tried many different forms of shoeing for months at a time, including pads, wedges, and putting the shoes on backwards. The farrier kept asking for hoof x-rays to see where the coffin bone was sitting, but due to a lack of funds and the price of horse x-rays at the time, let alone the expensive farm call out in the country, it was next to impossible to comply with that wish.
A few years later, with no improvement to be seen yet, Sheila was in the veterinary technician program at Colorado Mountain College, and students could bring their own pets to practice on for x-rays and other procedures. Sheila jumped on the chance, and her wonderful father drove Amanda the 2 ½ hour trip to the college in their recently acquired stock trailer. The large animal vet took one look at her and requested knee x-rays in addition to the expected hoof x-rays. X-rays were taken of both front feet and knees, and the vet confirmed that while she did have some degree of founder, her main problem lie in her knees. Possibly due to bad confirmation, or bad hoof care in the past, or work inherently hard on a horse's joints such as barrel racing, or a horse simply being a horse in the pasture, both knees had several fractured bones on the inner side of each joint. Her diagnosis: no matter what was done to cure her founder, she would never be sound again. Her knees could not be fixed. She could be taken to the state veterinary college, and have very expensive surgery performed, but still the results would be minimal at best. The best case scenario for Amanda would be if her knees decided to fuse, meaning the bones would grow together and become one solid bone- her knees would no longer bend, but they would also no longer hurt. Amanda headed back home with her very dejected humans, to live out the rest of her life as a retired horse on Sheila's parents' 120 acre farm. Much thought was given as to whether she should be sold, but even without knowing what really happened to many "broken" horses that were sold, Sheila knew she would not have a chance unless she stayed with someone that loved her for herself, not for her use as a riding horse. It was settled, and she stayed. She lived another 6 years; her knees never fused, but Sheila figured out the best way to trim her feet according to her new conformation to keep her as comfortable as possible. Amanda was such a sweet and gentle horse, Sheila normally trimmed her while she was laying down to keep her from having to stand for minutes at a time on her sore knees. They experimented with different arthritis medications to help her comfort level, until she reached her 21st year and it became too much for her. She is buried in the pet graveyard on Sheila's family farm.
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