Sparrow also came to us in 2016, from a Florida-based rescued called Faith Equine Rescue. He and more than 100 other horses were turned loose on a large piece of remote property in Florida, and had to fend for themselves and were starved for four years. (A pretty long and complicated story) They were stumbled upon by a cattle rancher, who informed the authorities. By then, about half of the horses had died from various causes. Sparrow is Bravado’s half-brother by the same dad.
A month after intake with Faith Equine Rescue, we adopted him and Bravado and they were transported to Wisconsin. He had no previous training and had to finish being rehabilitated as he and Bravado were still in poor body condition.
Since we adopted him from Faith Equine Rescue, Sparrow has been a very sweet, loving horse. He was a little bit more difficult to train than Bravado; it took about a year to train Sparrow to be ready to have kids ride him. Since he finished training, Sparrow is a very sweet, gentle, kid-friendly horse. He knows when he has a little kid riding him, and knows to handle them with care and patience. Sparrow is 13.3 hands tall, and can handle most riders under about 130 pounds. We believe Sparrow’s growth was stunted when he lived in Florida, because he was lower on the “pecking order” and didn’t get to eat as much as other horses.