Aiken Equine Rescue and Performance Equine Vets teamed up late last year to care for four starving and neglected horses rescued from McCormick County.
One died in February, but the other three are doing well and are getting better every day at Equine Rescue's facilities on Glenwood Drive.
"They have turned the corner, and we are confident that they are going to be OK," said Jim Rhodes, Equine Rescue's farm manager.
Rose had a stubborn infection in her withers that required surgery.
"She's recovered phenomenally well for what she had going on," said Caroline Mulstay, Equine Rescue's adoption coordinator and horse evaluator. "She's got just a little scab left over from her infection, but in another two weeks or so, nobody will know that there was ever even a problem. She's loving living here with all the commotion that's going on, and she loves the attention she's been getting."
Noel had pneumonia and was so weak she couldn't stand.
"She's gaining weight, and the sores she had from being encumbered are getting smaller and smaller," Mulstay said. "She loves being scratched because those sores itch as they're healing. She's a little spitfire. When we turn her out in a paddock every morning, she kicks up her heels and lets us know that she is feeling good."
Star was very shy and wasn't used to being around people.
"She getting braver," Mulstay said. "She's letting just about everybody groom her, pet her and love on her."
Star also has learned how to eat hay and grass instead of dead leaves and sand.
"She was in a group of mammas and babies that had kind of been abandoned, and she didn't know how to get in there and fight for food," Rhodes said. "She didn't recognize a lot of food as food."
Milagro didn't survive his ordeal. According to a posting on Performance Equine Vets' Facebook page, the horse's "severe malnourishment made it difficult for him to persevere even with his strong will."
Rhodes and Mulstay hope that Rose, Noel and Star can be put up for adoption one day, but because of legal proceedings involving their former owner, they must remain at Equine Rescue until those matters are resolved.
"Even though Performance Equine Vets gave us an extremely good deal, the vet bills for the four horses still cost us $11,000," Rhodes said. "It's been an expensive endeavor and a burden on us financially, but it's also been fulfilling. We're glad we took them in."
Added Mulstay, "It's good for the soul to do something like this."
Aiken Equine Rescue formerly was known as Equine Rescue of Aiken. The name has been changed, Rhodes said, to put more emphasis on the organization's location in Aiken.
Dede Biles is a general assignment reporter for the Aiken Standard.