Alder Hill Farm’s Branson Rescue Mission: Part 1 “What Have We Here!” Paniting #91

When Alder Hill Farm Rescue received a phone call in March from the Sheriff’s office about three abandoned horses near Branson, Missouri they didn’t know what they would find. The Sherriff’s department had received a call that there had been three horses running loose all winter in an old abandoned development site.  The several hundred acre site was remote, with dirt roads that were partially washed out from snow melt and several streams that had to be forded to find the horses.

"Honey"
6 by 9 inches Watercolor
by LindaLMartinArtist

The concern was that the horses presented a safety hazard to motorists on a busy highway that bordered the extensive undeveloped site because there was no fence along the highway.



 When the Rescue team finally found the three horses the first thing they discovered was full blown complex herd dynamics not generally found in domestic horses. In fact Alder Hill Farm’s head horseman, Scott Litherland couldn’t believe how the one dominant horse looked like the old Kiger Mustang he used to have.



Scott Litherland gets close enough to pet the
young stallon. But is unable to put the halter on him



The Alder Hill Farm Rescue Team walked into the situation, understanding that the land owners who had reported the horses, had been feeding the horses hay during the unusually snowy and harsh winter.   The Alder Hill Farm Rescue Team was really expecting the horses to be tame enough to halter.

The next discovery was that the two male horses were full stallions. They were able to get the horses to take sweet feed from their hands, and even pet them; however, every time they tried to halter the most friendly, a young mare, the dominant stallion would herd her away.  After several hours of trying to capture them the Alder Hill Rescue team realized that they had to have another plan of attack in order to capture the horses.

 “Bringing in the Big Guns” Part two of Alder Hill Farm’s Branson Rescue Mission On Wednesday.

The Dominant Stallion driving Honey away so Scott can not put a halter on her.

Today’s Painting is the Branson Filly, named Honey. Once separated from the dominant stallion , even though she had never before worn a halter nor ridden in a horse trailer, after about an hour of training The Alder Hill Rescue Team, headed by their horseman Scott Litherland, led her into the trailer. Because she had no fear of people or bad prior training, in fact no training at all, according to Leslie, one of Alder Hill’s founders, the filly did really well even in the confinement of the trailer.

To read more about Alder Hill Farm go to www.alderhillfarm.org  A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this painting go to Alder Hill Farm.